Since I've decided to bring my writing out of the closet and get serious at the age of 36 years old, I took a leap and have joined a critique group with people I barely know. Not that I don't want to know them; I just haven't had the chance. Sure, I've written in college and was critiqued by my professors and/or possibly group project members. But, please keep in mind, my degree is in Economics. And, I've written for my high school yearbook, neighborhood newsletters, training manuals, and other business communications. Still, this is on a whole other level.
Last night I went to my first EVER critique group meeting. I think it takes "big ones" to be in the company of such talented writers. So, for that, I'm patting myself on my back... Did you hear my shoulder cracking? It's humbling and makes me want to run for cover. The rules of our game was to have positive feedback. It probably wasn't one of the tougher groups as these writers, especially, were gracious and merciful. Yet, it still was a nerve wracking experience, at least for me.
For this session, we were given a sentence in advance that needed to be used as our first sentence. However, from there, the stories varied widely. I was in awe with the creativity and all of the different treatments with the same first sentence. As for me, well, I didn't finish my short story due to some trips my mind was taking me on this past week. Yet, I did bring my 514 typed written piece, handed it out, and read it out loud. It was a rewarding experience; first, to walk over another hurdle and add to my psychological armory, and second, I received very valuable feedback. I'm sure it was heavily laced with mercy, but one really good comment that I received from two members was about a paragraph that had a POV switch.
Although it was scary, I'm going to continue and learn all that I can from my fellow writers. They have so much to offer.
And, if you have a passion or a dream--be it writing or anything else--go out and, to borrow from Nike tm, just do it!
