It is my 55th day in the Armchair Genealogist‘s writing challenge but it is her 25th day and the topic is “Improving Your Story Through Feedback”. Lynn gives some consideration in finding a group to give valuable in improving the quality of our family stories. Here they are:
- Critique groups and writing groups are not necessarily the same thing.
- In-Person or Online Groups. There are pros and cons to both in-person and online groups.
- In-person groups can be more restrictive.
- On-line Groups offer flexibility.
- Open and closed groups.
- Genre-based groups.
- Consider a single critique partner.
- Don’t be discouraged if your first group doesn’t work out.
I’m glad that we have a writing coach to work with on this project. I think her teaching will really help me progress faster and get a better story in the end. Today writing exercise was to take one sentence in which you are “telling” and revise it into a “showing” sentence. Here is my original sentence:
Ray started the 2600 miles journey across the southern United States on Labor Day weekend.
Here is my attempt at showing:
The warm air flowed across the drop of sweat that trickled down the side of his check as Ray crossed into Arizona. At 60 miles per hour the telephone poles clicked by at an amazing speed and flags fluttered on many of the houses that he passed by.
I still feel really clueless even though I’ve learned lots in the last couple of months. So much more to applying these principles but at least I have some awareness of them now. “One day at a time,” I keep telling myself.
telling family tales 