prioritising prior pieces at the prior priory

As well as reading a book for discussion, I've also joined another creative writing group. I used to belong to one which met every couple of weeks to review a small piece of a text and to write something short triggered from it. We'd all review one another's creations, in a positive way.

That group folded, but the new one I've joined seems like a good alternative. So far we've had an on-the-spot writing session and separately a session to review excerpts from each others' writing. It's also a great way to see some interesting pieces of the local scene.

This time we met in the beamed roof of an ex-refectory from a Benedictine priory. It was originally established at the behest of William the Conqueror around 1070 and had rebuilds during the 450 years the monks occupied it. Then in 1536, King Henry VIII brought about dissolution of priories and the old monastic church and cloisters were pulled down. The imposing hall remained and around 1650, the original tall refectory space was divided to make three floors of chambers.

We were now on the top floor for our review session. Most folk had written something new, highly varied and all well-written. I decided to take a piece from one of my unfinished NaNoWriMo sessions, which I'd produced around three years ago. It wasn't so much laziness as just not knowing what to expect until I'd been to one of these sessions.

We all received suggestions for changes and improvements, and I found the whole process most interesting. Not only feedback on my own work, but also the ideas applied to the writing of others. It's re-fired my enthusiasm for further writing as well as a chance to review and tidy some of my prior efforts.

But here's the thing. The tuning efforts seem to take much longer than the original writing. At least the writing conducted as part of the NaNoWriMo thing. That's when I have attempted to write 1,666 words per day/50,000 words total in the month of November. The doctrine of NaNoWriMo is to keep going. Can't think of anything to write? Add some weather/scenery/throw in a McGuffin.

For the revisions it's very different. And that's the piece I'm working through at the moment.