With thanks to Karin and Judy…
WRITERS’ MILL MINUTES
13 writers attended the Writers’ Mill meeting with Wildfire Writer Christi Krug. As Sheila was vacationing in England, Norm had the honor of chairing the meeting. The inspirational talk and writing exercises provided by Christi were followed by Robin’s delicious snacks. After the break Judy handed out the writing awards on behalf of Jean for the July contest. Thereafter Lavonna led the critique of the second part of Matthew’s story as well as Robin’s story.
After Norm introduced our speaker, Christi Krug, members were asked to introduce themselves by telling what genres they write. Answers included:
- Novels—contemporary, historical, humorous, mystery, literary, spy stories, romance, amputee fiction
- Memoir—autobiography, family history, fictionalized family history
- Creative non-fiction
- Short stories
- Drama
AWARDS AND UPCOMING CONTESTS
Awards for the July contest, Postcards from the Edge, went to:
- · First Place: Sheila Deeth for “Dear Alice”
- · Second Place: Karin Krafft for “Deception”
- · Third Place: Jennifer Hemmeyer for “Summer Bliss”
OTHER ENTRIES:
- · “A Most Holey Adventure” by Sheila Deeth
- · “Eco-Tourism” by Karen Alexander-Brown
- · “Kathy With a K” by Robin Layne
- · “Postcard From Portland” (poem) by Roseanna Ellis
- · “Postcards From Kevin” by Beki Muchow
- · “Split Decisions” by William Collopy
- · “Transitions in Snippets” by Judy Beaston
- · “Where’s Patsy?” by Jean Harkin
- · “Wrong Address” by Beki Muchow
UPCOMING CONTESTS
August (DEADLINE: midnight, Sunday, August 7th)
This month’s contest, selected by Karin Krafft, invites you to find inspiration from a photo (NOTE: you must visit the contest page to view the photo).
The story, poem, essay created need not be exactly about what you literally see here. The point is to muse upon the details as well as the overall image and let your creative imagination explore ideas, then compose a story, poem, essay (or one of each.) Send your entries of no more than 1000 words to judyb@portlandwritersmill.org NO LATER than midnight on Sunday, August 7th.
September: THEME: And Now What?
This month’s contest, designed by Jean Harkin, invites you to take a specific opening and give us “the rest of the story.” Every entry in this contest will begin with the following two sentences:
“The last time I saw (my brother) was twenty years ago. (He) didn’t look so good.”
The items in parenthesis are the only words you may change. They could be replaced with sister, aunt, mother, boyfriend, etc. OR even “it” — whatever fits your story.
Send your entries of no more than 2000 words to judyb@portlandwritersmill.org
Entries will be accepted from August 8, 2016 – Sept. 4, 2016
OCTOBER: THEME: Fred & Joe Fan-Fiction
Contest theme devised by Sheila Deeth. This month’s contest is a Fred and Joe fan-fiction contest. We’re looking for kid-friendly (this is PARAMOUNT) stories about Fred, Joe, Cat, Kitkit and their family of Man, Woman and Child. Other possibilities include essays about family pets or poems about animals–whether about Fred and crew or not.
Send entries to: judyb@portlandwritersmill.org
Entries will be accepted from Sept. 4, 2016 – Oct. 2, 2016
CRITIQUES
Lavonna led the critique of both Matthew’s and Robin’s work.
First up was chapter 2 of Matthew’s story, A Little Lost Princess.
Critique Questions Addressed:
- What did you like most about this story?
- Historical facts.
- Pacing of the story.
- Did the dialogue of the girls feel real?
- Target audience?
Then we continued with the critique of Robin’s story, Changing Planes.
Critique Questions this time addressed:
- Pacing of the story.
- Character Development
- Thoughts on the ending
- How did you feel when you found out who Randy was? Was it too early/too late?
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Notes from Christi Krug’s talk, July 2016
Christi gave us a handout, ‘Following the Thread’ and read a poem by William Stafford about Following the Thread.
– We learn from the challenges we have.
– You can still consider yourself a successful writer if you have challenges.
– One obstacle is finding your way when you are lost.
§ Writing a novel – where do I go from here?
§ Research – you can get lost in researching
§ Run-on sentences
§ Somewhere between the beginning and end the plot has a hole.
§ Where do you go from there?
– Creativity is created in times of lostness.
– Your writing changes day to day.
– You write about what you understand at this moment.
– Your life and your writing are connected.
Exercise:
– As I look back on my life what is the thread that has given me a sense of meaning or purpose?
– What kind of situations cause you to let go of the thread?
– Can you think of a time you let go of the thread?
Wild Writing exercise.
Write for ten minutes without stopping and without editing.
The prompt: The last time I felt lost….
If you can’t think of anything to write, just keep writing, don’t stop.
The voice that tells you that you can’t go on can’t be trusted.
If you stop, the editor wins.
The mind doesn’t write, the hand writes.
Word. She then asked us to find a word in the writing that caught our attention. We repeated this exercise three times.
Fear is not living. Avoiding things that we are afraid of does not make for the best writing.
As she rounded up she said that she coaches one-on-one. Additionally, she’d be happy to read what we had written during the ten minute exercise.
Email address christi@christikrug.com