So tonight I went to the second Group Voice meeting. Group Voice is a local writers’ group, newly-formed. Last meeting, two weeks ago, we pretty much just introduced ourselves.
This time we all brought something to read to the group — I brought the first couple sections of my current WiP, Once I was you — and we went around the room, each reading, and receiving comments. It was quite a diverse group — we had a story from the POV of a fly, three short poems, a slice of fictionalized autobiography, some high fantasy, my SF bit, a humourous piece about what is surely the best beard evar, and a bit of zombie lit (though he chose to call the villains “werewolves”, mainly because the first-person protagonist felt that “zombies are overdone lately”).
I was impressed. There are some very good writers in this town.
At the end of the meeting, we all took a piece of paper and wrote down a story prompt. I wrote Time-travelling Nazi soldiers see the results of WWII. Then we all put our prompts into a bucket, and drew out random ones. For the next meeting, in two weeks’ time, I have to write a story based on the following prompt:
Romance between a worm and a giraffe.
Can’t wait.
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On a slightly more serious note: This has really gotten me interested in my project again. Once I was you will likely be a novel-length project; I have a little shy of 14,000 words written so far. I’m trying to come up with a thumbnail of the story that doesn’t sound insane. So far I have: A woman’s ghost from the present day gets involved in a war, in 750,000,000 AD, against the entities that made our Universe, and are now done with it.
That’s not the whole story, of course. Most of the terms in there need a footnote that simply says “Sort of”. She’s sort of a ghost. It’s kind of a war. The conflict is more or less against the Makers. It’s more or less set in 750,000,000 AD. And so forth.
Interested? I hope so, because once this post is done, I’ll be writing more in the story. If you want to see a snippet, let me know. You know how to reach me.
(If you don’t — if you’re new here — feel free to leave a comment. That’s one way to reach me.)
Next time: Some photos — hopefully not of knee-deep snow.