Our August meeting was fairly sparsely attended (only around 12 people), but those of you who missed it missed two excellent presentations—one from Jim on ProWritingAid, and one from Ria on emergency preparedness. So, whether you think your latest novel or your home and family are fully prepared or not, you should make sure to read these minutes!

Jim walked us through editing a chapter using ProWritingAid online. (Many thanks to the librarians for setting this up for us.) I’ll include notes at the end of these minutes.

Ria demonstrated many emergency preparedness requisites, and gave an excellent and inspiring talk. For those who asked, yes, she will produce a booklet, but don’t wait for the book to come out. Be prepared, now. And again, notes are at the end of these minutes.

Mary Jane provided an excellent snack table. Robin brought copies of her zines for sale (if you haven’t already looked into zines as an outlet for writing, talk to Robin, and maybe buy one of her booklets).

Sheila reminded us that the deadline for anthology submissions is the end of September… so… just a week or so after our next meeting! Don’t miss this chance to be published in THIS decade. Please send entries to anthology @ portlandwritersmill.org The topic, Looking Backward and Looking Forward, should be open to many interpretations—memoir, essay, science fiction, historical fiction, stories where the past inspires the characters’ decisions, and much, much more; and the anthology will probably have several sections—past, present and future for example. But first, you need to write and send in your entries, to anthology @ portlandwritersmill.org!

Karin handed out awards for the Mom Said contest to:

1. First place, Zita, Mama Said
2. Second place, Joanne, Going to Town
3. Third place, Judy, Mom’s Voice follows Us.

Upcoming contests all have deadlines at the end of the first Sunday of the month (unlike the anthology, whose deadline is the end of September—see, I’m trying to remind you!) Contest entries go to contest @ portlandwritersmill.org. Anthology entries go to anthology @ portlandwritersmill.org. Contest word limits etc can be found at http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/ and anthology limits are at http://portlandwritersmill.org/10/writers-mill-call-for-anthology-submissions/ (See recent or upcoming emails for passwords, or reply to this email and ask me.) But back to those upcoming contests:

• The Days Dwindle Down to a Precious Few – It’s part of “September Song,” but just let the words inspire you in any direction, deadline September 1st (Glennis is our host)
• The Truth is the Disguise – A Halloween prompt from Robin, but again, choose your own direction, deadline October 6^th
• The Future – We’re approaching the start of a new decade, so write something set in the future, deadline November 3^rd (hosted by Matthew)

Sheila shared some other quick announcements:

1. Next meeting is September 15^th. Steve Zell will be our speaker, talking about cross-genre writing. Please send any questions to admin @ portlandwritersmill.org. This is your chance to question an author about writing in general, cross-genre writing, multiple genres, being a published author, winning awards, etc.
2. Jim may have volunteered to lead September’s critique of Joe’s story. But Jim may not be available. Please email admin @ portlandwritersmill.org if you’d be willing to take his place.
3. Ingrid Harper is pleased to announce that her husband Ken’s childrens’ book has been published – the spaceman from the planet omelet– https://www.amazon.com/Spaceman-Planet-Omelet-Ken-Harper/dp/1643881663/ Meanwhile Ken’s novel is in good hands with Donna Reynolds (whose last writers mill presentation can be found at http://portlandwritersmill.org/17/notes-on-editing-from-donna-reynolds-talk-201906/)
4. Virginia Bruce (of Cedar Mill News) is looking for writers, and also for people to do oral history interviews with Cedar Mill “old-timers?” Send her an email at vrb@teamweb.com to learn more.
5. And finally, War Monkey is asking for submissions based on regional/cultural legend or tall tales for an anthology. Find out more at https://warmonkeypublications.com/submissions

See below for notes from Jim and Ria’s talks, and both will be added to the writers’ mill website soon. Don’t forget, you can always find notes from a talk or meeting that you either remember or missed by typing into the search box on the left hand side of our site.

