More Ch-ch-ch-changes

Saturday we held what I thought would be my last (and possibly THE last) CWC meeting.  I had announced a few weeks earlier that I'm still struggling with my writing and need to step away from even listening to critiques.  I've also cut back on reading agent blogs and those that dispense writing advice.  I haven't canceled my subscription to Writer's Digest, but I have dropped Poets & Writers for now, and WD is going on the shelf until I feel like it won't negatively influence me.

Since Mary and I carpool down to Pueblo, she wasn't sure she wanted to keep making the drive each month alone, especially since she's been struggling with her own writing and might not have anything to submit for a while.  Shane, too, hasn't been able to write, not so much out of writer's block, but because it's his first year as an English teacher and that pretty much eats up all his time.

That would leave just Ali and Jenny.  And Jenny has another critique group (she's fickle that way).  So, death to CWC, right?

Wrong.

I returned to the table after a bathroom break.  Conversation ceased, heads turned.  Oh-oh.  "What?" 

They decided, in the five minutes tops that I was gone, to change the format once again.  We'll still get together once a month for dinner--on Saturday, which works better for everyone--to talk.  About writing, other kinds of storytelling, what we're having trouble with, what's working, our lives in general.  Basically, whatever.  Sorta like the old Pirate days.  If someone wants to submit something, they can, of course.  And, if I still need to avoid all critiques, I can read it and mark it up (for some reason that doesn't bother me), drop Mary off with my feedback so they can discuss, and go somewhere for an hour to hang out or write.  Then I'll join the rest of the group for dinner.

Cool, huh?

Second transformation of the group in almost two and half years.  Most writing groups don't make it a year.  And big changes will kill even the strongest group.  But we seem to be the little Timex group.  We just keep ticking. 

Reading Cozies

DB handed out cozies at the CWC meeting on Saturday.  I've read them all my life for a light change of pace.  Jenny did her own study of them a few months ago.  Mary seemed excited about reading one, or two even.  But I don't think Ali or Shane have ever read one.

Ali's already posted about her first impressions of the beginning of the book DB gave her.  It's not looking too promising.

It'll be interesting to see what everyone has to say next month.

Have you ever read a cozy mystery?  Did/do you like them?  What about reading other genres that aren't your normal go-to picks?  Were there any that pleasantly surprised you?  Or annoyed you?

When The Universe Conspires Against You

As you may know, CWC has not been able to meet since the beginning of December.  An unexpected death and various snow storms have caused delays that turned into outright cancellations.  We finally agreed on this Saturday, with a forecast for highs in the mid-50s and sunny skies.  And then one of our group got news of another friend's death.  It just seems like the Universe is trying to tell us something. 

Ali received a much more positive message the other day.  I've been getting some mixed signals myself.

This time we're sending a message back to the Universe:  We're meeting.  One of our number will be attending a funeral, and we'll have to figure out times to exchange submissions, critiques, etc. with her.  And while our thoughts with be with Mary, her family and their friends, we're going to go ahead and do this thing.

Maybe the Universe is just nudging us (and with something that big, a nudge can feel like an earthquake) to see if we're really serious about this CWC thing.  Because maybe if we're not, then we might not be serious about the writer thing.  What the Universe needs to know, however, is just how bloody serious we are.  So we're going to prove it.

Ever get the feeling that the Universe/events/gods/life was trying to tell you something?  What did you do with the message?

May Goals

Not many blog posts last month. It may have had something to do with working on those April goals. I felt that if I had time to write anything, I should be working on MMG. So I did. Although I missed the deadline for getting everything to CWC, I did finish the rewrites at 9:45 p.m. on 4/30/10. So I did complete them in April. The final pages went to Ali, Jenny & Shane on Saturday (after I took the full manuscript to Carrie so she could be first). I will deliver Mary's to her today on my lunch break. Phew!

I hope to blog more this month on the experience of revising something so big. It came in at a little over 104,000 words. I'm sure I'll be told to cut many of them, but it definitely needed more than the first drafts had.

So, May goals. I'm taking it easy this month, gang.

--Expand on one of the prompt responses for CWC.
--Work on short stories.
--Work on poetry.

Just playing with words for a while. Soon enough I'll have to get serious with either Vesta or TKoS.

