Yesterday's writers group meeting may be our best to date.
We began with a review of the first chapter of Kathryn's new story. For a first draft it was quite good. We didn't get to finish our detailed comments, for reasons I will detail in just a bit. There were plenty of small problems; poor word choices, unclear sentences, off-key characterizations, and so forth. But the group did agree that she had no serious structural problems that would require a complete rewrite. The overall recommendation was that she should set aside our comments for now and forge ahead with writing the rest of the story.
We had two special guests at the meeting: William H. Drinkard, author of Elom; and Jeremy Lewis, author of Staked and ReVamped.
Their arrival kicked off a multi-hour rambling conversation. An abbreviated list of the subjects covered would include: writing and writing suggestions, pantzing versus plotting, editing, different types of editing, publishing, differences between publishing companies, conventions, grammar, corsets, how Jeremy is clueless with women, movies, television shows, favorite and least favorite books, religion, the roll of the Unitarian church in society, politics, food, allergies, the public school system, vouchers for private schools, children, having a movie night, and a few dozen other subjects.
It was a fun day and a great meeting. I hope Bill and Jeremy enjoyed the day as much as the rest of us. I have extended an open invite for either of them to come back anytime they want. I know I learned a lot, especially about what it's like to be a working author and what is required of you by publishers and editors.
Thank you, Bill and Jeremy, for taking time out of your busy schedules to spend with us. It meant a lot to everyone in the group.
Monday, June 15, 2009
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That was probably one of the best and most informative of our sessions, for all that we didn't get all that much critiquing done. It was also a lot of fun!
ReplyDeleteI think I'm not alone in hoping that Bill and Jeremy come back, and not just because of their valuable experience - they're also just fun to talk to!
I agree. They were great to have at the meeting. I hope we can get them to come back and maybe attract other professional writers from time to time. I know it helped me a lot.
ReplyDeleteI also agree... I just wish we had finished my critique.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, we should finish your critique. It's only fair. I don't think it would take too long to finish. Maybe we can do it before Liny's or schedule a short session on another day.
ReplyDelete