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I almost deleted my angsty short story after a guy in my writers group called the twist cheesy
I wrote a 3,000 word short story about a lighthouse keeper last month and my writers group in Portland spent 40 minutes tearing the ending apart, so I shoved the file in my trash folder and almost gave up on it. Three weeks later I read it out loud to my 14 year old nephew and he said the twist was the best part, which made me go back and rewrite the setup in the first two pages instead of cutting the ending. Has anyone else had a draft get trashed by one group and saved by totally different readers?
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simontorres4d ago
The Portland group thing is interesting because a writers group that meets regularly kinda builds its own taste over time. 40 minutes on one ending means they all went in with the same idea of what a "good" twist looks like, and once one person says cheesy the rest just pile on. Your nephew had zero stakes in looking smart, so he gave you the one read that actually mattered. Honestly a 14 year old is a way harder crowd than most workshop groups, if he said it was the best part you probably had it right the first time.
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