Category Archives: critique group

critique group, Engineering, flood studies

A Calm Place in the Whirlwind

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Life is busy. At my engineering day job, it seems like no task gets closed, yet many more get open. I can’t quite get my current floodplain project to work. The lateral structure I entered, as a way to simulate an overflow pipe, needs to be revised, and I haven’t yet figured out how to revise it to make it correct. Or rather, I believe I know what needs to be done and how to do it, but time to do it hasn’t materialized. I figured it out at the end of the day yesterday, but today so far has been fully consumed in…

…teaching a class at my company, and preparing for it. I haven’t done a class in at least three months, due to busy-ness, and several people have been saying they needed professional development hours. So I decided to teach a class titled “Five Important Construction Items Often Overlooked During Design”. Creating the PowerPoint presentation to go with it took all morning—or all least all of the morning that I didn’t let myself get distracted with a couple of personal things. Even half my lunch hour went to that. I didn’t actually prepare what remarks I was going to say. I just talked an hour from the PowerPoint, using my many years of construction engineering experience. From the comments of attendees, I did pretty good. Add this to my list of classes for listing on a resume or on a website, if I ever get one built.

Back at my desk after teaching, I talked with my wife. It seems I am to go to the next town over after work and purchase a used jungle gym to give to our grandson Ephraim on is third birthday in two weeks. That’s if the one called ahead of her doesn’t take it. We are second in line. Hopefully we’ll get it. Sounds like a good bargain. But, it does take away time I could have used on something else.

My writing efforts right now are fully consumed with the John Wesley small group study. One chapter done, another half done, the outline finished—except today I realized I had left out a major part of his writings, the many hymns he wrote, and the many of his brother’s he published. How can I leave those out? I can’t, so I will have to insert another chapter (I think I’m up to 22 now), figuring out the best place for it to go. The pressure to have the study ready around September 1 is off, as I believe the church is going to do another all-church series. I might not need it finished until December or January. That would be nice. I might be able to work on volume 2 of Documenting America. I’m still inching toward e-self-publishing volume 1, maybe in less than a week. It looks as if I’ll have to do that without any beta reader comments, as no one has gotten back with me. I think I ran four or five of the chapters through my previous writing groups, though they were shorter at the time.

So where, you ask, is this calm place in the midst of life’s whirlwind? It was last night, from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at the Bentonville Public Library, as we held the second meeting of the BNC Writers group. The previous meeting was to organize; last night was for critique. The same four of us met. Four others who want to attend couldn’t because of illness or other unspecified reasons. About the time some would be traveling here the sky opened up with another round of rain, which probably contributed some to keeping people home.

But the four of us who met had a great time. Last meeting I had given them copies of my short story, “Mom’s Letter”, not for critique, but just as a sample of my writing. But they came back with some critique, and I will consider it. It’s already for sale on Kindle, but I can easily make changes and re-upload it if necessary. As group leader, I chose the order of presentation. The three ladies went first. Brenda shared a short story based on a dream she had. Joyce shared the first chapter of a novel she has just begun. Bessie shared a non-fiction story from her years on the mission field in Papua New Guinea. I know that was her first formal writing, and first time sharing writing in a critique group. I think it was also Joyce’s first time. She had been involved in the writing process before, helping writers through critique and editing, but I think she is just beginning her writing efforts.

We had a great time with the critiques. Our procedure is for each person to have copies enough to pass around, then for the author to read their work while the others follow along and make notes. We then discuss the work, making suggestions, asking questions. In the end we give the author the copy we have marked on. The author can respond to comments, sometimes indicating what their intent was, but always accepting critique with graciousness and thick skin.

Alas, we ran out of time, and I wasn’t able to present the Introduction and first chapter of Documenting America. Maybe next time. I did receive the crit on “Mom’s Letter”, so it’s not as if I was left out. We will meet again in two weeks, probably at the church this time, which will allow us a full two hours, not limited to the library’s allowed schedule for conference room use.

