Inspiration! (Or is it Structure?)

We had our first writing group meeting this morning. Wow. I was nervous about it like Mary Tyler Moore throwing a cocktail party. I kept worrying yesterday that I might just forget by accident, and not show up -- like the way people who are afraid of heights vaguely worry they might suddenly jump off a bridge. I kept worrying that the people I didn't know who were coming wouldn't like me and the people I did know and they would walk off like this had been a waste of time. I worried no one would come.

The meeting was for 9. . . by 9:15 we had three people. By 9:45, we had five -- though all people I already knew. Still a really good group, and they didn't all know each other, which helps for rolling ideas around. At 10:30 one woman whom I hadn't met before arrived, nervous because she'd overslept-- but a great addition.

So all in all today we had. . . a playwright, three science writers all in various stages of book writing, a Knight-Ridder editor and UMD journalism professor who wants to start writing fiction, and a security journalist who was also a Bosnia war correspondent. I mean that's some firepower.

What I hadn't anticipated was that we would talk BUSINESS as much as anything today. I'm sure we'll do more editing in the future -- but we have so much to share in terms of how to get motivated, how to write book proposals, how to deal with the people who want their share of the money (agents-- good! randoms who late in the game announce they think they deserve royalties -- bad!), and how to stay organized.

Next time we'll bring stuff to share. . . which is SCARY. I haven't let anyone see what I've written for this Kepler book yet. But in the meantime, I'm totally charged up, and think a bi-weekly burst of energy from this group is going to do wonders for all of us.

SO -- my assignment for our next meeting is to
a) psych myself up for sharing some of my work
b) write three sections from the perspective of the crazy emperor
c) come up with one story to pitch as well as have the info from some magazines to pitch it to.