The Critique Group

After what felt like years of waiting, my writing critique group finally met for the first time. Between introductions, critiquing, and moving cars out of two-hour parking spots, our meeting lasted for over four hours! There are six of us and we are all working on picture book manuscripts, although some of the writers also write for other age groups. Each of us submitted one manuscript to the group prior to the meeting. So when we arrived, we each received five copies of our own manuscript with comments from every member.

We each had a turn in which someone else read our manuscript out loud. Then each member got a few minutes to elaborate on their commentary of the story. It was so interesting to hear everyone’s reactions and to notice similarities as well as contradictory advice. The difficult part is that you can’t take everyone’s advice. You have to figure out what resonates with you and then go with that. When you look at people’s suggestions, it makes you realize which story elements you’re attached to and which ones you aren’t. I feel like the story I’ve been working on the most is getting better and shorter (which is good) with each revision. I hope I have the clarity to know when it’s at its finest and be able to stop revising there. Or at least stop until an agent or editor requests further revisions…

I started working again on one of the first stories I ever wrote. It’s a non-fiction story and I decided to add a rhyming element to it. So each page will have a rhyming quatrain and then a paragraph in prose. I’ve never tried to write in rhyme before (other than in high school where I was forced to write some really terrible rhyming poetry. I mean, I wasn’t forced to write terrible poetry, I just happened to write terrible poetry). I was surprised by how much fun I had with creating rhymes. It feels to me like solving a puzzle that has more than one solution. I definitely need some more practice if I want to try to sell this story. It’s really difficult to get rhyming books published unless they are high quality.

My birthday was yesterday and it was pretty fun. In addition to completing my Birthday Challenge (read all about it here), I went out to dinner with my boyfriend and my brother. We got some really excellent Peruvian food. I’d never eater Peruvian food before, but I will definitely be going back for more. We had some incredible tuna and halibut ceviche, a potato croquette filled with seafood, a chicken stew with potatoes and rice (potatoes and rice are married in my food fantasy world), and beef with tomatoes and onions. Yum! I also got to have a pre-birthday dinner last weekend with my boyfriend’s mom and I’ll be having some post-birthday feasting this weekend with a few friends. It’s amazing I still have my girlish figure…

My new and improved "I-don't-stick-out-my-tongue-now-I-suck-in-my-lips" climbing face

What I’ve been reading: I’m still reading Call the Midwife. It’s OK, but it’s disappointing compared to the show (I can hardly believe I’m saying that since it’s usually the other way around). I understand that Jennifer Worth wrote the book because there are so few midwives in literature. The documentation of her career is certainly interesting. But I think her goal in writing the book was quite different from the goal of the show. Part of this is that the show does a really good job of bringing the characters to life and expressing the drama of the various situations. Every single episode of the show made me cry. The book does not make me want to cry. I’m only about 2/3 of the way through, so I’m not sure yet if I’d recommend reading it. I got a few free books on my iBooks app. The first book was a mistake. Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard was just awful (although I couldn’t stop reading it). It ended with me shouting aloud, “Are you joking?!?” I will not be reading the other books in this series. One of the other books I got is How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez. It’s pretty good so far and I’m about halfway through it. I have stopped reading Ivanhoe.

@SerenaGingold

Where does the time go? I mean seriously. It was just October and suddenly we’re in the second week of November…

My boyfriend and I dressed up for Halloween as famous artists and went to the Oakland Museum of California for their weekly Friday night shindig. They have half price admission and food trucks that gather outside. It was pretty deserted, probably due to the fact that it had rained for most of the day, but we still had fun.

Vincent and Frida together at last

 I subbed two days in fifth grade classes at different schools. The take-away is that subbing in upper grades in usually pretty easy (kind of like babysitting because the kids are pretty good at independent work) but damn, fifth graders can smell bad!

On the writing front, I went to an SCBWI county meeting and heard three authors speak about their road to getting published. Their stories were interesting and so different from each other. I also had the chance to have a long-distance phone critique with the mom of two of my former students (she’s a children’s writer and an actor, not to mention being the mom of two amazing kids). She gave me some really amazing feedback for the story I’m getting ready for submission. She also told me that she just sold two early readers that she wrote! I’m so excited for her. Since the conversation I’ve been working on revising my story and I think it’s really improved. And next week is the first meeting of the new critique group that I joined. There are six members so far and we’ve exchanged stories for critique via email. It’s so interesting to read other people’s work. I can’t wait to meet the writers in person and see what they think about my story.

Oh, and one last thing. I set up a Twitter account! Now you can follow me wherever I go: @SerenaGingold. So far I have one follower (thanks Bekah! @InkNpaperz). 

What I’ve been reading: I finished The Magician’s Assistant and I was not impressed. The story line just wasn’t for me. I finally started reading Call the Midwife: a Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth. It’s written in what I consider to be an unusual style. It’s hard to tell, but I don’t know that I’d really be enjoying it if I hadn’t already watched the show. I also read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher in one day. It was hard to put down. If you like YA, you should read it. I thought it was terrific. I picked up Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott, but I’m not entirely sure I can deal with reading it. I haven’t gotten far, but it’s incredibly boring and seriously long-winded.