GroupThink

After I completed my 2008 NaNoWriMo novel, I joined up with several other locals and we have become a writer's group that meets at least once a month if not more often. These folks are great at critiquing work in general and have helped me enormously, especially with Teller, the first story that will launch here on June 3rd.

It's important to get things like feedback from those you trust, and this group is definitely becoming one I can trust. At our last meeting log lines and query letters were brought up, as was Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules for writing. If you're part of a group, though, you have to be willing to put yourself and your ego second to the good of the group.

For my part, as much as I'd like to think I am, I'm not especially good with people. I wish I was, I try to be, but sometimes I think I'm being funny and it comes across not being funny at all. I've offended several people over the course of my life (okay, dozens, hundreds lots) without meaning to. It's never on purpose and I'm always horrified after I've done it, but can often see what I've done wrong without meaning to. In this group I'm doing my best to be as removed as possible and not be too overly-friendly because it's important to me that I not alienate anyone here. I need this group to help me get better.

How this affects you readers out there (and there are a few of you) is that it makes the writing better. I will ask you, once the stories are posted, for feedback and I want you to be honest, to not hold back and still be constructive. While we may not be strictly interactive on the creation and editing of the stories here, your opinions and thoughts will certainly inform me better going forward.

I'll be taking a short vacation the week before launch, so I should be good and rested and less nervous about the work. Come back next week and I'll have some more details about exactly what you're going to find here once we start 'dialing in a Universe of modern pulp short stories'.