I left the group and went home, to evening storms (outside and inside), a checkbook that wouldn’t balance, a pile of mail to go through, and no time to write, very little to read. But that was okay. A momentary respite out of the whirlwind was sufficient for the day.

critique group, Writing

A New Writers Group

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Tonight, when this posts, I will be at the Bentonville Public Library, meeting with three or four fellow writers from my church. When I met with our new pastor ( of four months) in March, I discussed the possibility of forming a writers group/ministry. He liked the idea and told me to run with it. I knew of three others in the church who either wrote or wanted to begin writing in earnest, and two others who seemed interested. We ran a notice in the bulletin for two weeks. That brought one more person to my knowledge who not only writes but has published a couple of books.

Today I posted a notice to one of the church member’s Facebook wall, because I had a difficult time getting hold of her. Another lady in the church saw that and wrote, “What? I want to come!!!” So she will be there tonight. That makes seven people who have expressed specific interest in the group, and three others in the church who either write or want to start writing. Who knew there were that many?

My last writers group, the Bella Vista Writers Guild, faded into non-existence about May of last year. One of the ladies moved to Oklahoma City, leaving not enough attendees to make if viable, or at least no one to take the lead to recruit and build it up. That wasn’t where I wanted to go. I’ve missed the fellowship. I’ve missed the discipline of preparing something to share each week. I’ve missed the critique. I submit some things to an online group for critique, and the critique is good, but there’s no discipline to do so. I sent some items to beta readers, but truthfully more than half never respond, even though they have either requested the material or agreed to read it. So this has been a bleak year as far as writing fellowship is concerned.

I don’t know how our BNC Writing Ministry (or whatever name we decide on) will turn out. Seven plus three writers is more than enough for the critical mass needed to make a viable group. But how many of us are serious at it and putting in enough time to make a group work? Will it be a critique group? A fellowship group? How often will we meet? Will we allow members from outside the church? These are things we will determine tonight and in the coming weeks. I’m excited. I think something will come of this.

Of course, as always happens, the minute I ratchet up my writing activities, during a lull in the whirlwind of life, the whirlwind picks up again. This time, though, instead of complaining and flying off the handle, I’m trying to work my way through it.

critique group, Engineering, flood studies, Health, Writing

A Day Usurped

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Okay, so this morning I had two things on my mind–well, actually three:
1. Get the reanalysis done for my floodplain project so that on Wednesday all that would be left would be to have the CADD tech change the two maps and assemble a submittal to send off.
2. Attend writers critique group at 7 PM.
3. Help my wife decide on when to go to Oklahoma City: today with Sara and Ephraim; tomorrow the day after them; Thursday; or Friday.

Concerning the floodplain analysis, I had good success on Friday, completing 1/3 of it (as to total computer runs), and less success on Monday, due to interruptions, working sub par due to this cold, and to normal Monday inefficiencies. Still, the morning went well, and by a little after noon I had completed much, and could see my way to finishing it today or early tomorrow morning, making deadline.

I had a couple of conversations with Lynda. She felt she should go on Thursday, but we are under a winter storm watch for Thursday: 4-8 inches of snow, possible ice, possible rain. It all depends on the track of the storm. I suggested she go tomorrow. Sara called at 1:45 PM or so, when I was working on my analyses after lunch, and said they were going today and that Mom needed the cell phone (hers has never been replaced; I’m not going to do it) and would I meet them in Decatur, sixteen miles west. I hopped in the truck and met them to transfer the phone, and headed back to the office to check one thing in Centerton (right on the way) useful for my floodplain analyses.

Heading back to the office, about 2:45 PM I witnessed a four car accident right in front of me. I circled around the block and hung around about half an hour until I could give my contact information to one of the emergency workers, and drove the mile to the office. So far no one has called to take my statement. Others probably had a better view and so they may not need my observations.

So, with time lost but with no wife to go home to tonight, I decided I would stay at the office till 6:30 PM, rush to writers guild, getting Sonic on the way. That would almost make up for the Decatur run and the accident time. But no, the VP in charge of Production dropped by, asking me to assist that afternoon and help with an unexpected floodplain issue in Covington Louisiana. So from about 3:45 till 5:45 I huddled with one of the young engineers, then with the said VP of Production, including a conference call to our Dallas office where the project manager who botched–I mean supervised–the original work could hear our findings.