November Goals

I pretty much rocked October, especially given that it was chock full of extra-curricular activites. I finished everything. Well, everything but getting all the way through TNN. That was due in no small part to doing exactly what I'd said I wouldn't do after it happened with Vesta. After the first feedback session at CWC, I decided to rip everything apart and put it back together --better! faster! stronger!--before the next submission. In a month--right. Please remind me of this when I submit the first part of my next manuscript, whatever that may be.

Time to set goals for November. No NaNoWriMo for me this month. I have tons to revise since Jenny challenged me to put a revised full of MMG through the group soon. And then there's Vesta waiting to be revised as well.

I want to finish the first draft of TNN before I start the MMG revisions. I have maybe 100 pages to go, and there will be a submission due in January. I doubt it will be the rest of the story, but should get everyone close to the end. Of course, the critique for this month. It'll be great to revisit Mary's TF. And then revisions, revisions, revisions. I don't know that I'll finish this month, but I have until the end of March. I, foolishly perhaps, raised my hand on Monday night and claimed March to submit the full.

Should be a busy, but fun month.

What A Weekend/Everyone Should Have Friends Like Mine

And I don't mean "What a weekend" in a good way.

I dog and house sat for two very dear friends. One of the dogs has developed some special needs over the past year. She is blind, but gets around okay except right after she wakes up. She also has IBS. I won't go into details here. Suffice it to say that she often needs to get outside RIGHT NOW and doesn't always wake up in time to do so. Even when she does wake up, she might start in the wrong direction and not want to believe me that I know where it is and it's this way and please, please, please hurry.

Friday night's multi-interrupted sleep was nothing compared to Saturday night's getting maybe three hours total and not more than an hour at a time. Each time she moved, I had to be ready to help her get outside. Even when she was asleep, I had to be aware of whining and tummy rumblings so I could wake her up in time. As I said in an email to Jenny, not conducive to sleeping or writing.

I would finally feel like I might maybe be starting to get a flow or words going and have to stop, deal with things and then try to figure out where I was and where I thought I was going. It only takes a few of these to just kill any desire to even try to put one word after the other. After about ten o'clock Sunday morning, I just quit trying.

There was a point late yesterday that I decided that not only was I going to throw in the towel on the contest, but on the whole writing thing. Why was I bothering? Most people seem to be quite content, happy even, going to work and coming home day after day. They might work out and/or go to movies or plays or concerts. But mostly they work and take care of their homes and families, and watch television. Basically what I do already except that I give short shrift to everything except the television watching, because I write or try to write or think I should be writing.

And then it happened.

I heard everyone's voice in my head. I heard Jenny, Ali, Fleur, Mary, Shane, Nicole and all the rest of the Pirates saying, "What the hell are you talking about? You're making excuses. Get over yourself and get back to work." I heard Carrie saying, "If you don't finish something for me to read, I'll shave your head. You won't even see it coming."

How great is that? They don't even have to be around to give me a verbal--mental?--bitch slap.

It's going to be like starting a marathon, getting out front in the first mile, stopping to have a big lunch--maybe a nap--and then deciding that you are going to try to win it after all. But I'm not throwing in the towel. I may finish dead last, but I'll finish. And I'll have more words of TNN than I had when I started. And that was sort of the point all along.

August Goals

I feel like I accomplished a lot in July. Although when I look at the writing goals and how I did on them, not so much. Still, in a more esoteric sense, I accomplished loads. Because I know exactly what the final (and it will be my final, if not an agent's or editor's) version of MMG needs. It's right there. And this isn't like the other "I kinda sorta think this is what it needs" moments. I know. It feels great. And I've made great strides in that direction. It may take a little longer than I hoped. But I'll know when I'm done.

Anyway, here are the writing goals for August:

--Rewrite of MMG
--Prepare TNN/KoS for submission to CWC
--Do critique (0/1)
--Rework MMG query template with awesome input from Jenny & Mary
--Finish MMG short synopsis

Easy peasy, right?

CWC Rocks

Once again the anticipation was worse than the actuality. Everyone had the same problems with Vesta as before (and they really, really, really don't like Zack), but there were so many great suggestions that I'm excited about the possibilities. I especially like when someone suggested a change that I'd already thought of. Or when I said, "I know that I need to have this person at this event," and the whole table would bounce and say, "Yes!" Jenny said the bones are there, they just need fleshing out (which is how I tend to write). Mary said she likes the toys I've chosen to play with. How great are those comments?

