Another member of one of my writing groups went to a conference this summer, where she was given a structure for writing a solid, sellable novel in 20 weeks.

In this structure, weeks 1-4 are essentially spent in prep work. All well and good, I approve. Weeks 5-15 are about doing the actual rough draft writing, at a steady, intense pace. Manageable.

Here is where I get amused. In week 17, you are supposed to give your draft to your reliable first-readers for critique, which they will return for you to work into your novel by the end of week 18.

Now, just getting yourself a group of good critique partners is an art in and of itself. Getting ones who can give you good, useful critique AND turn it around in 7-13 days? That's a miracle. I've got a good local group for novel reading, and I give them a whole month, minimum. I mean, it can be done in that time frame, sure... if you've got nothing else to do. But if someone is good enough to do that turnaround and have it be really good... what are the odds they have nothing else to do?

In short, I'd really like to know where this guy got his critique partners.