Notes on ProWritingAid from James Elstad’s talk, August 18^th

Jim is the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction, and is using ProWritingAid to help with his fourth novel. You can find him at  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6491416.James_R_Elstad or look for his books at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=james+elstad&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss Pick up spare copies of notes from his talk at our next meeting if you missed it!

ProWritingAid is available online free at https://prowritingaid.com/. But the free version only accepts 500 words at a time, which could make for very slow progress with a 50,000 word novel. Subscriptions cost $70 for a year, $100 for two years, $140 for three, and $240 for a lifetime subscription. Even then, you won’t want to upload your whole novel at a time (or the results would take forever). Still, one chapter at a time, around 3,000 words, will feel much better than just 500 words.

Note from Sheila: if you buy a subscription, you can download an add-on to Word which allows you to analyze text without uploading to the internet. You still need an internet connection for it to work, and it makes Word take longer to start up. Also, it has some odd quirks that might make you either think twice or only use it on temporary files. That said, Sheila still agrees with Jim that it’s really useful.

What will PWA do for you?

• Make you work
• Make you look at alternative ways to write those sentences
• Make you take 2 hours over tidying up one chapter (2 hours well spent!)
• Might lower your word count (by helping you get rid of fluff)
• Teach you to write better (so maybe you won’t need the lifetime subscription after all…)

When you upload your text (or open the PWA tab in Word if you’re using the Word extension) you’ll find several options at the top of the page.

Core  offers a summary of PWA’s analysis, or the option to have suggestions and comments highlighted in the text. Left hand margins provide more information when you click on, say,

• Style (looks for readability, passive verbs, long clauses, too many adverbs, repeated sentence starts, emotional tells, and more…)
• Grammar (underlines possible errors, offers the option to go straight to the error and read suggested alternatives—offers suggestions on commas and spelling issues too) It’s not perfect, but it’s helpful
• Thesaurus (highlights nouns, verbs, adjectives etc and offers possible replacements—while the list would be way too long to be useful, it’s good to check on replacements for words that maybe jump out at you, or that other parts of the program say you have overused, which leads to…)
• Overused (checks whether you are using any words more frequently than normal) Of course, you might have used those words intentionally—e.g. legal-speak during a trial scene.
• And Combo (a kind of “set your own combination report” feature)

The next tab after “core” looks for “repeats,” and recognizes what phrases are repeated in your text. You may have intended the repeats of course—it won’t know; just tells you what it sees. The echoes option lets you go through repetitions one by one. The All Repeats option looks for, say, 8-word phrases, 7-word, 6-word etc. that are repeated in your text. Again, the repeats might be deliberate, but it’s a great way to spot when you use “so” too often, or when “Fred” is always mentioned by name instead or using “he.”

The structure tab tells you what percentage of sentences start with the same word, with an adverb, with…, what percentages are long, etc… with information on how your writing compares with the average, which might be useful. Transitions highlights all those dreaded and/but/for/first words—again, could be useful.

Then there’s readability, which has lots of subsections:

• Readability estimates how long it takes to read (useful if you’re reading aloud to a critique group), how hard it is to read, and which paragraphs are particularly difficult.
• Sticky looks for “glue words.” E.g. in the sentence For those who asked, yes, she will produce a booklet, but don’t wait for the book to come out, the glue words are for/those/who/asked/yes/will/a/but/do/the/to/come/out. Can you tell, it doesn’t like that sentence!
• Cliches does the obvious
• Diction looks for vague or abstract words
• Pronouns highlights pronouns. I wish it told me which ones were ambiguous, but at least it helps me find them. Again, it tells you how your writing compares to average, or to good.
• Alliteration – great if you mean it, sad if you don’t, so good to see it highlighted.
• Homonym points out all the familiar homonyms, but can’t tell you if you got them wrong.

Then there’s the consistency tab which checks spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, quote marks, m-dashes etc. I think it may even suggest adding or removing spaces around dashes. Acronyms are covered under this tab too.

Fiction looks at dialog and pacing. What percentage of your document is dialog? How much is slow, introspective backstory? Where are those slow bits so you can rewrite them (if you want to).

The “house style” claims to let you create your own patterns. Sheila might use it to help impose a house style on the anthology.

