Post Critique #3

So this past Thursday, my writing group, The Underground Writers, did our third big critique session. It was our first session with a new member (Julia Muldoon) in the group so we were all pretty eager to see how things would turn out, what kind of information would get exchanged, and what her piece would look like.

On the whole, things turned out really well. The pieces were generally newer (or older pieces that had been edited with some of the more recent advice from other pieces), so it was all around an easy critique. I had submitted my short story, Blood & Puppies, for critiquing this round. Generally the reviews were along the same line. Near the end I have a PoV shift that needs some work, there's a bit of blocking trouble for that last portion, and there's a small bit at the beginning that really doesn't make much sense. From what feedback I got, I have to quote Randy Lalonde on the all-around progress: "Your dialogue has also gotten stronger and has outgrown your descriptive prose." Not a bad bit of review, and it shows me exactly where I need to work with my next handful of pieces. Basically, keep tightening the dialogue, and work more on tightening the description.

I wasn't sure about the working title going in, and I'm still not sure about it coming out. The reviews on the title have been mixed. They're about half-and-half. Those that like the title, or even squirm at the title, claim that it's a very re-tweetable title, and that people may just stop and look at / buy the piece because of it. The others aren't overly fond of the title, because it doesn't work too closely with the actual story. I hope to come up with a better title, but if nothing pops up before I finish the rewrite, it'll probably stick.

On other writing news, editing on Hedged In has been progressing a little slower than I thought. I figure I should still have it done by my deadline, but whether I'll be as happy with it at that point as I want to be, that's another question. I may end up having to bow out of one of our monthly critiques just to get it to the point that I want it at. That would mean putting other projects on hold, and I'm not up for that right now.

I began a new project a couple of weeks ago and I'm almost through writing the first chapter of it. I had received word about a scholarship that teetered on writing a young adult novel. The cash involved is pretty nice for someone looking to get through another year of school. So I spent an evening reading over the back covers of dozens of books in the YA section of Chapters, and I even bought and read one (Graceling by Kristin Cashore). I spent another evening coming up with a few YA-style treatments, and then I began writing a first chapter of one of my ideas. I don't even have a working title for the piece yet, but when I do, I'm sure you'll all be able to read it here.

Anyhow, I have some more writing that I need to get done today. I promised myself a good two solid hours of writing, and I aim to do it.

NaNo Preparation

Alright, so it's basically been a month since I posted anything here. My apologies. I'd say real life got in the way, but doesn't it always?

Actually, in this case I've been busy preparing for the big event of the year: National Novel Writing Month. For most participants, preparing for NaNoWriMo is a simple matter of coming up with an idea, maybe doing a couple of character sketches and some basic outlining. At the far end, some participants may plan out meals ahead of time, schedule themselves to attend a few events, and chit-chat with people on the forums in preparation for the event.

But me, I can't stop at just that. I'm the Municipal Liaison for the Sudbury region, which means that I'm the one that schedules and books locations for events. I try to organize launch parties, mid-month parties, and the TGIO party. I book write-ins, come up with interesting competitions, raise money for the Office of Letters and Light, and get whatever small prizes and discounts I can manage for my participants. I create booklets with schedules, maps, hints and tricks; I obtain stickers, goody bags, and more. I put up posters, contact newspapers, get on the phone to arts and writing groups, and otherwise drum up interest in the month-long event. So instead of running myself ragged in November writing a novel, I run myself ragged in October and November between planning the events and writing the novel.

This year I have a huge list of thanks to put out. A handful of last year's participants have been really helpful. Steph, Sylvie, and Andy: you three are awesome! Thanks for the help getting things postered and getting events scheduled and booked. I'd also like to send my thanks to a newbie: PiscesMuse, you've been a big help. I look forward to meeting you at the kick-off. From the response that I've seen so far, people have been noticing the posters, which is fantastic.

What we've got planned so far: Kick-off party (Oct 23, Doghouse), Sudbury Writers' Guild Speech (Oct 29, YMCA), New Sudbury Library Write-ins (2, 9, 16, 23, 30), William's Write-in (7), Chapters Write-in (10), Mid-Month Madness (13, Laughing Buddha), Fromagerie Write-in (18, 28), Laurentien University Write-In (21), TGIO (Dec 5, my place). The Underground Writers will also be doing weekly write-ins on Thursdays, and we'll have our own kick-off lunch on Nov 1st. So, if we include the UW stuff, we're looking at 4 parties, 1 speech, 14 write-ins. There are requests for yet more write-ins, but I think I'm going to have to cap it there...

So far, I've managed to finangle 10% discounts during the month of November off most things at The Source in the Southridge Mall for participants, nine 2-GB thumb drives, a $25 A&W gift card, and a signed copy of Spinward Fringe: Origins courtesy of the book's author, Randolph Lalonde. I've also a score of stickers, "hipster PDAs", name tags, and word count calendars. I'm hoping to snag a couple of $10 Tim Hortons gift cards between now and the TGIO party to add to the prize pile.

On top of all this, I've also managed to finish and edit (repeatedly) "Tactical Medics" which I sent out to the Underground Writers for critiquing. I've also pounded out another 1587 words for a short story I'm tentatively calling "Blood & Puppies" even though my fiance hates the title. I have a handful of poems completed and have received a second rejection letter for my pile. Still managing to squeeze everything in there between work, pumpkin carving, and paper mache skulls... But that's another story for another day. ;)

Helpful Critiques

The Underground Writers has had their first critiquing session. This was something that we all felt was missing from the Sudbury Hypergraphic Society, so we made sure to put concrete deadlines for something to be submitted to the group for critiquing. I believe I mentioned in one of my previous posts that I had rushes to finish a draft of "Bloodspurt" for this particular session. Well, the word has come back from the group. They were entertained, always a good sign, but they could tell that it was definitely a rough draft. It was obvious where I started rushing to the ending, and numerous small comments came up about different parts and people's preferences.

Overall, I was pretty impressed actually. I knew there were a lot of problems with the piece, but I would have missed about half of what they mentioned. The pieces I critiqued were all pretty well polished in comparison with my draft, so I feel really bad about hogging so many useful comments. Everyone received their fair share though. A piece here, a transition there, some dialog, some character... There was a little for everyone to work on, and from what I'm hearing, most can hardly wait to do it again.

I almost have my piece ready for the next deadline. "Tactical Medics" took a slightly different route from the one I had originally anticipated, but I am very impressed with what I've managed to crank out this time. It feels a lot more polished, and pending a quick read-through by a regular reader, I'm pretty confident this piece will be a little better for the group to scrape through. I have the third draft sitting in front of me, and it's been chewed down to 4,027 words from 4,183. I had to add a couple of paragraphs to make the ending a little more foreshadowed, and to give the characters a little more character. I may need to look at their dialog a little more to differentiate between the two primary characters, but I'm not overly concerned. Gonna look at that when I move from third to fourth draft.