I'm A Believer

Well, who would think that whining and complaining about something would get you nowhere?

Not me, anymore.

And who thought writer's groups were useless?

Not me, anymore.

After blogging (and whining) about my barely-there writers group, and coming to the conclusion that pretty much it isn't for me, some friends came to my rescue, dusted me off, and in a flurry of emails the likes of which my inbox hasn't seen in a good long time, we formed our own group.

In a whirlwind of a few days I went from nothing to the dream team.... what my husband dubs "THE FAB 4" and which we modestly call, Four Corners.

(As an aside, 4 must be the perfect number for a group like this, because when you accidentally hit the shift button the 4 becomes $. Fitting, I think! :) )

We are a group of writers who all have one book under our belts, the query process partly figured out and entered, and the commitment to keep writing, and keep querying, and keep getting better. We live in three different countries on two different continents. We met on the internet, spent time getting to know each other a bit, and then jumped into the shark pond together.

And now, I am a believer that good writer groups actually can work. I doubted it. I'd never actually experienced writers critiquing each other to work. But it does. Over the weekend I submitted, they critiqued, tall building were leaped, impossible passages were hammered out. And now I have a first chapter that is so much stronger than it could ever have been on its own.

I'm over the moon excited.