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Who's the advance writer?

Good Morning from the sunny, 40 degree Knolltop!

Let me address the skidsteer comments from yesterday and then we'll get into today's ranting and raving by the redhead! First, P and F.....what are you going to do with two skidsteers when all the cows leave the farm this fall? Open your own landscaping business? Give free rides to the neighborhood kids? Use them as gardening tools?

And threecollie...you said you're too chicken to learn to run the skidsteer...this is good, very, very good. NEVER learn to run that piece of machinery and you'll save yourself from taking on another workload! Besides, what did we have kids for if it weren't for working on the farm? (JOKE!)

Now, on to my latest venture. A couple of weeks ago, I was told of a Christian writers group where they discuss how to get published, how to write books, where to search for publishers, grammar, style, everything a writer loves to learn about. There were two groups, a beginners group and an advanced group. Well....of course, because I was a 10 year veteran of the writing world I naturally thought I would join the advanced group. So, I filled out the application and then waited to be invited. NOT!

When I received a rejection notice in my email I about died! WHAT? They won't let me in the advanced group? Who do they think they are? They had invited me to join the beginners group. After taking total offense to the notion that I wasn't good enough to be a part of the advance writing group, I decided to join the beginners group convincing myself I would be such a great encouragement to these fledgling writers.

I joined and was accepted and began to receive daily emails about a daily topic. The moderator would post a question and everyone was expected to answer. When I began scanning through the postings I soon figured out why I wasn't accepted in the advance group. I didn't even know as much as the beginners group! They discussed passive voice, argued the definition of literary fiction and offered tips on how to get rid of unnecessary words.

Oh my, since joining this group I've not only learned a ton, I've also learned how much I didn't know! Some of these writers in this group have published books or are working on a book. They've been to writing conferences, are searching for publishers, asking how to find the right editor and all of them have a blog!

I'm glad I'm a part of this group, they are teaching me a lot. About the only thing I have to offer them is the knowledge of where milk comes from!

Comments

Anonymous said…
We have had two skidsteers for about 10 years and when everyone is doing chores at the same time two come in handy and since they don't give you much on trade in, we just trade the old one. On our farm everone runs the skidsteers, from cleaning box stalls to puting air conditioners in the window. The next time your skidsteer brakes down , ask us again why we have two.
Francis and Pat
Melissa, I think it is great that you are getting to learn all of this "technical" stuff about writing...but don't be to hard on yourself! One of the reasons I (and probably most of your readers) enjoy your writings so much is because it feels like a nice, cozy chat with a girlfriend or sister about how your day went. Like getting an update on kids, husband, farm and livestock.

And to this fellow farm girl at least, it is nice to know that I am not alone in this world that seems more and more to look at farms as foreign nations!

So please, in all of that learning, don't lose your own sense of writing style ;)

Cary at Serenity Farms

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