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January Writers’ Meeting

Hi Everyone,

Today we held our January meeting, a week late due to the extreme cold last Sunday. The next meeting will be held on Sunday, February 17, 2013 from 12:30 to 3 PM at Bella Caffe in Park Rapids MN.

PRESENT: Sharon, Marlys, Jerry, LuAnne, Deb

TALKING STICK 22: We have sent out the call for submissions for TS22 and we are receiving them, both in the mail and electronically. The deadline is March 1, 2013. Full details and guidelines are found BY CLICKING HERE. We are still working on cover details, judges, grant, etc.

NEXT 20X20: We are considering doing another 20×20 book in 2014. This time we would like to do the writing first and then the art will be created from that. We have a list of writers that we will be contacting later in the year of 2013 to get that started. We will probably wait till after TS22 is mostly completed.

WRITERS’ GAMES: Sharon received from really fun games for Xmas that are especially fun for writers. Haikubes: This is a bunch of cubes like dice with words on each side. You use the words on these cubes to create Haiku poetry, with 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second, 5 in the third. This was really quite challenging. Try it!
Liebrary, The Game Where the First Line Speaks Volumes: This is a game using the first lines of books. One person will read the title and a description of a book. All players must write out what they think the first line of the book could be. Their answers, along with the real answer, are then read to all the players and they each must choose the one they think is the real one. What a great idea! Try it out too.

NANOWRIMO: Deb did her Nanowrimo class in November. She had 7 people, all new to the event. 5 of them completed the 50,000 words required. The writers appreciated Deb’s helpful feedback and what to do if you are stuck and what to do with your manuscript when you are done.

MISCELLANEOUS: Sharon is editing Elisa’s book and enjoying it immensely. Jerry’s book is still going through content editing by Deb. Niomi is working on her memoir and meanwhile nursing her husband back to health after an injury and surgery.

WRITING EVENTS: Marlys and Jerry attended Writers’ Boot Camp with Angela Foster and Candace Simar. This was not for first time writers. Topics included: point of view, tense, great handouts like a character inventory, etc. They thought it was an excellent class and the time was very well managed.
From that, Jerry read Charlie Baxter’s book The Art of Subtext and he thinks it was life-changing. It is as important what you don’t say as what they do say. Use senses and smells. Know what your character wants. You don’t always get what you want, but try giving the character all he wants and see what happens. What is the thing that no one knows about your character. Don’t make your characters all bad or all good. Let your characters yearn for something, be vulnerable to the point of destruction. Let them have a passion for things. Other good books include: The Emotion Thesaurus and Your Book Starts Here.
Marlys took a online class on Flash Fiction at the Loft with Rochelle Hurt and really enjoyed it. The class taught about white spaces and hinting at things, good critiques. It also mentioned Hint Fiction, telling a whole story in 25 words.
We mentioned Pam Houston’s books and how much we enjoyed them. Also Louise Erdrich’s books.

GREAT AMERICAN THINK-OFF: New York Mills Regional Cultural Center announces its 21st annual Great American Think-Off. This years topic: Which Is more ethical: sticking to your principles or being willing to compromise? Details, including due dates (April 1), word count (750), entry fee (none), and prizes ($500 to each of four winners) can be found on the NYMRCC website — kulcher.org. Go to Arts and Culture on the main menu and select Great American Think-Off.

Good meeting today! We took turns reading things we were working on and gave each other helpful comments. Hope to see you next time! Don’t forget to send in your Talking Stick submissions!