That done, I went back to my computer and saw an e-mail from another engineer, saying he knew I was busy but he had finally made the changes to the wastewater lift station project I checked last week and it had to go out tomorrow and could I look at it by mid-morning. He had the specifications done that I insisted he do before I signed off on it, he said. I told him to get it to my by 6:20 PM and I’d take it home. I also wished, by this time, I had not committed to going to writers guild, cause I sure could use the entire evening at the office.

The lift station documents in hand, and the writing I was to share tonight in the truck, I rushed to writers guild, picking up my discount Sonic burger along the way. And nobody else showed up. I waited half an hour, knowing there would be a message on the answering machine at home, saying it was cancelled because of people not being able to attend.

Had I known writers guild wasn’t going to meet, I would have stayed at the office until my floodplain analyses were done. But at that point, I was about a mile from the house and fourteen from the office. So I came home and entered the Dungeon, deflated from the day’s usurpations, very tired from the emotions, and possibly from the effects of my lingering cold, so I decided to not bother with the two articles I was going to write tonight. This post will have to do. I’ll pack a bag to take in tomorrow and spend the night in town, either at the office or at my mother-in-law’s so I won’t have to fight the snow on Thursday. I’ll stay in town Thursday night as well.

Right now, I feel both sad and mad: sad at the missed opportunities and the tiredness, and mad at the usurpations. My choices are to fight the emotions with food or with writing. About the only writing I could do tonight is to critique a poem over at Absolute Write, but the way I feel I’d probably dash some budding poet’s spirit with an overly-harsh critique, and I don’t want to do that. So the forage in the fridge it is. I seem to remember seeing some vanilla ice cream in it.

ETA: Oh, and when I got to the writers guild meeting that didn’t happen and opened up my Sonic burger with mayo and added ketchup and took a bite, it turned out it had mustard on it instead of mayo. The perfect unauthorized substitution for an usurped day.

critique group

An Evening at the Writers Critique Group

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Last night I attended the writer’s critique group in Bella Vista. This is the group that I attended regularly from 2002 to 2007, quit for a while, then attended the another writer’s group in more-distant Gravette until March of this year. I spent a few months without attending any writer’s group at all, then decided to go back to the old one, and have been a regular since July.

Why did I leave this group in the first place? For one, I was the only person in the group who was trying to be published with a royalty publisher. Everyone else was satisfied with self-publishing. Now there’s nothing wrong with self-publishing if it is done well. But obviously the threshold of excellence for royalty publishing is a whole lot higher than for self-publishing. the self-publishing company makes their money in charging set-up fees, not by selling books, so their writing goals tend not to be as high as mine.

But on-line fellowship is not the same as in-person, and I missed being with writers. So I went back to the old group. It meets only a little more than a mile from my house, so getting there and back is a snap. In fact, last night I fell asleep in my reading chair in the time before I needed to leave. Lynda woke me at one minute till seven and said, “Aren’t you suppose to be at writers group about now?” I quickly went and was there well before they began sharing.

Some good and bad about the group, which goes by the name of Northwest Arkansas Writers Guild:

  • As I said, most in the group are not striving for royalty publishing, so the outlook on writing tends to be different.
  • I’m the only one in the group who is a serious poet. Two women in the guild write some poetry, but I don’t think either studies the art or really works on her craft. One may; I can’t tell for sure yet. I gave up bringing poetry to this group a long time before I left it.
  • The ladies all bring snacks to the meetings. This takes quite a bit of time to distribute around the table, with plates and napkins. We meet at an assisted living center, who provide us the meeting room and coffee. I’d prefer we didn’t have snacks at all. Without the time given to snacks we could each read five pages instead of four.
  • We don’t tend to stick to business. Too much chatting. I don’t mind some of that–that’s what fellowship’s about. But we do too much of it.
  • At times members don’t tend to say focused. I won’t mention names, just in case one of them should wander in here (quite unlikely). But one has a habit of interrupting the reader with comments that have nothing at all with what is being read. This happens almost every week. Finally, one of the ladies called out the offender this week. She did it nicely, perhaps so nicely that the offender didn’t even realize that she was being mildly chastised.
  • I’m the only man in the group. That’s not so bad, except I’m the only non-retired person in the group. One woman works, but she rarely attends and will soon be moving away.
  • In general, everyone is polite; we never talk politics; everyone in the group seems to be a practicing Christian (though that’s not a requirement); and we never have off-color material to read or listen to.

