Day 15: ATTEND AN ORGANIZED WRITERS’ GROUP
A million years ago I wrote a children’s book. After a year of rejection letters from publishers, I gave up, partly out of frustration, partly because we were moving to Japan, a location not very conducive to meeting up with other writers.
I have decided it’s time to revisit and revise the book. And if I hold any hope for publication, I need to fraternize with other writers. So tonight I will attend Writers’ Block, a writers’ group that meets once a month at Barnes and Noble. Now I just need to dust off that manuscript and build up the courage to share it with others.
The writers’ group was great! I was slightly disappointed that only 4 people attended the meeting (including myself and my friend who met me there), but I learned some helpful tips. I overcame my fear of public speaking and read my manuscript aloud, something I’ve never done in front of anyone besides my husband and children. The other writers’ constructive criticism helped to offer new ideas and confirm the revisions I had already decided to incorporate. And of course I loved sitting around talking about writing for 2 hours! Writers are strangely fascinating people.
I’m looking forward to next month’s group and hopefully meeting more writers. In the meantime, I need to work on those revisions!
Good luck…let us know how it goes!