Last Saturday six of us CWOWers (Christian Writers
of the West, local chapter of ACFW) joined together to read aloud five pages of
our current manuscript or WIP. Reading aloud was a suggestion from literary
agent Steve Laube at a mini-conference we all attended in January.
First of all, these ladies are delightful and
diverse, especially diverse in their writing genres. One does YA, one does
mystery and espionage, one does suspense with a bit of horror, the other does
biblical fiction, and one does historical romance. I like to think I do
transformational fiction. Now, if any of the dear six from Saturday are reading
my blog, that is my take on your genre. If I got it wrong, forgive me. With
only five pages to glean from, it’s what I grasped.
My point to this is: What’s the point? If we
aspiring writers go to such meetings or groups, what do we want to accomplish.
If we get defensive or resent someone’s critique of our work (no, that did NOT
happen at this meeting), then what’s the point of our participating in such
groups?
When I had time to assess and analyze all that had
been said, I grabbed my laptop and began to implement some of the ideas and
suggestions I’d received from these ladies at the meeting.
And that, my fellow writers, is the point! Don’t get
defensive! Analyze, research, and ask God to enlighten you as to what will
improve your craft. If improvement comes in the form of criticism or rebuke,
don’t take it personally. Hard to do? Of course. Writing, our WIP – work in
progress -- is our baby, our creation, our heart and passion. Everyone should
love it like we do, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment