Carrie Callahan

Critique groups are a writer's best friend. I fully believe that the second most profound thing I learned with my writing degree was the importance of workshop. (The first most profound thing being concision, which is another blog post entirely.) Some people write for themselves, never intending another human being to read their work, and that's fine. However, there are a lot of writers out there who write specifically for other people to read. This is why I write. For me, my job as a writer is to translate my thoughts and visions to a page, then have that language translate back to thoughts and visions in a reader's head. Sounds creepy? It is, but who cares? It's fun to think someone else's thoughts for a while. Sometimes it's hard to tell, though, where my mind is taking over for the details of my writing. It can be difficult to know where my implications are coming across to the reader and where I'm filling in the blanks automatically. That's where w...

The ego bubble is the enemy. For the better part of a year I haven't shared my work. I've been writing in a thick bubble free of any criticism - constructive or otherwise. Just last week, I popped that bubble by submitting a story to my writer's group. When I heard what they had to say, I was gobsmacked! I reacted poorly. My issue was not the response to the story I submitted, but my response to receiving feedback. I've always touted the necessity of workshop to learn the flaws of your writing, and touted not being defensive. But there I was - defending! I'm of a rather firm belief that if the story doesn't explain the idea you want to get across to the reader, than you aren't doing your job. No amount of background information directly from your mouth to the group is going to save that story - only revision will. I was upset by my own hypocrisy. I'd thought of myself as having a thick skin, being able to take critique, but I was clearly wrong....