To Detail or Not To Detail

January 26, 2009

Had a quiet week-end with no meetings. I spent Saturday working with my on-line writing groups playing catch-up. I reworked an old story to meet the prompt of one group and using the new prompt actually made the story better. Then, I combined the prompts from two others and wrote a new story about an abused wife who has had enough and puts a permanent stop to it. The feedback has been interesting. The story focuses on what she does. Only hints of the why are given - black eyes, cheating, on-going treatment and an abusive father. One of the groups liked it very much and felt it hit the mark without getting caught up in maudlin details. The other group felt it was almost an outline. They didn't feel her pain or understand what got her to that point. I just love it when my stories can be read so many different ways.

Last Thursday night was our monthly Hastings meeting. Good crowd showed up. The readings were good, as always, and the conversation very stimulating. Got lots of good reviews of 'The Shack'. I must start reading it so I can discuss it with Liz when I see her in the next few weeks.

Friday I met with Dave for our crits. He's giving me good feedback on 'The Woman Between'. I try to give him good feedback on his poetry, but I have two problems. One, his work is so good that it's hard to find fault and second, I don't know poetry rules, so I can only tell him how it makes me feel. I suppose that's helpful, but he really needs to work with another poet.

Speaking of my 'The Woman Between', the brothers rumble worked out well. The stronger brother actually ended up with a broken nose. Now I'm heading into the end of the story and it is sad for one brother and a new start for the other brother. I just hope it's working. Dave tells me he is liking the wild brother better, which is probably a good thing.

Half the time when brothers wrestle, it's just an excuse to hug each other." James Patterson

slan agat (goodbye)