Yesterday I attended a first meeting with a writing group that I joined. If I wasn’t already terrified by the idea of sharing my story with strangers, I got stuck in some ridiculous Saturday traffic and was horribly late. When I arrived they had started reading the first writer and I got no names.  It was fitting really, very me.

The group was fun though, each person had very different stories. I was worried that most participants would be spare-time writers, which isn’t a bad thing; I was one for a long time. But I am going through a point in my life where I really want to take the trade seriously. How fortunate is it that I got the same vibe from them?

My story did not fare quite so well, but I haven’t lost any confidence. If anything, I would say I have gained some. The story is a second draft, far from finished. The important questions to me were ones that made them ask about major plot points. They could call that a problem with the chapter, but I don’t think it is at all. I love twisting plot lines around, one thing set up in Chapter 2 won’t reappear until book two; I’m interested to find out what they’ll think about that one.

In general, the reviews I got were that it started too slow, and that it felt too isolated. Even I will go ahead and agree with that. It is very difficult to see your own story through “fresh” eyes. I know where my plot points are going, so I think the delicate mentions are suitable. Readers don’t have such luxery when they start a book, so I have to be more careful about it. It’s nice to know I learned a valuable lesson at the first meeting! I think the most harsh comment I read (I got back 6 copies of my chapter with notes/markings) was written after the very last line of the chapter and said, “It just got interesting.” Ouch, but what can you do. I don’t know who wrote that anyway, so I won’t let it bother me I suppose.