Well, that’s the status of the group. I’ll stick with it. It’s the closest game in town, and fills a need in my life. Hopefully they find value in my contribution.

Bible study, critique group, Danny Tompkins Short Stories, Documenting America, goals, Harmony of the gospels

February Goals

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After my blistering pace last month (just kidding), I’m going to establish fairly moderate goals this month.

1. Blog 10 to 12 times.

2. Monitor the five blogs I’ve been monitoring on a regular basis.

3. Complete as much of the Harmony of the gospels as I can. This will include:
– All NIV footnotes entered
– Formatting for reading completed
– Introduction written and typed
– Passage notes cleaned up and typed for a few key passages
– Appendixes identified, and one written

4. Market “Mom’s Letter” to someone; includes marketing research

5. Attend one critique group session; present a Documenting America column

6. More fully capture, for future development, a couple of Bible study ideas that have recently flittered through my mind and managed to make their way on to a capture list.

7. As time allows, work on my essay on the Resurrection.

Bible study, critique group, goals, Harmony of the gospels, reading

The January Report

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As always, I begin the new month with a report of how I did last month relative to the goals I set. Here ‘t’is.

1. Blog 10 to 12 times. I far exceeded this, coming in at 16. Of course, having not met some other goals, maybe I spent too much time here.

2. Complete my review essay of T.B. Macaulay’s essay on the History of the Popes. For whatever reason, I did nothing on this at all. I’m not sure why, but after working on this diligently in December, and having only a few paragraphs remaining to finish it, I forgot about it completely.

3. Return to typing the Harmony of the Gospels I wrote in manuscript over a several year period. If I finish the typing this month–and that is easily possible, I can start the editing process next month, including adding a bunch of notes. This I did in a big way. I did indeed finish typing it this month, and proof-read it once and made those corrections. I also began laying out the introductory remarks and the passage notes and appendixes, writing some of them. I also began going through and making sure I had all the NIV footnotes typed and properly referenced. I estimate I’m 60 to 70 percent done with this.

4. Come close to finishing my current reading project, The Powers That Be, by David Halberstam. Only 453 pages to go as of last night. I worked on this, but only on the weekends and not as much as I should have. As of last night I am at page 549, leaving about 180 pages to go.

5. Work on Life On A Yo Yo, which I begin teaching this coming Sunday, as a publishable Bible study. I did a little bit of this. I’m in the midst of teaching it to our adult Life Group, so obviously I’m working on it. I haven’t done a whole lot to turn it into a publishable idea, but did some.

6. Monitor five websites regularly…. I did this, even posting a couple of comments and receiving some feedback. I think having narrowed my reading down to these few sites regularly, and a couple of others occasionally, I have reached a doable reading list.

7. Critique 5-10 poems at various places, both public and private. I met this goal, critiquing seven poems publicly and one privately. This feels good, and at a rate sustainable from month to month.

In addition to these, and maybe in place of some, I actually completed some other things related to writing that were not on my to-do list.

8. Attend one critique group meeting, presenting “Mom’s Letter” (a short story) and receiving good feedback.

9. Captured some new ideas for Bible studies/small group studies I think I could write.

10. Began research and writing on an essay on the resurrection. This was sparked by a discussion thread at the Absolute Write Christian writing forum, and became a real activity after a little research. I’m not sure where I will go with this, but I like the start. This is engaging my mind right now more than anything.

critique group, Documenting America, technology woes

An evening partly usurped

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Last evening I went to writers critique group, the Spavinaw Writers, who meet at the Gravette Public Library every other week. I shared my query letter and two samples articles for Documenting America. They all seemed to love the concept, and I received much good feedback on how to make it better. One other woman shared a chapter from her novel, but no one else had anything. We were the only two that had anything. We had two new writers attend, college age ladies, so we had a full table even with a couple of people missing.

