Nothing like a good critique session

Late this morning, I met my author friend Nora Le Duc at Panera to critique our works in progress. She just returned from Florida, the lucky dog. I mean that in the nicest way. Mostly.

Anyway, we chatted about her trip. She had a marvelous time! Chatted about politic stuff. Ick! Ate some good, warm soup on a miserably chilly day.

Then we got down to writing. It is amazing how someone else can pick up on nuances in a story that you the writer cannot catch. Afterwards, I came back home, put in the edits, and then was able to tweak a few spots Nora suggested which gave me almost another 1000 words. Yes! I have achieved the 30000 mark in my story.

Plus, thanks to Nora's and my Dad's effort, I concluded that they were both slacking on the job. As I read back through the story, I realized that we all forgot a piece of the story that happened a little earlier but then fell off the face of the earth.

The heroine had picked up an envelope, stuffed it in her pants and gee it never appeared again. And that was after she had been shot and taken a shower. HA! That letter must be pretty nasty by now. :-)

Long story short, well, not that short. Critiquing and editing right afterwards is a great way to motivate the writing.