Coffee and Critiques

I met with my critique group last night, even though we’re all a bit sluggish these days. JM submitted the synopsis of the novel we’ve finished critiquing for her, and we all commiserated on how hard it is to write a synopsis—just enough detail, not too much, a hint of your writing style, but don’t go on and on. It’s really hard! JO had us read a short story he wrote for a gay anthology. It was a cool story; he’s a total mythmaker and his tales are mysterious and magical. They were the only two of the four of us who had written enough in the last month to submit. We finished by 8:30, which is unheard of for this group. We are usually hard pressed to get through each other’s stuff before the coffee shop closes at 10:00.

It’s a great group. We’re all pretty thick-skinned, and we good-naturedly laugh at each other and ourselves. The critiques are honest and encouraging—the perfect combination. We meet at Stella’s Coffee House on Pearl Street in Denver. It’s this big, rambling house with several rooms filled with tables and couches and walls full of local art and enormous bookshelves stuffed with books (check out http://denvercoffee.blogspot.com/2005/09/stellas-coffeehaus-old-pearl-street.html.) There are other writers there, student groups, plenty of literary ambiance, so it’s worth the half hour it takes me to drive there each month and find a parking space on a side street.

Anyway, I feel like a loser when I show up empty-handed, so I’d better get writing something. Anything! I have some time because we’re skipping June. No one was in town at the same time! My group is very patient with the fact that they never get to see full works from me. Either I’m finishing too fast to give them all of one project before I move on to the next or I’m only writing a partial unless the book sells (which nothing is doing right now). I jokingly mentioned doing a memoir, but I really am toying with the idea. Not a Columbine expose, but a memoir of teaching, a wakeup call to people that the most committed and passionate teachers are burning out and bailing out and that schools are a screwed up mess because of all the so-called improvements that have been made in the last few years. I’m also playing with the thought of writing a romance novel where the hero and heroine have hot, wild sex in the first chapter, just so that I can sneak it past erotica-fixated editors. From chapter two on, it would be a real story with a plot and character development and everything. I’m nothing if not subversive.

Anybody have a favorite hangout or a helpful group of reality-checkers?

tags: writing