Write One Thing 2

I did well the other night after writing my post. I started a new story, I do no know the direction it is going, but I believe it to be a type of ghost story (which I don't think I have every really done before). It always feels good and exciting for me to start something new. I have to admit that is is falling out of my pattern though - I have a tendency to start write a chapter of one of my novels and then fall into writing a short. I don't know if that is good or not, but it is my pattern.

I have been thinking of putting some of my shorts together in a collection. They all have a type of theme that they go with, but I am not sure it is a theme that others would be interested in - I know story-wise, the stories and the idea are good. We will have to see.

I am setting a goal for this month to write a page a day towards one of the novels. My writing group is great at encouraging me to read - I feel very supported in this group. I know many read in order of what they are writing. I am not sure I will be doing that. Sometimes I wonder if it is the actual story that is being critiqued or the writing - I know that we have to address both in a writer's group because if the story doesn't grab the reader they can help me with the direction and the interest. Now I can't say that has honestly ever been a critique I have received (the dreaded 'I just didn't care, aaarrrrggghhhh!!! that would be horrible). But I have hard some that this was my thought.

Sometimes I have read part of one of my short stories - I sometimes feel bad because I can only read half of it (we are only supposed to read about 5 double-spaced pages each critique) and because there were too many holes or it fixed what I was looking for, I don't necessarily go back and read the rest of the story. Only a couple of times have I heard disappointment in not hearing more. I have one story I wrote several years ago that I really see eventually being turned into a script - I read a portion of it to my group and even though I think the response would have been differently if they had been privy to the whole story, there was still a lot of attention given to the things that either bothered or did not work for them. I haven't gone back to the story for it's edit since that read, but it has been calling me and I believe that often after a critique like that and time, the story only comes out better once I adjust it.

Yesterday I did not meet my goal (as I just made it up today, lol). I did however, edit one of my stories to read last night (although I didn't end up reading yesterday). I felt good about the changes. Even the fact that I pretty much cut off the end of the story - we will have to see how it actually works into the novel this way. It's supposed to be the prologue, but it might be a little too long. Speaking of too long...