The critique group to which I belong has been a big help to my writing, and probably to that of the other members. Every two weeks we get together at a local coffeehouse for a couple of hours, wrangling words and improving plots. Although we are self-contained, we operate within the Atlanta Writers Club (AWC).
The club sponsored its bi-annual writers conference at the beginning of May; I've written about my humbling experience attending. It seems the conference raised the consciousness of many members; my group received requests to join from five people. I'd like to feel pride in our reputation to solicit that kind of attention, but in all honesty, it's just the part of town where we meet and that we write fiction.
At our meeting three nights ago we discussed the sample manuscripts we had received. Of course some were better than others, but I am pleased that the AWC membership is pretty good at writing. There was an interesting post-appocalyptic sample, but none of us has experience with that genre and we wouldn't be much use to that writer. One made use of "purple prose," which has nothing to do with erotica or porn; it's the extreme use of adjectives and metaphors. Nothing wrong with that, but none of us use that style or like it, which means that author would be a bad fit with us.
We were unanimous on two manuscripts. So I, as de facto secretary, wrote those people to invite them to our next meeting. And I sent regrets to the others, urging them to contact the AWC person who oversees the critique groups.
The next day -- THE NEXT DAY -- candidate 1 wrote to say she would be in Alaska on the day of our next meeting, can we hold off until July? Yes. And candidate 2 wrote to say "Thursday? I thought you met on Tuesdays. I can't do Thursdays" (too bad because we really liked that person's sample).
So I guess it's just the four of us for now.
The club sponsored its bi-annual writers conference at the beginning of May; I've written about my humbling experience attending. It seems the conference raised the consciousness of many members; my group received requests to join from five people. I'd like to feel pride in our reputation to solicit that kind of attention, but in all honesty, it's just the part of town where we meet and that we write fiction.
At our meeting three nights ago we discussed the sample manuscripts we had received. Of course some were better than others, but I am pleased that the AWC membership is pretty good at writing. There was an interesting post-appocalyptic sample, but none of us has experience with that genre and we wouldn't be much use to that writer. One made use of "purple prose," which has nothing to do with erotica or porn; it's the extreme use of adjectives and metaphors. Nothing wrong with that, but none of us use that style or like it, which means that author would be a bad fit with us.
We were unanimous on two manuscripts. So I, as de facto secretary, wrote those people to invite them to our next meeting. And I sent regrets to the others, urging them to contact the AWC person who oversees the critique groups.
The next day -- THE NEXT DAY -- candidate 1 wrote to say she would be in Alaska on the day of our next meeting, can we hold off until July? Yes. And candidate 2 wrote to say "Thursday? I thought you met on Tuesdays. I can't do Thursdays" (too bad because we really liked that person's sample).
So I guess it's just the four of us for now.