<p><span style=”font-family:Arial;”>I related in a previous post that my first short story is in polishing.My primary writer’s group has had two whacks at it and my trusted group of test readers have added their twenty-five cents. The story is where I think it may be ready to start looking for a publishing avenue. Revisions have gone well and feedback, from those I know, is positive. I will be adding a Work In Progress page soon but in the mean time I have been wondering if an additional test sample of readers is in order.</span></p>
<p><strong>I am wondering. What are your views regarding the viability of online workshops/critique groups? If you participate in them and what has been your experience?</strong> </p>
<p>I truly will appreciate all of your thoughts.</p>
Author Archives: Dennis Langley
Next Steps…Online?
So many ideas, so little time.
<p>Recently, I have seen several posts relating to writer’s groups or critique groups. I do believe they are a necessary tool for any author. So much so that I recently joined my second group. During my first meeting with this group, they asked to see a selection my work. So, I submitted excerpts from four different projects which are in various stages of completion. They were the beginning 4 pages of a short story that I’m polishing, the opening scene to my first attempt at a novel, the opening scene to an urban fantasy idea that is rattling around in my head, and an opening scene to a character study I was playing around with to help flush out part of my World. </p>
<p>One of the group was kind enough to send me some feedback prior to our next meeting. Her comments were kind, accurate, and useful as I expected they would be. What really struck me was not what she said but rather, why in the world did I have so many different projects. </p>
<p>It really should not have surprised me. I have a four drawer file cabinet full of characters, cities, castles, monsters, plot lines, and potential backstory. Coming up with ideas is not the problem. It’s taking those ideas and developing a cohesive, entertaining story.</p>
<p>Well, over the weekend, I came to some decisions. One, I will continue to polish the short story and submit it for publishing. Second, I will focus on a novel-length piece that I story-boared during a class I took last December. Third, everything else will remian on the back burner until further notice.</p>
<p>There, I put it in writing for the world to see. Look for updates and excerpts in the future. If you don’t see something soon, let me know that you will hold me to it.</p>
Long Drives and Great Ideas
While taking a writing class a few months ago the subject of the writing habit came up. In particular, the instructor asked the class, When are we most creative? I had to think about it for a while. I am most productive at work during the early morning hours before the rest of the office comes in. These days I do most of my writing on my lunch hour. However, my best ideas come to me when I’m on a long drive, preferably late at night.
For example: It was the summer of 1997 and I was driving from Illinois to Iowa, about five and a half hours. I left my twenty year high school reunion at about midnight and headed up into Wisconsin following a route I had taken to get to college. It took me through the country for a while and then pick-ed up the interstate to Madison. Once I bypassed Madison it was a winding two-lane from there to the Iowa border. I knew the drive quite well.
There is something about travelling a road you are familiar with in the dark of night with little traffic that allowed my mind to drift. The previous week, I had written a character background that included a strange elf named, Hare. Yes. that is where the name of this blog comes from. Anyway, I started to noodle on why Hare had befriended the character in question. This lead me to work through Hare’s personality and motives. In turn, Hare’s family and background started to come together. Finally, his profession as a border scout was decided upon, “Wow,” I told myself. “This is a cool character.” I settled back and let my mind wander.
In the darkness, I could see trees flashing by. One minute I was Dennis, driving along Highway 18 at 65 miles and hour. The next I was an elf running through the trees desperately trying to escape a band of mercenaries. They were attacking my village and killing everyone. Wounded and scared, I ran as fast as I could but stumbled into one of my own traps. The mercenaries were looking for someone in particular because, when the leader saw me, he told his men that I was not the one and they should kill me.
My eyes came back to the road and I realized my heart was pounding. Now before you panic and scramble to get off the road when I’m driving, let me explain that the whole time the scene was playing in my head, I was fully awake and cognizant of the road and my surroundings.
The rest of the drive flew by as I began working on the details of the scene. The material that came from this strange episode became a dream sequence in a novel project that I’m working on. The problem with getting ideas while driving is it’s hard to write and drive at the same time. Good thing I have a good memory.
Welcome to Hare’s Tales
Hello and well met. You have entered a world where my life experiences, spirit, and imagination are the clay that are molded into stories that I hope you will find entertaining. At the very least, you will get a chance to see some of the trials, tribulations, angst, and ecstacy that this writer experiences while he wades through the process of developing stories. As the process moves along, together we will share exceprts from said stories and I look forward to your comments.
I have always enjoyed good stores told well. Whether it was my mother reading Mary Poppins books to me as a child, watching Family Classics movies on the old Zenith, or listening to an old storyteller recite Jack London’s, “To Build a Fire”, while sitting around a summer campfire, a good story always captured me and opened my own imagination to endless possibilities. My stories are not classics yet. However, every great author started by writing a single word.
Please, join me on my journey. It should be an interesting trip.
Tales From The Hare 