If you don’t have trusted writing friends to be a sounding board to your novel-in-progress, get some. Your muse(s) will thank you. Plus, you get to have random conversations like this:
me: YES do it!
kill MC and make BFF go on a quest!
Melissa: lololol
“and she found a note – “In the event of my death, go on a mighty quest!””
“and lo, she quested. and it was good.”
These bits of brainstorming made possible by NaNoWriMo, Google chat, and crit partner of Awesome, Melissa Veres. (I look forward to my dedication page when your book is finished and published!) 😉
Liza Kane 
That’s so cool. I have come to realise that trusted crit partners are so valuable but very hard to find.
honestly, I NEVER thought I’d find any crit partners, let alone any I trust as much as I do mine! I recommend blog stalking and book chatting. That’s how I found my crit partners! Melissa found me through a twitter chat for Mockingjay, and because of that and the fact that we both have wordpress blogs, we were able to chat and get to know each other very well. (I also met Kayla through her). My other alpha/beta readers I’ve met and interacted with on Twitter, but grew an email relationship with them.
I recommend meeting some writers via Twitter, scoping out Verla Kay’s or NaNoWriMo’s boards, and blog stalking (seriously). It may take time, and it may seem tedious, but I’m sure you’ll agree that anything valuable is worth that kind of effort!
Absolutely, I agree that it’s worth every bit of the effort. Thanks so much, once again 🙂
Did you know I haven’t logged on to WordPress in like…. months? Wow.
I really wish I had saved that conversation. So much gold. SO, SO MUCH.
In other news, GET BACK ON GCHAT.
bahaha. can’t wait to read the novel that results from this conversation!