Plugging

[msisolak]

Mirrored from Marsha Sisolak.

It was a writing kind of weekend. Saturday was five hours of critiques and hanging out with other writers. A wonderful way to feed your inner writer-reading and hearing what others have to say, and making certain you have something to add to the conversation.

Most of the Freeway Dragons are published, and Rachel and

Comments

[jennreese]

You absolutely belong, Marsha. Your writing is excellent and your critiques are always insightful and helpful. That said, I think most of us feel like we don't belong. Some meetings are harder than others. But I'm glad you're in the group and I value your presence.

[msisolak]

Awww, thanks, Jenn. I guess I wish I had... any... writer cred. (Where cred = pro sales, natch. I initially wrote 'more', but the writing gremlin on my shoulder pointed out that I had none. So.)

But of course, I'd have to keep writing and submitting to acquire some. ;)

I'm glad you think I bring something to the table in terms of critiques, because I worry about those and if I'm thorough enough....

Man. I think school has gotten to me today. :P

[sartorias]

Oh, I envy you that writing group!

[msisolak]

I am one of the luckiest writers! Seriously. I cannot recall how I got invited to join this group in the first place, but it's grown to be as supportive as my first online crit group with Charlie Finlay, Karin Lowachee, and Keri Arthur. I am so damn lucky.

[ellettra]

I started with a new-to-me writer's group here in Portland and so far it is inspiring me. I also can't... plot. This morning I was thinking about the writer Rachel Caine. Do you know her/know of her? She writes the Morganville Vampire series. It's a vampire series, so take that as you wish, but the one thing about her books is that they ROCKET along. Every time you get your breath back, she's slamming you with something else terrible happening to her characters. I was thinking about that as I was driving to work this morning and wondering if it's actually that simple - if, in every other scene or whatever, you just throw something awful at your characters, see what they do, and voila, the plot moves along.

I don't know. I think I used to be a good writer, but as I've gotten older, it seems harder and harder to me. JUST DOING IT seems less and less intuitive. The writing group is nice though, because like you said, it's lovely to rub brains with other writers.

[msisolak]

I don't know Rachel Caine and I'll have to look her up. I don't usually read much vampire stuff, so maybe that's why.

And maybe you're right about it being that simple. I'm going to have to try that trick of throwing horrible stuff at my characters every other scene when I head back to my novel in April.

Maybe it's because I came late to writing--I didn't start until I was in my early 40's, and I'm pretty intuitive, so outlines don't seem to work for me. Although I swear that writing a synopsis should come before you write the book and know all the pesky little details that disguise the bare bones of the tale.

Well, either that or trade synopses with a writing buddy, because other writers can still see the tallest trees through the forest.