Last night's creative writing class was great! I was a bit anxious about my story being work shopped, but, in the end, everything turned out okay: people liked it! A couple people really liked it! They liked the idea, the descriptions, the little actions I included with the dialogue, the dialogue itself, the characters, and all the little details I included. Yay!

Naturally there were some things about my story people didn't like - this is a work shopping class after all, and if something doesn't work, it's best to find out now and fix it before getting too far into it.

* Many people didn't like my main character's apparently blasé attitude in the coffee shop two weeks after her aunt dies (Now, I didn't think her attitude was blasé, it was her friends who were being lighthearted and goofy, and she was just sitting there trying to keep up, but, whatever! I'll go through it, and maybe add some angst.).

* Some thought the mother was not defined well enough/was not believable . . . Oh, and by the way, I know you will probably not understand any of this, having not read my story, but really, today, these notes are just for me. Sorry.

* They wanted the "secret" to be revealed sooner (Heck, I'd love to reveal the "secret" sooner, but it hasn't been revealed to me, yet!).

* They thought one of the minor characters was very well developed, but the main character and her best friend were not as well developed (Okay, you know, I did that. Really! This minor character is vivacious, gregarious, confident and fun, so she was described that way - from her spiky rock star hair-do to her floral Doc Martin boots - and it took a bit of time. My main character and her friend are fairly conservative, Land's End/J.Crew types, so it didn't take me but a couple lines to describe them. Maybe it was too subtle. Maybe they missed it.).

* While most people thought the dialogue was fun and easy to read, one woman thought it was too immature, and not the way 30-year-olds would talk (obviously that lady has never been to JournalCon!).

* And, finally, they had a problem with a very minor minor character getting a lot of page space, but who really didn't seem important.

They might be right about that last one. I'm not sure what his role is in this whole thing, or if he even has one. He could have one, but it would be so darn obvious I think it would ruin the story. I might just take him out, but I really like the exchange between him and the three women.

Anyway, there were things my classmates wanted more of, things they wanted less of, things that didn't work for some, but worked okay for others, and through it all, our instructor Marc tossed in his two cents, so by the end of the evening I had some fantastic ideas and suggestions, and I might even know where this story is going now! It was awesome!

One of the really great ideas Marc shared with us was the use of story boards in our writing. I hadn't thought about that before, and as he described it, I could see how that would make story writing so much easier! You go scene by scene, putting them up on a bulletin board, so you can see how the story is going, what scenes need to be changed or moved, and what needs to be deleted. It's a very cool idea, and right in the middle of class I figured out how I could do that at home: I'll buy a roll of cork and tack it across the middle of the empty wall in the den - like a stripe! That way I can cut up my scenes and pin them up, stand back and look at them, and see if they're working. Oh! It's gonna be so cool!

So, now it's time for revisions!

Reading: You've Got to Read This ed. by Ron Hansen. This week's stories are "Packed Dirt, Churchgoing, a Dying Cat, a Traded Car" by John Updike, "Labor Day Dinner" by Alice Munro, and "The Flowers" by Alice Walker, plus the two short stories submitted by classmates.

Classic Book: Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

Previously: Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Listening to: KLIFE

Writing: Nothing right now, but as soon as I get through all the comments people made on my story, I'll begin revisions.

Gratitude: Fresh ideas!