I went to my first meeting with a writing group and it was neat.
I think I was too nice? I didn't rip people's stories apart as much as others did. In truth, I only got everything yesterday and it being my first time, I wasn't entirely sure what to do.
Some styles of writing are harder to wade through, also, so I occasionally had difficulty following what other writers had written. One story was thick with military acronyms. Other stories had such interesting styles that I was hooked on the first chapter. At some point over the summer, I will send them some of mine to read and see what they have to say. It will be great to have people that aren't afraid to read it, tear it apart, and tell me where they see holes.
I may have also felt a little intimidated critiquing the work of published authors!
It was fun talking about other's stories and helping each other generate ideas.
I liked that I wasn't the only unpublished author in the group who is working through a first novel. An interesting tip I got for writer's block on TTAJ is to start another novel. I do have some ideas for other stories rattling around in my head, so I may do that at some point. Currently, I often deal with writer's block by editing TTAJ and it usually leads me into getting an idea. I will also go back and work on the parts I have marked that I know I need to expand on, but didn't feel like doing the research for at the time.
We talked about Scrivener too. I think I'll use it instead of MS Word for other novels, but I don't see the point of changing what TTAJ is in now as it's working fine for me at this time.
Something ultra exciting in the Ottawa writing world might be happening this summer in late August. It's in the early planning stages and I can't say anything more about it right now, but if it gets off of the ground, I'll surely be spreading the word!
Ciao,
R~
I think I was too nice? I didn't rip people's stories apart as much as others did. In truth, I only got everything yesterday and it being my first time, I wasn't entirely sure what to do.
Some styles of writing are harder to wade through, also, so I occasionally had difficulty following what other writers had written. One story was thick with military acronyms. Other stories had such interesting styles that I was hooked on the first chapter. At some point over the summer, I will send them some of mine to read and see what they have to say. It will be great to have people that aren't afraid to read it, tear it apart, and tell me where they see holes.
I may have also felt a little intimidated critiquing the work of published authors!
It was fun talking about other's stories and helping each other generate ideas.
I liked that I wasn't the only unpublished author in the group who is working through a first novel. An interesting tip I got for writer's block on TTAJ is to start another novel. I do have some ideas for other stories rattling around in my head, so I may do that at some point. Currently, I often deal with writer's block by editing TTAJ and it usually leads me into getting an idea. I will also go back and work on the parts I have marked that I know I need to expand on, but didn't feel like doing the research for at the time.
We talked about Scrivener too. I think I'll use it instead of MS Word for other novels, but I don't see the point of changing what TTAJ is in now as it's working fine for me at this time.
Something ultra exciting in the Ottawa writing world might be happening this summer in late August. It's in the early planning stages and I can't say anything more about it right now, but if it gets off of the ground, I'll surely be spreading the word!
Ciao,
R~
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