Name: Tess
Home: St. Louis
Critique Group
This week, my short story critique group met for the first time. The St. Louis Writer's Guild has just made a big push to assign people to groups for 10-week cycles. I haven't been in a critique group since grad school, and I'm looking forward to (and a little bit dreading dreading) direct, face-to-face feedback about my work.
We met at a Welsh Pub at the Central West End--I felt cooler simply by walking in the door, and happy to have escaped the suburbs for a little while. Folk music played, and people leaned over tables, absorbed in animated discussions. When the host asked if I was with the writers group and motioned me to the private room upstairs, I felt elite. The place reminded me of the pubs in England. They even had hard cider on tap.
Even though it was only the introductory meeting, we took the whole three hours. We discussed procedures, and then everyone read from a literary influence. (I read a snippet of Joyce Carol Oates' Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is My Heart.) I was thrilled to discuss literature with a group of other writers and feel that part of myself wake back up a little.
Driving there, I had listened to the Beatles:
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.
It seemed an appropriate soundtrack. Yes, writing is a solitary profession--but I will be happy to have some support.
We met at a Welsh Pub at the Central West End--I felt cooler simply by walking in the door, and happy to have escaped the suburbs for a little while. Folk music played, and people leaned over tables, absorbed in animated discussions. When the host asked if I was with the writers group and motioned me to the private room upstairs, I felt elite. The place reminded me of the pubs in England. They even had hard cider on tap.
Even though it was only the introductory meeting, we took the whole three hours. We discussed procedures, and then everyone read from a literary influence. (I read a snippet of Joyce Carol Oates' Because It Is Bitter and Because It Is My Heart.) I was thrilled to discuss literature with a group of other writers and feel that part of myself wake back up a little.
Driving there, I had listened to the Beatles:
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.
It seemed an appropriate soundtrack. Yes, writing is a solitary profession--but I will be happy to have some support.
posted by Tess | 6:56 AM
3 Comments:
I'm loving all the Beatles references lately!
How often will your group meet? Are you going to meet at that neat little pub every time?
We're meeting every other Monday for the next 10 weeks, and yes we get to meet at the pub every time. If you ever come to St. Louis, I'll buy you a drink there. :)
LOL!! Sounds like a deal!
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