Friends in High Places

Well, perhaps that's not the right title, but it's what came to mind.  I had dinner with a couple of women last night that all have the same birth month as me.  October.  It's a great month to have a birthday in - I know I'm prejudice that way, but I happen to love October.  Anyway - one of the women is a young mother who is trying to write and get back to writing in a consistent way.  She hasn't written for 10 years, and feels like she's way behind in the curve.

She remembered talking to me and how I'm a writer and thought I might be interested to know she had just joined a writers group and thought I might like to join with her.  I thanked her for thinking about me, but told her I'd been a member of a critique group for several years, and yes, it's a wonderful thing.  Isn't it funny how I wrote about critique groups last week?  I think it's interesting how these things seem to come circling around.

I also think it's admirable that she's realized she needs outside input to get her writing going.  That is pretty smart, something it took several years for me to pick up on.  So, I think she's way ahead of the curve, and her writing can only improve with effort.  She said that her first meeting made her feel very behind, as everyone else's writing was wonderful and her's was awful.  I doubt there was that big of a difference, but I also remember how one of the newer members of my group went home and bawled because she'd had such a hard time listening to our suggestions.

Having someone critique your baby is hard.  Not only is it a part of you out for the world to see, but you want so desperately for someone to like it, to validate that you're a writer.  When they say sure, but you need to fix this and that, it's like saying "yeah, we can save you but it will cost your leg and part of your arm.  Can you work with that?"

I salute those who have realized that they need help and want advise.  It takes guts to realize you can't do it on your own, no matter how good you.  How many of you have gone out there and found that group after last week??  Roll call!!