(Note: Your ragtime gal made a few corrections, to correct some of the more egregiously horrible wording, the result of sleep deprivation and writing on a wonky computer in the wee hours--Rachel. )
With the extended downtime, I amassed quite a stockpile of questions for the BC readership at large, and question number one concerns a source of considerable dread for me, the writer's critique group. (I would have to promise that I'd post a story to the site.
I've always likened such groups to group therapy, and not in a positive way. Either way, I'm baring my inner self to relative strangers, leaving myself open to judgement and ridicule.
But it occurred to me that if I want to be serious about writing, I'm going to have to receive feedback. A writing group would be unlike the writing classes I took in college, in that I'd no longer have to worry about grades, or producing x number of words. And it would be presided over by a professional. According to the book I'm currently reading, "No Plot? No Problem," I should shut down my inner critic at first by writing, writing, writing, without regard to logic, grammar, or plot holes. But once the first draft is done, I'll need criticism, to determine which sections of my literary "masterpiece" merit keeping and which ought to be mercifully allowed to die. If I'm not cut out for writing novels, I find out here and now.
With that in mind, I'd like to ask, how many of you (if any) have submitted a story with TG content to a writing group for critique. If you did, what was the group's reaction? Were they judgmental? Amused? Confused?
It occurred to me recently that TG stories were the only fiction I had the remotest interest in writing. I'd written them literally since high school, and don't feel I have the necessary life experience to write anything more mainstream. So it's TG fiction or nothing, essentially. But I won't submit anything without hearing from all of you.
And before I forget, thank you Erin for getting the site, and the precious data therein, rescued from possible oblivion.
Comments
The only thing I've ever done
The only thing I've ever done that's somewhat similar is to share stories over google-docs with other TG writers and comment on them, while still in the writing process. I'm not sure that counts though, since it's mostly just more betaing.
Follow Your Heart But...
You are spot on about writers' groups being akin to group therapy. Listening to too many voices, each with a taste and viewpoint of their own can be counter productive to the point of drowning out your own voice.
In the publishing world, the one that makes money, writers are paired off with editors who have a shared interest in a genre and, if the writer is lucky, common background. This allows the editor to help focus and enhance the story rather than steer it off onto a tangent as too often occurs when a writer listens to others who have zip in common with the writer.
In my writing here I have found a kindred spirit in Persephone. We exchange the rough drafts of our stories and offer critiques and recommendations. When we write a story together, we freely overwrite a piece the other did, making it more powerful and crisp.
I recommend to you, and anyone else who pays attention to what I say, that you find one good second reader, a person you trust and who shares your love for your subject who can be muse, critic and editor all rolled up in one. That, and not an eclectic gathering of strangers is the way to improve your writing.
Any who, that's my story and I'm sticking' to it.
Nancy Cole
a.k.a. HW Coyle
"You may be what you resolve to be."
T.J. Jackson
Bring it on.
I have found the folks here to be a fair judge of beginning writers. I have been treated extremely well even with my dodgy grammar and my homophone, homonym problems. I now have an editor and a second reader helping this along.
You can if you wish turn off the comments section. Your voice can be part of our chorus, all are welcome this is a friendly place to start.
Keep in mind that writing is a process not an event so go easy on your self criticism.
Huggles
Misha Nova
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book