Tuesday, January 24, 2006

O Canada

I'm here, but I've been so crazy busy I haven't had a chance to unpack yet. Lots of freelance work coming in. Have NOT been making my page count, but on days with *paying* work, I cut myself some slack. Feast or famine. Book pages will be prioritized during the famine.

I got a crap critique from someone in my critique group, but Linda and I decided that the person is crap, not my writing, so I'm moving on. I did receive useful criticism from others, just not this particular person. Good practice for rejection, I guess.

Linda sent me the following re-write that incorporates the crap suggestions from the crap critiquer: "Mona gazed across the apartment, her eyes resting on the mauve couch with the throw pillows depicting dragonflies and....." zzzzzzzzzzzzz......... Who CARES!!! "Mona RAGED against the injustice of being laid off from the job she hated. The thought of the generous package her company had offered her, making it possible to pursue other avenues, made her so angry she threw her throw pillow. She stopped to muse over the irony of throwing a throw pillow while she examined the details of said pillow, which I will now share with you for an entire paragraph....."

I actually kind of like it. I'm dying to know how big and what color the dragonflies were. Embroidered or silk-screened?

Do these blog posts need more detail? Do you need to know my heart rate, what beverage I have next to me, and what color socks I'm wearing? I don't give a crap, so this is new territory for me.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must protest! You removed "I might be insane, but only dangerous to myself." from your About Me section. Be insane and be proud of it!!!

Anonymous said...

P.S. What, no snappy pictures?

Dodi said...

I would also like to know the composition of your socks, are they 100% cotton? Lycra? polyester? BLog stalkers want to know.

Also, what is the weave of the mauve couch. You really should pay more attention to the little things.

Trackrick said...

If I may offer some critique, it's not irony that you threw a throw pillow. That's more of a co-inkydink. Or an appropriate action. Or just funny.

I'm not entirely sure what you could do to a throw pillow that would be ironic. Nor what would be ironic to throw. Irony is tricky to define sometimes.

Karen said...

I am dangerous, particularly to people who don't tell me how dorky I look in my swearing in photo.

I think if we knew more about the composition of the throw pillow the irony would be more apparent.

Anonymous said...

i do remember 2 things from mt short fiction class.

1-it's all in the details
2-don't tell me, show me

Karen said...

Show, don't tell IS good advice.

Bobapede, you are NOT my target audience, and once you cross out all the fluff there will be nothing left. However, if you can get through ONE chick lit book I'll let you critique mine. Your assigned reading: Confessions of a Drama Queen by Lee Nichols.