P. in the Pod

I've been meaning to write about the first meeting of the novel pod I joined as part my membership in the Writers' Alliance of Gainesville. You may remember that I was nervous about that first session, held last Thursday.

I've been laughing ever since.

As our session began, each of the four members nervously fingered the marked-up copies of the other writers' chapters, wondering, I assume, as I was, how forthright to be about perceived weaknesses in the writing of these writers we didn't really know. The critique began a little tentatively, each of us tempering his/her remarks with qualifiers. "This is just my opinion, but..." or "Now you might have a reason for wanting this in there, but...."

During discussion of one writer's work, I ventured that the chapter got off to a slow start with what I felt was too much back story and too little sizzle. I was pleased to note that the other two critics were nodding their heads as I said it. Great! I must be making astute comments, I thought.

It was not until we got around to discussing my chapter that I realized why their nods had been so enthusiastic. Guess who else's work had the same starting gate flaw? They let me know - ever so politely - that I, too, had unloaded a ton of back story before I hooked the reader's attention!

They were right, of course. How had I missed that? I swear, I read my chapter critically - many times - before printing it out! Well, I have some re-writing to do on chapter one, and I need to take off my Pulitzer-colored glasses before I hammer out the next draft of chapter two.

But that's okay. That's why I joined the pod. See you Thursday, gang.