A couple of months ago, as I continued my search for a writing critique group in the Madison area, I stumbled upon Madison Writers’ Studio. I hemmed and hawed for awhile, trying to decide whether or not to pull the plug, apply, and make the investment.
Instead, I joined a virtual (and free!) writing group right after the first of the year, and thought that might fit the bill for what I needed. I re-established my goal of finishing my novel by my birthday in July, and was excited to get to work, but a month or so later I have found that the online setting is just not providing the support that I need right now. It’s very encouraging and I’ve met a great group of ladies, but it’s not enough of a push for what I need to accomplish.
So a week ago Saturday, after talking it over with Scott, I decided to apply to the Madison Writers’ Studio. After waiting two tense days, obsessively checking my email to see if I got in or not (I had to submit a writing sample, and oh that was a nerve-wracking decision), I finally got a reply around noon last Monday, letting me know that I was in. I was ecstatic and joyful and then oh-so-terrified: I had to have 25 pages of my manuscript ready to be turned in for critique by March 2nd. At the time, that was only a week away.
So I panicked.
Then I planned (Type A over here, so of course).
And then I got to work.
I sat down and wrote more this last week than I have in the past two months combined, and it’s better quality work – more deliberate. I think this was the pressure I needed to really buckle down and give undivided attention to this project, rather than letting it continually hang out on the sidelines for when I had time, or worse: when I felt like working on it.
I turned in my 25 pages last night, and I am more nervous now than I think I have ever been. This includes the day I got married, the day I started college, and every single one of the last four job interviews I’ve been on. Not only will the other group participants be critiquing me, they will be critiquing my baby – my little novel that’s been floating around in my head for a couple of years, not yet ready to see the light of day. That is still not ready to see the light of day.
But I’m hoping with their help it will be ready someday.
I’m looking forward to receiving some writing instruction for the first time since my sole creative writing class in high school (over a decade ago – eek). While I have a degree in literature and history, writing about what other people have already written is not the same as crafting fiction from thin air. And I’ve struggled with pulling all of my thoughts together over this last year, unable to execute a big project like this on my own. So I’m hoping Michelle Wildgen (someone who has gone through this process herself a few times) will be able to walk me through it, or at least get me started.
We meet for the first time next Monday, the 9th – I’m bracing myself for a combination of amazing and terrifying.
The good kind of terrifying, of course.