Meandering On Monday with Janet Lane Walters #amwriting

What an interesting thing I discovered when I opened the dashboard this morning. I have 111 followers and have posted 1111 new blog entries. Guess the ones have it. The only thing that would have been more interesting would be for this to have happened on the 11th month and 11th day of the year. Guess one can't have everyhting fall into place. But that's the lot of a writer.

Second meander is about something that happens every time I start a new story. Of course it happened this time as well. In the rough draft, I begin writing down the words, or "making words" as my granddaughter used to say when she sent people away from my study door. Sometime during the writing of this first chapter, it comes to me that what I have written is "drek". Not only "drek" but boring sentences and paragraphs. Usually there is too much back story piled in paragraph after paragraph. How could I have written this? But I did and I suppose it will happen every time. Suddenly the light goes on, this time after only 2000 words written. Better than sometimes. Perhaps I am learning. I would hope so after all I've been writing for 45 years. Not always every day or even every week but that's since the first short story published. But I have a new beginning and I'm starting with a minor change in my heroine's life. The second scene in the story will be a change in the hero's life, one that's a bit more than her change.

Third meander is about critique groups. I've been a member of the same one for 20 plus years and have seen people come and go. When we started we had some rules to keep the group on task. What I need to do is sit down and try to remember them, write them out and pass them to the many new members of the group so we all get on the same page. The rules were rather simple. One I remember is "You don't defend" and can only respond if you are asked a question when it's your time. Another is that 5 to 10 pages double spaced are what can be read and if the group is large, you try for the lower level of pages. The third involved things to look for when you're critiquing and don't repeat what everyone else has said. The last one involved praise and not to go on and on. I'll be working on this before our next meeting, send it to a friend who has been part of the group, perhaps not as long as I have been but close.

As to writing. Am typing the changes into Shattered Dream. Finally found the time line for The Goddesses of Soluer. That was a real time since the original draft found was more than 150,000 words in length and rough so I've divided it into two. And I'm roughing in Shadowed Dreams, the second novella or short novel.

Tuesday's Inspiration - Critique Groups

In many ways, writing is a lonely game. The people you meet are often those you've created on paper. Telling stories that are produced on paper or electronically takes time and being alone. Trying to write when surrounded by people carrying on conversations can be difficult if not impossible but writing in a vacuum is also difficult. One needs feedback from others. Just sending off a story and waiting for an editor to comment can be hard. So what can you do?

Writers often band together with other writers to share their works and receive comments from their fellow writers to help. But critique groups may not always work for one author or another. I've belonged to three in my long career as a writer. The first one was centered only in poetry and while I learned there things like rhythm and word choice there was no appreciation of my prose. Since it was the only group in town, I remained and my fellow writers at least were supportive of what I was doing but they didn't help me hone my craft. Then we moved.

I joined a second critique group who said they were interested in both poetry and prose. Problem was they were interested in intellectual prose. I wrote genre fiction, stories with happy endings. My characters had goals and motives and coflicts that could happen to writers in every day life. Did I learn here. Yes and no. I learned I was never going to write "literary" fiction, but some of the authors the quoted as being wonderful didn't write "literary" fiction in the days when they were producing. I also had fun. Doing poetry readings in NYC and meeting people whose poetry was recognized was a great experience. I also had some poems published. My fiction suffered in some ways and grew stronger in others.

Then I found a third critique group. While the writers were mainly focused on romance they could give pointers on some of the other areas I was exploring. The group formed in 1990 has continued. Not all the original members still belong. Some of them have gone on to become best-selling authors. Some have moved and some have dropped out of the writing game. I always wonder about the strong writers who simply gave up. Was it something the group was not giving them or was it a fear of faila fear of success. Through this group I discovered electronic publishing years before it became the boom it is now. And I think a lot about those people who left the writing game. But each time one of the members or former member's career takes off I feel inspired and wonder if somehow I have helped them move forward in their careers the way they have helped me.