A follow up to yesterday’s post.
As my more reasonable readers could have probably predicted, my visits to the gym and the writing group did not, in fact, result in me getting chased out of the building. Despite my apprehensions, it actually went rather well.
There was one employee at the gym who looked at me askance, but I just chalked that up to the fact that I sidled in wearing street clothes and not carrying anything that looked remotely like gym equipment. The girl who ended up helping me was perfectly nice and answered all my awkward questions.
Similarly, the writing group greeted me warmly (I’d even met one of them before, even though my boss wasn’t there) – the proprietor of the coffee shop where they hold it noticed my laptop and asked if I was here to write. When I said yes, the others looked up, asked what I was working on, and scooted over to make room for me. The atmosphere was great, and I managed to get a decent amount of work done on my own stories for two whole hours! There wasn’t much talking, but it didn’t feel oppressive – rather, we were all there to accomplish a similar goal, and that tacit support helped me make progress. (My story is actually starting to look like a novel!)
Even though I slept through yoga this morning, and even though I probably won’t remember all the other writers’ names next week, it was reassuring to be accepted.
Now I just have to stop being so nervous about the writers’ conference coming up in July. Sighhh…
The Grammar Changeling 