Then, at home, I had to deal with viruses and other malware on my wife’s computer. These “popped up” yesterday, causing her Internet Explorer and stock trading programs to either lock up or lose performance. She had run scans and isolated most of the critters, but then the instructions from our free security program of what to do next were not clear. Okay, so they are in the virus vault. Do we delete them, repair them? What happens if we do one thing–or the other? Do we need to repair the repairable, delete then restore the unrepairable, or just dump it? I went to my computer, began my own virus scan, then did some Internet searching for the particular malware she had on her machine. I determined they were pretty bad, but I didn’t get all the answers I needed. I searched for and found a primer on computer malware, and began reading.

All this time I kept checking on the status of my scan. It had reached 54 minutes and isolated about 30 to 40 adware cookies or similar relatively innocuous yet unwanted files. I went to click on minimize, guess I had poor mouse control, and so clicked on close and accidentally ended the scan, not having acted on any of the results in progress. I was so upset I closed out of all open programs, went upstairs, read for twenty minutes, couldn’t concentrate and so went to bed.

This computer malware is an awful thing. I guess we’ll have to bite the bullet and go with a paid security program. It’s a shame we must outlay our money to protect ourselves from evil.

C.S. Lewis, critique group, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Life Group lessons, reading, Screwtape's Good Advice, Writing

The July Report

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This was my first month for posting goals, so this report will be specific as to how I did on those goals. I’m posting this on the 30th because the 31st, right now, looks to be a day I won’t have time to post on.

Here are the goals I set on July 1st, and what I did toward them.

  • Type final edits on The Screwtape Letters study guide proposal; mail to the editor by July 3. I’m happy to say I accomplished this, mailing the proposal on July 2. Still waiting for an answer.
  • Complete proposal on In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People; edit; mail to agent by July 10. This will include work on the first 30 pages of the book, which are to be included. I finished this, but not until last night, July 29, a few minutes before midnight Central Time. While I wish I had finished it sooner, I think the extra time I took made both the proposal and the sample chapters better. Now the waiting begins.
  • Begin work on proposal on the Elijah and Elisha small group study guide. By the end of the month I would like to see the proposal essentially complete, and the weekly study sheets I prepared for Life Group expanded into chapters. If I can have it ready to mail to the editor by then, fine, but I’ll be satisfied mailing it in August. Alas, I did NOT finish this, and barely began it. I started looking at it only yesterday, and accomplished very little. This one will take some work, as I have to convert two page student handouts into sample chapters.
  • Attend critique group twice. At the first one present the synopsis for In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People; at the second present the concept for the Documenting America newspaper column, including marketing letter and one or two sample columns. I attended both critique group sessions, but at the second one, rather than taking “Documenting America” I opted for two more chapters of FTSP. Given that no one had seen these, I thought it best someone critique them before I turned them in with the proposal.
  • Finish organizing the scattered piles of paper about the house. Actually, I’d be satisfied to simply bring improved organization to this, even if I don’t finish it. At least I want to have all papers of all works in progress filed together, and drafts of all poems put in their assigned places. I did mostly accomplish this. Many, many things are in a proper place, logically filed and easily retrievable. I have some more to go, especially the poetry, but I feel much better about this. I can let the rest slide a month while I work on other things.
  • Organize the business end of writing, including establishing a mileage log so I can get rid of the scraps. As with the last item, this is mostly accomplished. I probably have 20 percent yet to be finished.
  • Continue to post to this blog, at least 10 posts this month, and preferably 15 to 18. Yes! I have been faithful to this blog, reaching my goal for posts–and none of them fluff posts, either.
  • Begin outlining the next life group lesson I’ll teach, and prepare it in a way it can become a small group study guide. I did this, and have the lesson series mostly planned (but not studied or written). However, based on what the class chose to do as the next lesson to be taught by the other teacher, I will have to choose another topic. I chose it, and began planning it. I’m not as far along as I’d like, but I have a good start.

