Book Talk: CGAG

[lagilman]

CGAG, for them as don't know, stands for the Cross-Genre Abuse Group. With changing members, it has been my writing group for *cough* many years. Without them, I would be even lazier than I am now in terms of production.

And yet, still, I can't convince anyone that we need to get anchovies on the pizza. *sigh*

Anyway, last night only two of us brought anything to group, and so with their undivided attention upon us, kefiraahava and I expected to get shredded.

And we did. But in a good, useful, not-too-painful way. Everyone had different commentary on the two chapters I gave them, which is always interesting -- when everyone says the same thing you know you've GOT to fix it. When everyone has a different problem, you have to go through it all and reconsider what you were trying to say and if you should try to say it differently or determine that YCPEAtT rule is in effect.

To soothe the pain, there was beer afterward (the bar scene on Tuesday night in the West 50's seems to comprise of tall blonde women meeting up with significantly older men, and guys my age or younger wearing dress shirts of a color and style that make me look at them pityingly. I've been trained to look for the Street standard, I guess). And I managed to gt home at not too ungodly an hour, which is always nice.

And now, I put all those notes on chapters six and seven into a pile with the other notes from past sessions, and dive back into chapter fourteen...

after I go start up the caffeine.

Comments

[karentoe.livejournal.com]

Not getting anchovies on pizza is a sign of their good taste. I am, however, prepared to duck once you read this comment.

[lagilman]

I like anchovies, in moderation. In ceasar salads and occasionally on pizza. But I am surrounded by fearful tastebuds.

[kefiraahava.livejournal.com]

My tastebuds are not fearful. They just do not happen to consider anchovies and pizza a good combination. So next time get two slices w/anchovies and the rest of us will ignore them. There. Problem solved.(dusting hands off)

I didn't feel particularly shredded, actually. But as I said, I had submitted the chapters knowing I wasn't sure whether enormous cuts needed to be made or not and figured I'd keep quiet so as not to influence judgments and see what the consensus was. The consensus was to cut.(shrug) I'm fine with that.

But I really =don't= have a problem cutting huge chunks of text if need be. I don't know if this reaction is rare among writers and have to defer to your editorial experience there. DO most writers get upset when told "Cut this chapter, it's dragging things down and the reader will get bored"? I'm curious to know. Not that it'll change how I approach things because I think it's sensible of me to cut if told by more than one person to cut, but...just newbie curious.(grin)