You've probably forgotten all about me. I mean, I haven't posted since break. In that time, I had a lovely Christmas, came down with a bout of "something" (unidentified potentially flu-like thing), and made myself a pair of nerd shoes. Yes, nerd shoes. Old white sneaks from
South Pacific converted to quote-o-rific, bona fide nerd shoes. Gonna be a real hit this summer.
Since that last post, I attended a local writer's support group. It was my second time going. There were only four of us, and that's counting my sister and I. The one other person our age was busy getting ready for his black belt test, otherwise we would have been five. I should also add that I was coming down with the flu-like thing over the course of the meeting. Now, I would like to talk a little bit about writer's groups and all that rot.
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| I always mean my compliments. Rest assured, fellow writers! |
I don't know about you all, but my writing is pretty goshdarn personal. No one ever gets to see it. Not my parents, not my siblings, not my best friends, not anyone. That's because there's this half of me that knows some of the stuff in there is pretty terrible, and there's this other half that thinks some of the stuff is the best stuff since Shakespeare. Knowing that someone might see the bad, or even worse, not like the good, terrifies me. So it takes a lot of courage for me to share a paragraph, much less a chapter, of a WIP.
Sharing my work a week or two ago with three more people than usual was scary. Do I have some regrets? Definitely. But it also taught me a thing or two.
* Note: I brought a WIP short story with me to the group. That's what I'm talking about below.
The good news. I noticed
a lot of stuff I hadn't when the document was sitting on my desk. For example, my character greeted someone in a way that probably wasn't historically accurate. I needed an adult to point that out. Also, my character was starting to sound kind of whiny for no reason. I needed my sister to point that out. Talking with my sister after the meeting helped me to work out a) why I had made the character so whiny (she is really unhappy with her situation and she is lashing out on her loved ones) and b) where I need to change my manuscript (her mindset doesn't come across very well, just her behavior).
The bad. I'm someone who needs some praise to help me wash down the medicine that is criticism. A few compliments on a character here, a couple "nice sentence" remarks there, and voila! I will gladly listen to what you have to say! However, most of my follow-up consisted of questions, comments, and concerns. My immediate reaction was to diss my own writing, criticize myself, and give up. I'm still hesitant to pick the project back up. Entrusting my work to adults was somewhat intimidating. I think I'll save my true "babies" for my eyes and maybe those of my parents, best friend, or sister.
If you like to have a lot of feedback, I would encourage you to join a writer's group and put yourself out there. I got a lot of helpful comments. My story was historically based, so sometimes I need help finding flaws in the historical component. See, helpful! But if you're like me and prefer to keep your stuff close to the chest, don't feel pressured to share to soon. I myself will probably wait until the 2nd or 3rd draft to get criticism from now on. By then I will hopefully have a better idea of what needs help. And I'll probably keep my writer's group limited, too.
How about you all? Ever shared your work with a writer's group? Feel free to comment and share your experience.
