Whoo! Go, Astarte!

Drabbles are such very good friends, aren't they? So damned clarifying. They're like a facial for the head.

Why do the two have cancel each other out? Malory wrote precise stuff, and I go back to "Le Morte d'Arthur" over and over and over.

Oh, they don't, not at all. I'm just not sure that this particular reader is seeing anything but precision, you know? However, he and I could hardly have more different writing styles and reading preferences, so as long as he sees some merit in my stuff, that's probably enough.

Oh, crap.

I'm editing the work of one of our two newest writing group members.

It's awful. He dots every i, crosses every t, leaves absolutely nothing to the reader's own choosing, and doesn't introduce the main character until over six pages of redundant description.

Shoot me now.

a little butterly-tummy going on

Good luck, Astarte!

They're like a facial for the head.

Oh, I like that metaphor.

Shoot me now.

No, no, no! Shoot him now. If we shoot the good writers, all we'll have left is Reader's Digest. I don't want to live in that world.

I've never had any luck with writers groups. I've been in a couple of them, periodically, and they always burn me out something fierce. I've even been in at least one with some utterly amazing poets, and got very little out of it. (OK--good edits on one long poem.)

I think, for me, it doesn't force me to write, it just contributes to the background noise in my head that I have to tune out in order to write. Does that make sense? I mean, I can and do ask advice of friends and cohorts on pieces, but sitting around with a bunch of other writers? I'd rather be drinking.

Can I shoot him instead? Please?

What I've got from writer's groups has been some mechanical corrections that were helpful, so far as my own writing is concerned. But what helped me grow as a writer was critiquing other writer's work, which made me focus more on what works as good prose, paragraph construction, dramatic focus, et cetera. So, on the balance, a big plus for me.

I thought about finding another one, but now all the sad stories are making me all btdt, so maybe not...

I thought about finding another one, but now all the sad stories are making me all btdt, so maybe not...

Well, I know some very good writers who swear by them, so I don't know. I think it may be that I just don't play well with others.

By and large I love my small group in my writing class, except there's one woman who always disagrees with everyone's opinion -- not of *her* work, but of everyone else's work. For instance, Person 1 will read a poem, and ask if the situation she's trying to convey is clear. If it is, the rest of us will say yes, and point out the elements that make it so.

Contrary!woman will pipe up with "Well, I *like* being confused by a poem; it makes me work harder. I think you should make it more vague."

I try not to throttle her.