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This past week have been busy for me as a writer. I attended three different writer's meetings, was active in reading critiques of my short story on the Internet, have rewritten it, and have written a scene that takes place close to the end of my novel. Then I finally heard from the guy who was critiquing my novel by himself and he said he definitely would not read or comment on any more of it because "we're not on the same wavelegnth." I thought what he said in the crits he did was helpful, even though I may not agree with all of it.
As for the groups: The online group is The Prose Nest, part of Authors by Design.com. Its helpful little group includes some successfully published authors. I am honored to be accepted as a part.
The first in-person group I attended this week was a lecture with Willamette Writers about booksellers and reviewers. The reviewer and bookstore publicist emphasized the importance of authors doing all they can to market their own books once they are published.
The second group was my second visit to a monthly critique group. For those kinds of groups, it is large, so they only read the first page of my short story. They wanted to see more description, among other things. I rewrote the story and posted the new version in The Prose Nest.
I made my first visit to a twice-a-month writer's group that had all four of us writing from prompts and also sharing a little of our work if we wanted. I got to have my entire short story read and critiqued, but nobody had much to say because they were unfamiliar with the genre. They are open to my sharing poetry in the future. I will try that; maybe it will be more successful. I will think of one or two to share for each meeting. I actually haven't written any poems in a long time, but I have a whole notebook full written over the years and have been publishing some of them in "Sweet Comfort," the newsletter I edit.
My short story is based on part of my current novel-in-progress, and it's called, "What You Do with Vampires." At least, that's its original title. The monthly group, one with a church called Imago Dei, suggested it have a subtler title. Someone from the Prose Nest has suggested, "Never Beyond Hope." We shall see.