WRITERS’ MILL MEETING
Notes, June 20, 2021
With thanks to Jean, as Sheila was still recovering from her hospital stay.
Attendance: 16 via Zoom (thanks to Laura Baca at Cedar Mill Library)
June contest awards: 1st. Catherin Violante, “This New Place”; 2nd. Sheila Deeth, “Memorial”; 3rd. Jessie Collins, “My Brother, My Friend.”
Host David Porter congratulated the winners and thanked all entrants. He described his reason for choosing the theme “Strangers,” and said “sometimes we can be strangers to ourselves.”
Announcements: Sheila announced there will be an open discussion on contest voting, via email to the group soon. There will also be an anthology to be published by the group in November, as usual. She urged everyone to submit writings to the anthology. Sheila announced the next upcoming monthly contest themes (1,200 max wordcount, no more than two entries per person, any genre,
- July – why the answer is YES, hosted by David
- August – serenity, hosted by Karin
- September – schooldays, hosted by Michael
Other Contest Entries:
· Best Mates BY Mark Knudsen
· Every Face (poem) BY Catherin Violante
· Friends and Strangers BY Von Pelot
· I Am Circle (poem) BY Iain Yuill
· The Stranger (poem) BY Iain Yuill
· Introducing Jingles BY Jean Harkin
· Meeting Corina BY Peter Letts
· Meeting With a Stranger in Belgium BY Karin Krafft
· Paradise BY Steve Cooper
· Software Encounter BY David Fryer
· Stranger’s Tale BY Michael Fryer
· Strangers BY Robin Layne
· The Aliens BY Zita Podany
· Undoing Awkward BY Judy Beaston
· Sister – comments only BY our contest host: David Porter
Program: Kate Ristau, folklorist and writer, former director of Willamette Writers, presented a Power Point program on various avenues to publishing. She also volunteered to be a resource if anyone has questions about publishing. The link to today’s program is http://kateristau.com/publishing-primer/. Other links to topics in her presentation are the following: _________________
The program covered five avenues to publishing: Journals and magazines, Indie (self-publishing,) small presses, hybrid, and traditional publishers. Highlights of her talk included
· every writer’s experiences are different (so imagine an asterisk next to every piece of advice),
· everything changes all the time in publishing (so what got published two years ago might not be saleable today)
o journals might have a whole new set of editors next year (so, sometimes, you can resubmit a couple of years after a rejection)
o markets change – what sells today depends on what’s selling today
o trends change – dystopian still sells, but don’t call it dystopian
o look at https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/v2/search?query=writers+market&searchType=smart to get Writers Market from the library
o search places like submittable by genre, poetry, scifi etc, and bear in mind some seriously specific “calls for submission” just might inspire you to write.
· pros and cons of each type of publishing (look at http://kateristau.com/publishing-primer/.
o Jane Friedman https://www.janefriedman.com/
o Joanna penn https://www.thecreativepenn.com/
o Jeff Goins https://goinswriter.com/
· And finally, the main question to ask a prospective publisher is how they will distribute your book
o Do you take the book to local stores
o Will it just be on Amazon
o What help will you have getting it into stores and to readers.
Kate also introduced us to a new development in publishing: Kindle Vella that launches in July. It is a method of publishing serial fiction. https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/GR2L4AHPMQ44HNQ7 where readers get the first three chapters free then spend kindle coins to read on. You won’t make a lot of money, but it might make you visible.
Kate added suggestions about finding and using an agent and how to check whether an agent is legitimate. One resource is Writer Beware https://www.sfwa.org/other-resources/for-authors/writer-beware/ . Another is Absolute Write Water Cooler https://absolutewrite.com/forums/index.php
Critique: Jim Elstad led the critique of Mark Knudsen’s chapter. The discussion included the following considerations:
· What is the audience? What assumptions do we make about how an age group will understand issues?
· Is this historical fiction or some other genre? How do genres blend – historical coming-of-age social issues fiction?
· When is a prolog necessary, how does it work, and would readers read it? Maybe prolog is a road-map to the book, while chapters are how the reader experiences the journey.
· What about hooks – in the prolog? In each chapter? How important is it to leave the reader with questions?
· Title: Does the title of the chapter refer to the contents?
· How stories get ahead of the writer’s outline. Titles that tell what’s going to happen later? Characters that want to be seen more? Reaction that comes before the action?
· What is the tone and emotional sense to be carried through the rest of the book, and how is it set up at the start? The protagonist’s sense of confusion, anxiety, desperation, not what he expected.
· Description? How does an author play to (and use) their strengths? How does critique reveal strengths and increase confidence?
· Voice? In first person, how do we avoid having every paragraph start “I”?
· Side characters? Should more interaction with the ship’s crew be shown? For instance, how was this person/cargo allowed on deck?
· Dialog? Should more dialog be used to break up long, descriptive paragraphs? How can this be done if the writing is in a journalistic or diary style?
· Issues? How should the matter of slavery be addressed in this book? Or can the experiences of the protagonist alone speak to the issue?
· Book cover? What will the book cover look like? Will it grab readers? What might be included in the cover and/or the title, and how does this affect the writing?
Mark’s remarks following the critique: The working title is “Eyewitness.” The title of chapter 1 will be changed. Slavery has existed in various forms throughout history, even though it has often been outlawed. Indentured servitude and child labor are alternate words for “slavery.” The existence of slavery has led to developments we’re experiencing in the present day.
Final Reminders:
Next meeting is July 19th, Carolyn Martin workshop
Next contest, deadline first Sunday in July, topic “Why the answer is yes.”
Next anthology coming soon. Please look at your contest entries – those you sent in and those you failed to send in. Recent contest topics:
- Beyond the Headlines
- Words I never want to hear again
- Endings and beginnings
- Dreams
- Let me Count the Ways
- Winds of change
- The Sea and Me
- The Mystery of…
- Meeting my First Stranger
- Why answer is YES
- Serenity
- School Days
We’re all writers. Even if we don’t all want to get published, we’re in the Writers’ Mill; we are “writers helping writers.” So let’s help each other, and help those who want to get published. If we ALL send in at least one entry for the anthology, we’ll have something that truly represents our group. And YES, YOU CAN do it!
Watch your emails for questions about contest voting, and invitations to help with the anthology. And make sure you don’t miss the workshop – Carolyn’s workshops are always fantastically inspiring.