Jenny posted about our critiquing in the dark. It seems crazy now that no one suggested we stop, but why would we? We still had a critique and a half to go. How could we short change Mary and Shane like that? I think it says something about why I love this group so much. Although there is friendship above and beyond our writing, when we're at CWC, it is all about the writing. There is a bit of small talk, but when it's time for business, that's it. We have Pirates and Sunday dinners and other gatherings for the other stuff.

Now it's time to start revisions of TNN so I'm ready to submit next month. Be aware of my usual shortcomings in the back of my mind, but let this one be what it needs to be at the same time. I'm just glad I'm not submitting a first draft this time around.

Storytelling

No excuses for not updating sooner.

I've been doing a lot of repetitive kinds of tasks at work over the past few weeks. No complaints. It's good to be busy at work. But not a lot of brain-power has been required. I found a radio station on i-Tunes that plays old radio shows. Amazing how many of the comedy shows aren't funny anymore and how many comedies and dramas both are incredibly racist--don't get me started on The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke and Have Gun, Will Travel. But the storytelling aspect is interesting.

There are three shows that I particularly like. One is Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar about a freelance insurance investigator. It's a fifteen minute show. Each story takes a week to tell. Johnny is reporting on his expense account and why he's incurring the expenses. Of course, he tells about how he figures out what actually happened, too.

Another is Suspense. It's an anthology style show. Some of the biggest names of the time are involved. I've heard James Stewart, William Powell, Cary Grant, Agnes Moorehead, Joan Fontaine, etc. The stories range from mysteries, horror and straight drama. But all are supposed to be suspenseful. Some work better than others.

One thing that is common to both of these shows is the combination of narration and dialogue. And the stories are told not shown. There is very little description of setting. You might get an occasional "It was a muggy night" or "The ramshackle house" but not much else. Still I have a very specific idea of what Johnny Dollar looks like. And, of course, I'm familiar with most of the actors on Suspense so I can picture them. But I see the settings in both shows too. Even though they aren't described in any detail. But if it takes place in a rural setting then I have a catalogue in my head I can access for rural settings. English manor house? Same thing. California ranch? You get the idea.

The third show I like is Lux Radio Theater. Another anthology program. But this one takes stage plays and movies and distills them into an hour-long radio play. I've heard a couple from movies that I'm familiar with. Suspicion and Sorry, Wrong Number. It's interesting to see how they took a two-hour movie and boiled it down to under an hour (commericals, you know) without losing anything. Again, setting suffers. But they still work.

I'm a writer who loves setting the stage. I think it can help set the mood. Not just spooky old houses, but details like faded floral wallpaper can tell you a lot about the person who owns the house in three little words. Mary and Moe really set scenes. And I love their work. I'm there. Everyone else uses varying amounts of stage dressing. And it seems to work well, too. So why is that? Is it genre? Style? Don't know.

My other question is, if these radio plays work so well with telling rather than showing, why don't books?

Discuss.

I'm out of town next week and may or may not check in.

The Group Strikes Again!

Last night was the official First Monday gathering of The Group. It occurs to me this morning that it may have been our one year anniversary. I'll have to look up whether we met for the first time in June or July of last year.

I arrived a little early to go over new novel ideas. I'd narrowed it down to four and was seeing if I could write a quick sketch outlining the main storyline for each one. If not, then the idea isn't ripe enough to pick. Jenny and Shane arrived while I was pondering and asked what I was doing.

"Looking at story ideas to see which one I'm using for my next project."

Jenny, "Let's hear 'em."

I read one. They nodded politely, asked a couple questions. Mary arrived and the conversation changed. A writer's nightmare happened to her a few weeks ago--complete computer meltdown. Latest revisions, gone.

Fleur and D.B. showed up and the discussion shifted again. Just when I thought it was safe, Jenny said, "So what are your other ideas?" After a brief explanation to bring Mary, D.B. and Fleur up to speed, I read my other three ideas. One in particular sparked everyone's interest. Then Jenny said, "You should put that together with the first one." Brilliance!

The fitting of the two, seemly unrelated, ideas is just what I needed to get excited about starting a new project. And I have to admit, I don't think I would have put them together on my own. Yet, there it was, just waiting for someone to discover the fit.

I love and respect each and every person in this group. We are not a critique group per se, although we do read and comment on each other's work. It's more like a support group--one that encourages a bad habit. Some months we have more people show up than others. Bret and Fran attend sporadically. Nicole is usually a regular, but had to be out of town. Ali shows up as often as she can. Everyone has a unique take on this crazy business of writing and we represent a broad range of genres.

It just works. And I'm so glad it does.