Being an “aspiring” writer (I’m not entirely willing to take on the implications of declaring myself a “writer” yet), I started going to a local writers’ group. I’ve known about it for months (it’s run by the mom of our babysitter), but hadn’t made the time (gotten up the courage?) to go. But, yesterday, I figured it’s a new year, why not give it a try.

There were five of us there (not including my daughter) — four women and one man. Three stay-home-moms, two university professors. Interesting mix.

Observation #1: I hate being the newcomer (excuse why I never go), even though the others made me feel welcome. It’s still intimidating. Everyone already knows each other, and has a history together. I’ve got… a two-year-old who needs to eat lunch (which I brought). Thankfully, my dear sweet daughter wasn’t terribly disruptive (other than displacing the group from the comfortable living room to the not-so-comfortable dining room). If she’d only been less obsessive about the dog and going potty…

Observation #2: What’s it with science fiction writers? The only other person (aside from me; intimidation aside, I brought something to share) who read what they’d written was a sci-fi writer. He’d been working on this story for 2 years or so, and was getting ready to submit it to some contest or another. I don’t want to be cruel, and I have to admit that I was managing my daughter much of the time, but… I thought his story was lame (I obviously didn’t tell him this, not wanting to offend on my first day). There was way too much exposition in my view and not enough action. And when you boil it all down, after 7 single-line spaced typed pages and 45 minutes of reading, there wasn’t much story there. The basic plot: A guy is mad at his neighbor’s wife (because she implicated his daughter in some theft that his daughter didn’t do; the writer had to explain that after), and wants to kill her, but doesn’t but then she dies via breast implant explosion (gross!) and he feels guilty.

Why is it that sci-fi writers feel they can devote all their time to world creation (that’s what most of the exposition was about: wry and slightly humorous observations of his future world) and none to the story? I know, much of science fiction/fantasty is like that. But it seems to me that they would be better served by coming up with a good story — or two or three good world ideas (Card talks about this in his intro to Speaker fo the Dead; how it took two different ideas — that of a speaker and that of an alien race — to make a compelling story) — and then create a world to fit it.

Observation #3: I’m not dealing with people who read children’s fiction. I read my stories — two versions of the same one — and I got comparisons to Barney and illusions to Dr. Seuss. Not that I’m complaining; they did make some valid observations, and some helpful suggstions. But I do have to admit that I was disappointed that their points of reference were so limited. Then again, it’s not like I can give constructive criticism on poetry, so I really have no reason to complain here.

I’m going to go back, in spite of the bad science fiction and lack of children’s writing refrences. I need something to motivate me to write… and there’s nothing like an audience, right? Maybe I’ll even get into the habit of posting observations on our weekly (mostly) meetings here. Could make it even more interesting.