Hoo, boy. Went to Pittsburgh to visit family and celebrate a graduation, which was all wonderful, but I have nothing new to share with the writing group this evening. My output has been low, but I'm a nervous traveler and I'm hoping that now that I'm back and there's nothing on the horizon, I can dig in a little more.
Last week's session was rough in a good way. I had an introduction all planned for the book, and it ended up being longer than any of the individual essays....which I already knew was not great, but the consensus was that it indeed was Not Great. Part of my problem is that I am so delighted to have written something that it becomes sort of precious to me, something that is definitely getting in my way in the actual book contents. Having people provide criticism and question everything is part of the point of joining the group, and it makes for a better product, if only because you're forced to defend your decisions -- or admit that you didn't really thing things through.
So it's never fun when people have critical things to say, but we are all here to make the work better. Honestly, once I've licked my wounds, finding that spot where I can accept that what I wrote isn't it and answer the concerns in a way that feels right to me is also a delight. Anyway, the upshot is that I am starting to see a way to put this together that isn't chronological, but is linear in a different kind of way. Intrigued? Me too! Haven't quite figured it all out, but I know what I'll try for. (And I still like the intro I wrote as a piece of writing and parts of it will probably find their way in.)
PS: Shoutout to my new subscribers, also known as "family members!" Thanks, sweeties.