Project: Gearin' Up to Get an Agent

I've recently join a chain of blogs for an event that is geared to help other writers out.

I know, it feels OOC for me, too. Normally, I like to keep to myself (a brief stint at a writer's group notwithstanding). And, it's not that I don't play well with others – far from it, actually – but that I am an editor by trade. It's *my job* to critique others' writing every day ... not to mention the rigors I put myself through when re-reading my latest chapters.

And, while I highly enjoy offering up my services to other authors – helping writers become the best they can be is so rewarding – it's not something I do often for two reasons: 1.) I don't get paid for it and my life is much busier now; and 2.) Well ... as an editor, I don't mince words.

A while ago, I beta-read for a very popular fan fiction site on which I helped would-be authors develop their own voice and point of view ... Of course, this was back before I became an author myself. Being on the receiving end of my own critiques these days, I can't *exactly* say I'm a nice editor. Actually, I'm downright harsh at times. But, I am good. ... At least, that's what I tell myself as I delete 5-page scenes from books I previously cared for with the tenderness of a gardener pruning her prized roses.

Anyway, it's with slightly trepidatious delight that I announce I will be using this blog for a bit to participate in an event with other writers who, like me, want to make themselves better. We really are a community of creative minds who need other creative minds to foster our own success.

Included in the pack? My ex-agent and current friend ... who I've made up with since my last post where I (possibly, unwittingly, underhandedly) wished she'd get squirted in the face with lemon juice. Uh, just kidding, Lora! :) You're a true inspiration and very talented editor, yourself, and I'll always cherish your input!

Check back here for updates, and feel free to also check out the original blog written by Deana Barnhart here.

This is where it all started ...

Looking back on this time in my life, I have a feeling I will always say, 'This is where is all started...'

Let's catch you all up, shall I?

A few weeks ago, I walked into Barnes and Noble to get a computer programming book for my husband. I had a few minutes, so I browsed the shelves, wishing I would see my name mixed in among the multitude of authors. Then a flyer caught my eye: 'Deep Thoughts Writers Group -- first meeting this Wednesday night."

Well, I thought, here is my chance. As long as the people are nice and not judgemental, this might be an interesting thing to try.

Looking back, I should bite my metaphoric tongue -- it turns out, these people are incredible, and not just because they are good writers. But more on that later.

So, after changing around my child shift a little, I showed up in the cafe a few minutes early -- completely skeptical but willing to be open-minded.

I won't go into the minutiae of the meeting, but Greg and Brian were so sweet and genuine that I immediately accepted their invitation to join the full version of the same writers group in Milford (apparently, the BnN one was a satellite group). Plus, that same night, I overcame a small 2-week stint of writers' block by forging ahead in Chapter 12.

So, this past Friday, I packed up the shiny new laptop with its screen-saver bubbles and headed to the strip-mall bookstore in Milford.

And, there I met my friends.

I don't mean that in the sense I have no friends -- I mean it in the sense that writers need to be with other writers, and that there was an immediate kinship among the others at the meeting. Even in the world of editors, there is nothing quite like sitting down with real, talented (and real talented) fiction writers and discussing pop culture, debating the merits of one popular author over another, nit-picking sci-fi movies with fevered enthusiasm and sharing blueberry pie.

I mean, really ... how envious are you of this? I am green, and I was there!

Needless to say, this was intensely satisfying, not to mention that the writing that came out of it. The idea that you can relax your mind in a state of creative bliss while in the company of others on the same wavelength is incredible, let alone becoming the living embodiment of it. I *highly* recommend this ... but I can't guarantee your local writers group will be quite as awesome as mine. I'm really just that lucky.

On the actual writing front, there is not much to report. As I mentioned, I had a two-week block in my writing due mostly to the fact that no one was reading my chapters behind me. I love you all, but when there is no one to make happy with my writing but me, there really isn't an impetus to make the story go farther than my own head. I mean, I know how it ends and the twists and turns, but if no one else cares ...

But, thanks to Deep Thought (the group) and to a new resolve by my husband to read paper chapters (bound at work) in bed at night, I can feel the fire again under my bum.

And these will help keep me moving forward. Because, in every great career, there is a single point where everything has to start, where the ball towards fame starts rolling. And, for me, I think it's finally got a little push.