Word nuances, developing a discriminating ear, choosing a better word over a good one, these are some of the discussion points of each critique. Yesterday, we pondered the word “penetrate”. “Not exactly what I meant,” Helen said. “Hmm. How about ‘permeate’?” Peg asked. Exactly!
As Jane once said, sometimes we critiquers are like doctors. We incise here, throw out one thing, put in another, and make it all better. Helen’s inspirational stories do that–make things better. They never fail to encourage me and shed light on spiritual understanding.
Peg had branched out a bit in her reading and shared some of her findings. We missed Jane and Nancy and hope they can be back with us at our next meeting.
The Cozy Critters gave me some much-needed and valuable help on Moonlight Can Be Murder. You know the question on wills that I mentioned yesterday? Helen and Peg had practical suggestions that got me over that rough spot. They told me how they would have reacted at the reading of the first will, so I changed Nettie’s actions a bit to include their pointers. They made sense to me and I hope will make sense to my readers too.
Fiction writing is a wonderful pursuit. And, I chose the word “pursuit” on purpose. I hunt for the right word, chase down that elusive plot twist and search for just the right way to begin and end each scene. Writing is time-consuming, frustrating, enlightening, and fulfilling–all at the same time! It’s what I love doing. Even though I ask my readers to suspend disbelief and go with me on some pretty wild rambles, I still want to have my facts straight. I’ve learned some interesting things through reading fiction. The world of make-believe is based on the real world. That’s where I start–a premise–then, I ask “what if” and go from there!
Writers, at least this writer, is influenced by the weather. It’s more than achy bones when a front moves in. Weather is the setting that helps me stay in a certain frame of mind. For example, I’ve always enjoyed a good, crashing thunderstorm but I do not like and have a healthy respect for those tornadoes that thunderstorms often spawn–at least, in this part of the world. The weather forecasters are saying this afternoon and tonight we may be in for our first really loud storm and, guess what, a possibility of a twister. Well, I just hope that part of the forecast is wrong!
“May joy and peace surround you, Contentment latch your door, And happiness be with you now And bless you evermore. –an Old Irish Blessing
Nice review of our meeting.
Thanks, Helen!