Something Like Life

I went to the Writer’s Crit group meeting last night.

We sat at a little round table in a coffee shop in town and ate cookies, talked and laughed about things that came over the radio, and wrote together. I was dreading the idea of joining a crit group because I was afraid of putting my work out to people who could look me in the eye and criticize my work, but I discovered that the experience was truly fantastic.

I found it really nice to be able to talk about writing (among other things) with 3-dimensional people for a change (instead of searching the internet high and low for fellow writers). Personally, I was surprised that there was even a writer’s group in my area at all. I suppose I had resigned myself to having to discuss writing on the internet, but now that I found this crit group I’m pleased as a peach.

There were five of us there. There two other guys and two girls and me. The one woman (a little older) was a hoot. I found myself laughing at the crazy stuff she said and she was just real fun to talk to. I also discovered that she actually lives about one block up the street from me (lol). Considering I had to drive a half an hour to the next town over to go to this thing, I thought that was pretty funny. I also discovered that the group itself was formed because they had all met on NaNoWriMo (the official one) about 2 years ago. I thought that was pretty interesting because I have just come off my own personal challenge and it’s kind of what drove me to look for Writer’s Crit groups.

The other funny thing I discovered is that I had a lot in common with these people. I had similar interests and tastes as they did. That’s funny because my interests really haven’t been the same as most people in my area. Most people in my area can’t get past talking about hunting and fishing all the time and stuff like that. Now, I love to hunt (read: love being in the woods) and I like to fish (although I haven’t done it for years), and I don’t even mind talking about it once in a while. But all the time? GAH!

But not once did hunting or fishing come up last night. lol It was nice to meet “different” people that come from the same area as me. They all had their own eccentricities (which was cool) and it was refreshing to know that there are other people in the area that not only love to write, but are not bent on talking about the same old shit all the time.

I also discovered that writing in a public place–in front of other writers–wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. We had a “write-in” last night, which was basically getting together and chatting about whatever and writing. I figured I would sit at my computer and look at it blankly, but I actually managed to write a little–which was good for me to take my “private” thing and make it more public and open.

All in all, it was a good experience and I plan on going back. We meet every Thursday night, so it’s a once a week thing–which is good. I loved meeting fellow writers and I have a pretty good feeling about this.