With apologies for the delay… Please read on for lots of useful information…

Writers’ Mill meets every third Sunday of the month at the Cedar Mill library. This includes Father’s Day, which is always a third Sunday, and St. Patrick’s Day (March 17^th), but it doesn’t include Easter, when we will meet on the fourth Sunday of April instead.

The Writers’ Mill website is at http://portlandwritersmill.org/. Please go there to find information about

1. schedules (click on Schedule in the bar just below the image, or in the menu if you’re using a phone),
2. contests (hover your mouse over Contests and select from the menu that appears below),
3. or find links to other members websites, etc.

Some pages are protected. Please read your emails to find the passwords, which change every month. This month’s contest topic is “The Big Stare – why are they looking at me?” (see http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/jan-2019-contest-page/ ) Contest deadlines are always the end of the first Sunday of the month. Entries are posted anonymously and password protected (so they do not count as published), and voting continues until the end of Tuesday before our next meeting (so for just over a week – please vote!).

Our next meeting is on January 20^th. We will review the year just gone, celebrate achievements, and ask for ideas about how you want the Writers’ Mill to serve you, as writers, in the coming year. But first…

Sheila began December’s meeting by asking how members could help each other.

1. Can you bring snacks?
2. Could you lead a critique (an excellent way to hone your self-editing skills, and to get to know other members)?
3. Can you submit a piece to critiqued (an excellent way to test the waters – find your audience, learn what traps you’ve been falling into, gain confidence for submitting to journals, etc)?
4. Perhaps you have a particular skill and would like to give a talk?
5. Maybe take minutes once in a while,
6. or even lead a meeting when Sheila’s out of town?

If you missed December’s meeting, you can still VOLUNTEER! Please do, either by replying to this email or by writing on the clipboard (and check the schedule to see our immediate needs: http://portlandwritersmill.org/schedule/) In the meantime, please acknowledge the following volunteers who make this group work:

1. Judy runs contests and keeps us on our toes.
2. Sheila runs meetings, takes minutes, sends out emails
3. Jean finds speakers and coordinates between them and the library
4. Ron keeps the website running
5. Robin is our new snack coordinator

The unveiling of our special 2018 anthology, Fine Lines, went really well, and the expression on Jessie’s face when she saw herself on the cover was priceless. We still have a few copies available at $3.50 each, proceeds to go to the library. Or you can buy it online on Amazon for $5.95 with royalties going straight to the library: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1731536100/

Judy handed out singularly appropriate contest awards for December’s Tangled Webs contest, with Sheila’s Thread taking first place, Zita’s dog (didn’t eat my homework) in second, and Karin’s Initiation into the Family in Third. Don’t forget to write your entries for the upcoming contests, max word-counts all 1200, and send them to the usual address.

1. 1^st Sunday in Jan: Karin – Why are they looking at me?
2. 1^st Sunday in Feb: Matthew – reprise a character you’ve not written about for a while
3. 1^st Sunday in March – dialog – either write in dialog, or write about dialog/conversation

Before our two critiques, Sheila led a brief discussion on the reason and value of critiques. Remembering  Beth Jusino’s last talk, we looked at the three types of editing.

1. Content edit
2. Copy edit
3. Proofread

Beth told us we should think about which edits we can do ourselves, and which we need to hire someone else to do for us. And she talked about the importance of critiques and critique groups. Which leads to that all-important difference between critique and edit…

4. Encouragement

NOTE: that final item is even more important when leaving comments on contest entries. “You did this wrong” might be quickly forgotten when lots of people are talking in a talk, but it’s hard to erase from memory when it’s written on the same page as your nervously submitted contest entry.

That said, here are some things we should always cover (positively!)

1. Grammar, wrong word choices, typos… things the author will know to look for in their next edit – but remember, odd grammar might also be an author decision in setting a narrative voice.
2. Flow… the author may actually want us to be confused, so
   1. “This confused me” is great, whereas
   2. “You should have done it this way” is less good.
3. What works… the author may be silently hoping their neat trick really was neat; your feedback gives encouragement.
4. What didn’t work for you—which doesn’t mean it doesn’t work – you might not be the intended audience. But it’s useful information.

All of which leads to the question, how do we critique (or comment on) something that really isn’t our type of thing?

5. “Why I didn’t relate” is fine. “Why it’s bad” or “wrong,” is less so.

Robin led critiques of Matthew’s and Jim’s chapters, with much discussion ensuing about historical accuracy, attention to detail, dialog and more. Then Sheila led a writing exercise aimed at our January contest. If you were there in December, you already have half an entry and just need to tidy it up. If you weren’t there, perhaps this will help you think of something to write…

A quick discussion on why someone might feel stared at produced the following suggestions:

1. How are you dressed?
2. Are you attending an interview?
3. Are you feeling guilty? Bullied? Teased?
4. What are you doing wrong?
5. Perhaps it’s all in your mind.
6. Can “they” tell what you’re thinking? Oh no!
7. Are you receiving special treatment, feeling well looked after when others don’t know why (like my mum receiving assistance at the airport)?
8. Perhaps you’re a celebrity, or may you just look like one.
9. Are you different from the people around you?
10. Perhaps you’re a new member of a group, or you’ve started a new task, or someone’s stabbed you with a pencil…

Then we rolled the magic dice and found a lock, a key, and … I can’t remember what the third one was! Use the lock and key if you want. Use the suggestions above, or think of your own. And write! Then send your entry to the usual address before the end of Sunday January 6^th – you have plenty of time, but please don’t procrastinate. No one should start a new year with procrastination!

Happy Writing!

(And my apologies for sending these minutes out so late!)