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Be ready to duck

We’ve been back in New Hampshire for a little over a week now. Last night was my first writing group meeting since December. And I actually jumped right back into the fray and submitted a revision of my “Jamie” story.

I suppose I could be accused of creating the fray when, following all of the insightful comments from my fellow writers, I took my copy of my story and tossed it into the air. Some might say I flung it across the room but no one can claim that it hit them. So much for saving my ranting and raving for the drive home…..

My husband was appalled when I told him what I had done. He feels that now no one will be honest with their comments in the future, fearful that they will provoke a similar reaction. Not my writing group. Not after five years of sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly. (That’s my writing–everyone else’s is good to outstanding in my mind.)

I am hopeful that they are still happy to have me back after my winter away……I certainly am thankful to be back with my “muses”!

This morning I reviewed the written comments from two of the members of my group. It’s always eye-opening to see my writing through their eyes. Areas that are clear to me they find confusing. Why? It’s clear in my mind what I am trying to convey–but not so much on paper it appears. How would I ever identify those deficiencies without their assistance? Once I’ve written multiple drafts of a story, it becomes harder and harder to recognize problem areas on my own. Reading it out loud helps–but after correcting any issues that jump out at that point, my writing always sounds pretty darn good. To me.

So thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your patience and support. And I suppose next time I submit you’ll be ready to duck.

Posted in blogging, Karen Whalen, writing, Writing Group

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Tags: blogging, fellow writers, writers, writing, writing group

Answers to Life’s Unending Questions

Mar 9

Posted by Eleanor Ingbretson

So, who asked an unending question and who should be so bold as to want to find out the answer to one of THOSE?

We do. Writers do. It’s an indelible, incontrovertible, inalienable fact that writers need to know. How else could we plot a mystery, a thriller, a fantasy, anything that will stand up to the scrutiny of our readers, or the even more critical judgment of our very own group, a company of fellow writers whom we look upon as dear friends? Dear friends that is, until the evening of our critique rolls around.

But this is why we need to know all about everything; about wormholes in spacetime, and how people hit the ground after they’ve been shot, or how it feels to walk through a tree. Not to mention how different poisons work on the individual systems of our bodies, and how to introduce them into said bodies. How, and why, marshmallows can have a deleterious effect on those from the afterlife who deign to pay a visit. And, of course, how a derelict can hide in a spinster’s attic until the time is right to…. You name it, we need to know.

We love trivia. The more arcane the better. Did you know that wormholes have names? That having too much protoplasm invites trouble? That best friends, step-mothers, and old sweethearts are just asking for it constantly?

Writing is fun, entertaining, and hard work. We groan and moan as though we’ve been dealt a rotten hand in Mah Jongg each and every time we force ourselves to sit down to write. But we do it, by hook or by crook, by cracky.

Oh, another question? Who are we? We are five writers united every Thursday evening for one single purpose: encouragement. Though we might be separated by space and time occasionally, we collectively hold our banner high:

‘Five writers in search of a reason not to work on the book just now.’