Anyone is welcome to join. If you do though, please follow the directions for such. Currently, the group consists of me:
WriterDan

If you want to join the group for this quarter, please re-post the current names list in a reply and add your name to the bottom.

Deadlines for this quarter's crits are as follows:

April 1st: Start writing
May 14th: First drafts out for crits
June 7th: Second drafts out for crits
June 30th: Mail-in final drafts for Q03

When you send out drafts for critique, please do so in a generic format so that everyone will be able to open your file. (eg. rtf, txt. Pdf is okay too, but won't allow for in-text comments.)

Sign up! And let's get busy writing!

Doesn't have to be a new story every quarter. Do I need to make a road trip to Cali and give you a swift kick in the pants?

Just grab one of the not-quite-done ones and stick to it. Even if it takes three quarters to finish the thing. We won't get tired of reading it because we know it's yours. Come on. No giving up, girl. Our attrition rate is already staggering. Don't think we could take this kind of hit.

We need you!
You need us!
Come on, girl
and kick that cuss! (referring to your muse)

Am I getting annoying yet? This is all meant with the best of my intentions, I assure you.

I knew there was some fatal flaw in it and in most of my other writing but I COULD NOT figure what it was out. Then I got this new book -- THE 3RD ACT. It's the first book I have found that really addresses the problems of making endings satisfying. Of course I am having to rip through the whole story to fix the problem but I think (hope) I am finally on the right path.

Of course this is a juvenile and somewhat humorous so I doubt it can do better than at best an HM, but it's practice. CORY is my real hope for getting past HM again. That's what I'm going to work on (again) next.

I got over a "sticky point" in my story just last night. Was nice to finally be past it. Just didn't know how it was going to work out before then. Not much to go yet. Hopefully fewer than 5-6k words. Don't have all that much room left!

Annepin: five WEEKS left. Don't drop it now. Work toward the goal (turning in a story, NOT making a deadline) and keep your eyes on that goal. We're here to help.

BoredCrow(See, I got your name right this time): Glad to have you on board, girl! Deep character penetration. That's what you need. Get into the MC.

All this stuff is so easy to say and I know that it can be orders of magnitude more difficult to implement, but it's worth it. If any of you think that a quick read-through and some brainstorming would help you out, send your story (as-is) my way and I'll see what I can dish out. Not promising anything, but from what I've seen two minds are frequently better than one. Too bad my external brain port stopped working three years ago...

On my front, I got another scene out for my current story. Two more left to write: the climax and the denouement. And only 5500 word-slots left available. This is going to be a close one.

Who's available here to take peek?

Be brutal but be honest.

Bored Crow -- I'm sending you this draft. The ending is still weak. Any suggestions?

Crystal Stevens -- I'll take a look at yours. I have mental space now that mine is going out for critiquing. I must warn you that I'm hard to please. If you can get a compliment out of me, you really earned it.

Phew.

Chance to breathe...

Okay, time to get busy with the next one.

If anyone didn't get an email with my story that is open to critting it, let me know and I'll send a copy your way.

I think my story is done. It's "Pod Soldier" that I didn't have enough time to polish and submit last quarter. Dan and Snapper read it for me then--when it was a lot more confusing. I think it's better now. If anyone else is willing to read it, it's fairly short.

So, let me have 'em. I want to read what you guys have been up to. I'm glad to see this group is still going strong.

Three weeks from today for final Q03 manuscripts to be in the mail!

This is crunch time.

Don't buckle!

She also suggested cutting out the first half. She might be right, but for now I'm going to revise the whole story and then decided whether the first part is really necessary.

Good luck to the rest of you.

This morning I mailed the basement off to WOTF. At last! We're having trouble with the computer I print out on. It on rare occasions edits stuff -- drops out lines of text. My husband sat with me and we compared printouts to catch these errors. Caught a few typos and one (yes, one!) missing line.

Now the problem is to figure out what to work on next. The one about CORY which needs work on the ending a la THE 3RD ACT by Yanno? I meant to send that in last December. Then I realized the end didn't really work. Subtle problems, but story killers all the same.

I figure the regular submission group will open up in the next week or so. I usually try to watch and if no one else does it within the first couple days of the quarter, I do it. Seems I'm always waffling between hoping to finish early and dealing with the reality of rewrites anyhow.

Just wanted to thank everyone that sent me a crit. The responses I got were pivotal in making my entry this quarter into something really good. And I even finished it three-and-a-half hours earlier than I normally do. Ha, ha! Stress-be-gone!

quote:

---

Isn't time for the results to start being posted?
I couldn't find a place even to look for them with google.

---

They always post them here...

http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/

http://wotfblog.galaxypress.com/

My name is there. Saw a bunch of others that I recognize too. Congrats everyone!

Is there anyone else from our group that hasn't heard one way or the other yet? I've had no 'sorry, you didn't win' email, or confirmation of a HM, or anything else.

I was really surprised to score one with the story I sent in. I recognized more hatrackers on this list.