Miscellaneous items accomplished include: reading for research and pleasure (but, as I learn more and more, a writer never reads only for pleasure); reading about ten blogs of writers, agents, or editors; a few poem critiques on Absolute Write; reading about promotion for writers.

So, all in all a productive, satisfying month for writing.

Carlyle, critique group, Emerson

The World Manifests Little Impatience

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Today I’d like to look at the other part of Emerson’s statement to Carlyle: “Yet when I go out of doors in the summer night, and see how high the stars are, I am persuaded there is time enough for all that I must do; and the good world manifests very little impatience.”

Even for a writer of the stature of Emerson, just in his early 40s when he wrote that, but already with a following for his lectures and essays, the world was not clamoring for his works to be rushed to print; no demand for accelerating the process. Emerson recognized that, and seems was not troubled by it. If there was time enough for all that he must do, the readership would be there when it was done.

So with me, so with me. The world is not clamoring for my work, either. Editors are not calling; agents are not filling my inbox with urgent e-mails–indeed, they are not begging me for partial manuscripts and proposals. Jon at work may be a little impatient for me to get back to writing my baseball novel, but most likely he’s being nice. My writing critique group, which I attend very rarely nowadays, may rave at my stuff and urge me to get it published, but they are hardly “the world.”

Tonight when I got home from church and took the day’s mail from the mailbox, I looked up at the clear, brilliant southern sky. Orion is still fully visible, signifying plenty of the current season left. The Hunter looked just like he did when I was in Boy Scouts and learning about constellations. Forty-five years and he hasn’t aged a bit. Yes, there is time enough, and the good world manifests little impatience for my work. I’ll deal with it.

Church History Novels, critique group, Doctor Luke's Assistant, Writing

Getting Things Done

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For some time now I have thought that a wonderful name for a magazine column would be “The Wonderful Feeling Of…”. The continuation would be different for each column, things such as:

– Telling the Truth
– Saving Money
– Helping Another
– Meeting Old Friends
– Getting Things Done
– Saying a Prayer
etc.

These would be uplifting columns that explain how these things serve to enhance one’s life.

For this weekend, Getting Things Done is definitely the correct column. I did nothing on my own writing, but when I dropped into bed Sunday night I had the feeling that I had indeed accomplished much. Taking down the outside Christmas lights, undecorating and storing the Christmas tree, boxing minor Christmas decorations, sharing Sunday lunch with good friends, balancing the checkbook (done on Friday, I think), completing 2007 budget tracking (somewhat depressing) and setting up 2008 spreadsheet, taking 2-year old children’s church on Sunday–with 11 of the little darlings present and mostly accounted for, resting Sunday afternoon, and even getting to read a little. All of this was good stuff, and very fulfilling.

The main writing work I did was completing the critique of a chapter of another writer’s book. I met Jon at the HACWN conference in Kansas City in November, and we discovered our main works-in-progress were both in the same historical era, though in different parts of the Roman world. We have stayed in contact, and swapped chapters for reading, with the openess to critique. Well, I dug into the critique part. Saturday evening I pulled up the Word file, and using some handy macros I’ve written, did a lot of double strike-through and redlines, all with explanatory notes. Jon may not have bargained for this, but I did not cut down his story. I mainly showed him some places where a reader might have some problems with the setting, and where clarification was in order.

This was very fulfilling work. I think I learn more about my own writing when I critique others. I see things they do that I’m not looking for in my own work. The mere act of critiquing causes me to think about word use, grammar, clarity of descriptions, use of modifiers, consistency and immediacy of voice, etc. I find no better way to spend two or three hours improving my writing than to critique the work of another. I have one more critique to do, for another writer I met on line, then I’ll be ready to work on marketing Documenting America.