| I've always wanted to be a writer. Always, for as | | | | the critique it helped me to realize that the novel |
| long as I can remember. Back in grade school I | | | | wasn't where it should be yet. |
| wrote skits for my friends to act out. | | | | You'd think that would be a negative experience |
| Then for a while I stopped writing. I majored in | | | | but it wasn't. It wasn't fun, but still after it was |
| English in college and took a few writing courses, | | | | over, I felt some encouragement. I had new |
| but then went into law instead. After two years | | | | direction, an idea of what I needed to do to make |
| of law classes I realized I was missing the writing. | | | | the work better, and the group was very |
| I decided to rekindle that passion. I signed up for | | | | encouraging. Next I wrote a short story and the |
| some creative writing classes. That was step one. | | | | group really liked it. In a short span of time, my |
| But the other thing I did was actually even more | | | | work had gotten much better thanks to the |
| important to my development as a writer Ð | | | | advice and feedback of the other members. |
| I joined an online writing workshop. | | | | I'm still a member of this group two years later. |
| The group met twice a month in real life too, at a | | | | Actually, I like it so well, I've joined two more |
| local restaurant. We would upload pieces online, so | | | | groups besides. It's very fun to share interests |
| that we could read each others' work, and then | | | | with other people! |
| when we met at the restaurant we'd discuss and | | | | My writing has gotten a lot better. And, as though |
| critique. | | | | that isn't benefit enough, I have developed a social |
| I started to write a novel during this period. Boy it | | | | network of new friends who share my passion |
| was scary, but I decided to share it with the | | | | for writing. Couldn't ask for more! |
| group so I could get some feedback. While I got | | | | |