Saturday Six for September 22nd

1. I received my first bad review on Amazon this week. I wallowed in my misery for a day, imagined myself eating a dozen cakes, and then started writing my next novella the next day.

2. My monthly writer's group meets today. A bunch of very short stories this time, but good ones. My own is a fantasy flash piece done backwards. I wasn't attempting to be artsy or anything. It's just that the beginning was the most climatic part, so I put it at the end.

3. My mom will be arriving on Tuesday this coming week and visiting for four days. She'll spoil my son and feed me cake. I'll be absent from the cyber world during those days, but at least you'll know I'll be stuffed to the gills with yummy sweets.

4. I finally got to watch Cabin in the Woods. It was amazing! I haven't loved a movie like that in a long time. I'd already read spoilers, so I wasn't surprised, but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of it. Joss Whedon is brilliant.

5. My new TV show this week was Revolution. I don't know. Interesting and yet it hasn't hooked me yet. I don't like the younger actors. Where does everyone find new and fashionable clothes in this world?! I'll keep watching, but it didn't suck me in like LOST did.

6. Thursday was picture day at my son's preschool. They were in need of a volunteer to help the photographer, so I offered a helping hand. It turned out to be a chaotic morning. My son's teacher was sick and so the regular routine was thrown to the winds. This immediately led the boy to a bad, bad mood which he refused to shake. I was the photographer's gopher, fetching kids and classes to come down for their photos, and I was also a substitute teacher with the boy clinging to my leg the entire time. The boy didn't smile for his pictures. He scowled. Do you remember those preschool stress dreams I had before the school year started? They came true.

Here's hoping the weekend is good for all of us!

Saturday Six for July 14th

1. Today I have my monthly S.C.I.F.I. (South Central Indiana Fiction Interface) meeting. Even with this heat, I managed to get all the stories critiqued. I'll be happy to sit in the air-conditioned library for a few hours even if my story gets torn to shreds!

2. A big thank you to L.G. Keltner for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award and Tell Me About Yourself Award. Consider this Saturday Six post as getting to know me!

3. I finished my revisions for Fearless. Funny how I missed some of those spelling errors, and I really need to pay attention to my use of the passive voice while writing fight scenes. Onward to proofreading and formatting!

4. Still no air-conditioning. Blah.

5. My son held up a clear plastic lid in front of his face the other day. He said, "Look, Mommy! An invisible box!"

6. I'm finally catching up on True Blood. It's funny how ten years ago, my TV schedule would have included a few hours of shows for most nights a week. Now, for the summer, I have nothing I watch except True Blood. It feels weird, but I have better things to do with my free time these days like write!

Have a great weekend!

Friday Five for June 15th

1. I had a dream the other night that I had a beard. Not a long one, but short and neatly trimmed. It was a brighter red than my hair. Everyone really loved the beard. I was also very feminine in the dream. I was model thin and wearing a red sundress. That bit takes away from the beard being the masculine part of myself interpretation, unless the masculine side of me is more feminine than I usually am. And that wouldn't be a stretch!

2. I have my writer's group meeting tomorrow. I always get nervous about it even though I've been with them for nearly a year now. They've taught me so much about critiquing. So I can suffer with being anxious because I'm better in the end for being a part of this group.

3. My sci-fi flash piece, "Red" was accepted by Pill Hill Press yesterday evening. It will be in their collection entitled DAILY FLASH 2013: 365 DAYS OF FLASH FICTION. Hmm, my dream about a red beard and a red sundress. Coincidence?

4. I haven't written anything new this week other than blog posts. Not through lack of inspiration, but lack of time. Perhaps I should cut back to only three a week (and any special news ones!) until I have more time when the school year starts.

5. Father's Day is this Sunday. I had my son make my husband a card, but my husband hasn't made up his mind what he wants to do yet. Are you doing anything special on Sunday?

Dark and cloudy Monday

It's dark and cloudy outside. A perfect day for writing. Now if only my son decides that a dark and cloudy day is good for a long nap.

S.C.I.F.I. (my writer's group) met on Saturday afternoon. Only three of us attended and we critiqued each other's stories. I learn so much about critiquing from them. I submitted a short noir piece for them to read. I had edited it to the best of my abilities. I couldn't think of anything that needed to be changed. Yet, wow. The things I didn't even think about. The main one being the physical choreography of the climax. Physically, it doesn't work. In my head, I had imagined one thing. On paper, it's impossible. It needs to be rewritten. Otherwise, they really liked the story.

I like to listen to them critique other stories too. I realized that I'm willing to suspend my belief of certain technical aspects for the sake of the overall story. Seeing the overall story has always been my strength in critiquing, but these folks are about details. I need to learn to critique as well on the micro level as I do on the macro one. There will be readers out there like me who will focus on the overall story, but there are readers who love the little details. They will be turned off if something isn't right. I know you can't please everyone, but I'm eager learn how to improve the quality of my writing to please some of the nitpickers.

I saw the new Harry Potter film on Friday night. Oh yeah. It's an awesome ending to the series. And no, sorry, I didn't cry.

Asking advice on critiquing something good

I finished Smokin' Seventeen last night and I finally got my copy of A Dance With Dragons by George R.R. Martin. Oh, I've been waiting years for this. In terms of fantasy, grit, world building, characterization, and breaking all the rules, Martin is my idol.

I have to set the book aside for the moment and focus on critiquing a few short stories for my writer's group. We're meeting this Saturday. Sometimes it's hard to critique stories. I'll find a few technical errors, but the story is sound. I offer my compliments. Then that's it. I feel like I'm not doing my job as a critique partner. Yet I don't know what else to say! Any advice?

I got one of my short zombie stories short listed yesterday. It's a medieval zombie story from a zombie's point of view. It would be cool to get published.

My first writer's group experience

Well, I guess I can't say it's my first time. I did meet with writers doing NaNoWriMo for a few years every November. Yet most of them weren't serious writers and, as the month progressed, it turned more into a knitting circle. I don't knit.

I have a bunch of writer friends online and two great critique partners, but it's not the same as meeting face-to-face. I've been to conventions and attended workshops. Yet a regular writer's group is invaluable if you can find a good one.

Only three other people showed up to the meeting. Summers are slow. I was greeted warmly. They are super nice people. That helped put me more at ease. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. We critiqued two other short stories before we got to mine. These folks are experienced at story critiques. Wow. My critiquing skills pale in comparison. There's a lot I can learn from them in that aspect. Being able to critique someone else's story well helps you to better do so to your own.

They didn't hold back. They gave me the truth about my story. I wanted an honest and unbiased opinion, and I got it. If I were the same person I was ten years ago, I wouldn't have been able to take the criticism. It could have been seen as brutal. As I've gotten older, my skin has thickened. I hope I took the criticisms with grace. I listened to everything they had to say and asked for advice. My story will be much improved because of this.

Here are the basics:
- I was trying to be more show than tell in the story and it made the story fall flat. (I was experimenting with this story because I've been accused of too much telling in the past.) I have to do a little telling: get into my protagonist's head so her motivations are clearer, add in some background, and display more emotions to make her more likable.
- The change in the protagonist needs to be bigger at the end or else it doesn't seem like she's changed at all. She has to earn her happy ending.
- The blocking wasn't clear in the climatic scene.
- A few parts are overwritten and a few others are cliche.