Our guest the first night at the Catamaran Lit Conference in
Pebble Beach was Karen Joy Fowler, whom some of you may know as the author of The Jane Austen Book Club. Or famous
these last couple years as the author of We
Are All completely beside Ourselves. She was charming and fun. Someone
asked her about writing groups or critique groups, and she had somewhat
contradictory thoughts. One, she loves her group and would never quit it. And
two, she doesn't take much of their feedback and recommends you ignore most of the feedback or advice you get. Karen
thinks that if the critique is of any value, it will immediately resonate with
you. You'll say, "Oh, yeah. That's right. You're on to something
there." And if it doesn't, leave it. It's probably not
worthwhile.
It sounded like her group was quite contentious--someone threw a
chair through a window--which makes me thankful my group is online. :-)
Regrets? She wishes she didn't read the work of other members of the group aloud in
a bad Swedish accent.
She closed with the following advice: "You can't go
wrong setting a scene in your story or book in a miniature golf course." It's
silly, it's common, it's blue collar. She particularly likes the idea of
putting at the anthill like hole. You know, like a cone with a hole at the top,
where your ball might not make it up the hill, or might overshoot and end up
further away than where you started.
Writers and their metaphors.
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