Great Critique Group Meeting!

I had a great critique group meeting tonight. Our group is really starting to gel. We're a relatively new group--our five original members met for the first time in May. Two dropped out for a short time, but plan to return next month. And, we just recently added three more members who have insightful comments and observations.

I originally sought out a critique group so that I would force myself to write something each month. I need a deadline. I'm a big procrastinator. So, after being sick for too many weeks, I still had nothing new to take. I refuse to take something old, and I'm definitely not going empty-handed.

I dropped S off at preschool. Baby K fell asleep in the car. I left her there to nap in the safety of the closed garage. I wrote for 1 1/2 hours while she napped. Then pieced together another 45 minutes or so--enough to barely write a rough, rough first draft.

I took the draft tonight and received some excellent feedback. I think sometimes I benefit from this more than taking a piece I feel is polished. I mean...if I already think it's perfect, I'm not so open to revisions...or a complete rewrite.

Now I'm all ready to revise tomorrow. Cross your fingers that the over-caffeinated baby will nap on cue tomorrow! (Did I mention that she guzzled pop during Chicken Little? She LOVES pop. She can't have pop--soda, or cokes, as you call it in other parts of the country--so much that she digs through the trash to find empty cans to suck the droplets out of!)