Catchy title, right? “Dan, I want those sweet, juicy details!” a piqued reader will state. Yes, I faced a metaphorical firing squad last night, and not only came out the other side of it, but also earned the acceptance of my peers when the dust settled. “So…no guns involved?” a disappointed reader will ask; that’s right, besides everyone knows that the best weapons are landmines anyways. Now that all of the knuckle-draggers have left the room, I guess I’ll start story-time.
Back In January, when the rest of you were erroneously planning your New Year’s Resolutions that you never carried out, I was trying to advance my career as a writer. To further this end, I signed up for an account on Meetup.com in hopes of finding a writer’s group, one that will critique my work. After a few minutes of scrolling, I found one in my area, though the group’s status on the platform indicated that they were not open to new members. However, I wasn’t willing to take no for an answer yet (shout out to Ben Roethlisberger!) and sent an e-mail to the group’s organizer. I introduced myself, my writing genre and my interest in the group.
The organizer got back to me, stating that the group was at capacity, and they couldn’t accept me at that point in time. However, I was offered a spot on the waitlist, which I accepted; it was the best outcome given the circumstances at the time. Unlike most writers, who need a seemingly perfect situation to get started, I chose to keep writing anyways. Mind you, this was only 10 weeks after The Case Against Memes came to a book-seller near you, and I was writing articles non-stop. Seriously, I blew past 100 articles (current total is 149), wrote my second book in only 47 days, found my number one writing-related goal and got closer to learning what kind of writer I really am.
After some time had passed, I had forgotten about the group and the waitlist entirely. In late August, a full seven months after my initial e-mail exchange, I received another reply from the organizer; a spot had opened up in the group. I was invited to a September meeting, which I accepted. The first meeting I attended we had a brief set of introductions; after all, who the hell is this guy? must have been on the minds of the incumbent members. I described my previous book-and more importantly, my current one-to the group; they were receptive to the idea of my work and my presence in their group. I lightened the mood a bit by dropping references to the final rule of Fight Club, which folks seemed to appreciate. The meeting started, and I spent the meeting taking careful notes as to what kind of feedback the group tends to give, more than anything else.
The meeting ended with the organizer choosing the lineup for the next meeting. Each meeting has two members submitting works for open critique, and the eager-beaver newcomer was selected as one of them. Immediately upon coming home that day, I forwarded the intro chapter and a sample chapter from my second book to the group.
Two weeks had passed, and my day of judgment had come. For some unexplainable reason, I wasn’t nervous at all. Better yet, the rookie member’s work was critiqued first! Each member levied their criticism of my work, though I took nothing personally. As each member dove into what they didn’t like about my work, I had no urge to defend myself or argue or rationalize why they were wrong. My heart rate remained steady, I was calm and ready, my palms were not sweaty, and I did not eat spaghetti. With all of that said, I received a few bits of feedback that I didn’t expect, which heightened my curiosity as I wrote down notes on my notepad (because I’m analog).
Most of the group are fiction authors, so they understood concepts like hooks, proper flow and tone really well, which is a blind spot that many nonfiction authors have. Given that nearly all of the chapters in my book were written the same way, this gave me actionable feedback. Truth be told, I’m mulling over choosing myself (as The Man Himself advises) via self-publishing if I don’t get any interest from publishers by New Year’s Day. Hence, a few tweaks would certainly help my book’s chances at being well received.
After the meeting, several members of the group had e-mailed me the feedback and edits from the discussion. One of these e-mails came from the organizer as well; the e-mail delivered feedback as well as welcoming me to the group. That last line was a curious one; it’s as if my Fight Club joke wasn’t too far off from the reality of this group. One cannot claim to be in Fight Club if they can’t take a punch. I had faced the firing squad and survived the encounter; that was the one true test to see if one was worthy of membership. I passed the initiation, hence now I’m a real member. I’m curious to see how new members after me will be introduced to the group (whenever that might happen to be) to see if the Fight Club method is upheld. There’s a chance that this is all in my head; more data is needed.
If the firing squad couldn’t hurt me, then the pitchfork-wielding mob doesn’t stand a chance…
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