Hello World!
On my previous entry I received a question asking if I was writing. Yes! Yes! Yes!
If you've been following this blog for long, you know that one of my earliest rants was about sharing my book with a few relatives and friends only to get zero helpful feedback (and I only exaggerate slightly.) Up until now, the hardest part of writing for me was having to go it alone. I so wanted to hear something -- especially something critical -- from a reader.
I had considered hiring an editor just to get some feedback, but the expense put me off. I'm just not that far along in my rewrite yet. To hire an editor at this point would cost me double, because I'd probably have to do it again later. Obviously my family and friends were too nice to tell me what every writer knows -- rough drafts suck. And those critique groups I knew of had offered me no invitation to join despite my pointed hints.
But an awesome thing happened as a result of the Write On the Sound (WOTS) Friday workshop. I've begun exchanging work with several other writers! Not only does practicing my editing skills on their work sharpen my ability to see glitches in my own, but they critique mine! This has been better than Christmas. Seriously.
With one fellow, I have sent two chapters and critiqued three of his. A doctor, he has been able to help me make a medical scene much more realistic. Then, my new online critique group finished our first round a couple of weeks ago. As I wrote in a summary e-mail, two of the women pointed out the descriptions they really appreciated, while the third, primarily a flash fiction writer, helped me weed thorough the rest and tighten up my chapter. Then, from one I got a three-word description of a main character that blew me away, one reminded me to consider the grittier side of gaming in my book, and one shared her hope for what might come next in the story. (Her idea was so much better than mine that I changed my story!)
I find myself on fire to write again. My muse is grabbing me and taking me on a rollercoaster ride. I love rides. And critiquing with my new on-line writer's group has helped me move forward far faster than I was able to do before -- even counting all the time I put into my critiques of their work.
As one character likes to say in my book, "Sometime, life can be very good."
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keep at it! ~gerri
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