The Write Slice: Write or Wrong

Today's post will be quick because I just wanted to share a realization I came to this week.Mostly I'm sharing it to see if I'm weird as a writer, or if there are other people out there like me. So, I submitted a chapter to my critique group last week, and I actually received very little negative feedback. This was kind of surprising to me because I was a little bit nervous about this particular chapter. It dealt with a topic or idea I don't feel particularly proficient in, and a style of writing that I have no experience with. In other words, it was out of my comfort zone, and accordingly I thought it would need a lot of work. Hence, the surprise at the comments. This has happened to me one other time on my other novel. A different topic, a different writing style, but equally unfamiliar. The comments at that point were that it was more detailed and engaging than the rest of the story. So, two different ways to take these comments, both of which I have vacillated...

Many of you have probably heard of NaNoWriMo, or the National Novel Writing Month. Well, if you haven't, it is a writing movement that promotes writing 50,000 words of crap in the month of November, so that you can use the other 11 months of the year to polish it up into something palatable. Well, per my friend Jayrod's request/suggestion, I am participating with him on a local level this June. He is working on his novel, Crimes of the Umbramancer , and is behind where he'd like to be. So he came up with the idea to do his own NaNoWriMo. And as it is always easier to complete something like that with support, and he knew that I had a lot to do of my own, he invited me to join him. So, now it is June 4, and I am just getting started. But I have a good excuse. My family has been on vacation for the last week-and-a-half. So I am getting started late, but I'm going to be strong. My goals are slightly different for this month. I am aiming for 50,000 words, but that is...