And finally plagiarism checks whether you’re stealing someone else’s words—more useful in non-fiction probably, but maybe useful for that section of backstory that you worked on with Wikipedia’s help. (It’s slow!)

• Does PWA “fix” your manuscript? No.
• Does it help you fix your manuscript? Yes.
• Does it replace an editor? No, but your editor can concentrate on the serious stuff if you fix the dumb stuff first.
• How does the price compare with hiring an editor? Editors might run from $500 to $2000 for a short novel. If you’re paying that sort of money, using PWA first makes a lot of sense. And if you’re not, it still helps you self-edit, makes you self-edit, and makes you more self-aware in reading your writing.
• Does it find details like eye color etc? Don’t know yet.
• Does it fix unmatched quote marks? Don’t know yet.

If you uploaded text from Word, you can download the edited text back to Word and retain the formatting. Or you can use the add-on to Word, but be aware it slows Word down.

Is it good value for money? Jim and Sheila both seem to think so. But why not try the free version first and see what you think? https://prowritingaid.com/

Emergency Preparedness from Ria’s talk, August 18^th

Ria has taken the 1st Aid/CPR/AED course eleven times, recently completed the 1st Aid/CPR course for pets (offered by Dove Lewis Pet Hospital), taken “Active Shooter” training, and served on the Building Security Board at work for 15 years.  She had to put together the “go-bags” and First Aid Kits for 3 government vehicles and collected many pamphlets on emergency preparedness (many of which she put on display for us). She also put together SIP kits (Shelter in Place survival kits), participated in Amber Alert exercises and fire drills, and has been fit-tested for several different types of IH masks! She brought many samples with us—car box and “go bag” items—and gave us a very entertaining and informative talk. If you want more information, please contact her at ZafariaR @ Portlandwritersmill.org.

Here are some useful links from Ria:

• Where can we find information and downloadable leaflets? osha.gov
• Where can find out what’s going on in our neighborhood? usgs.gov follows climate change, earthquake activity throughout the world, volcanic activity, etc, with links to explore further
• What about safety information? nsc.org

Then there’s the go-bag.

• Include a mask, needed for volcanoes or forest fires. Look for the N95 (N for NIOSH) available from Harbor Freight. Don’t rely on a simple mask. You can last 3 minutes without Oxygen, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. So the mask is the most important item to protect you. Keep one in the car at all times, and keep one in your go-bag.
• Have food for your pets in your go-bag! Maybe a snugli so you can carry them. Make sure you know WHO will carry the pets.
• Carry water. Have water in your car, water in a refillable PABA free bottle, jugs near the toilet (hygiene matters, even in disasters)… Check your supplies (including water) every 3 months.
• Canned food, especially protein, is essential. Tinned tuna in oil is good.
• Packets of dried food weigh less. Dried fruit, rice bits (with seaweed for protein), berry blend cereals (acai and goji berries are a protein source)
• MRIs are often high in salt (might be a problem)
• Stockpile 2 weeks of food for your family—maybe 4 weeks. Remember you need 2 gallons of water per person per day (one to drink, one for hygiene)

And the planning:

• How/where will your family members get in touch/meet together if the cell phones go down?
• What about earthquakes? Keep away from glass. Shut off the gas! (It’s easier to shelter in place if the house doesn’t burn down, so… who knows how to shut it off? Whose job is it to shut it off. Make sure you know these things). After the quake, walk around and check for cracked pipes or smells of gas. But above all, DON’T PANIC!
• Who will do pet CPR on your dog? (Oh, and don’t forget water for the pets)
• Who’s got the bandages and saline for fixing up wounded people or pets?
• Which things will be powered by your backup generator if you have one? It can’t power the whole house. Maybe label what should be cut at the circuit breaker.
• Etc

There wasn’t time for Ria to cover active-shooter preparedness, and things got pretty rushed at the end. But she is ready and willing to give another talk before her book comes out, so watch this space, and remember to email your questions.

Also, remember to be prepared NOW. Don’t wait for the disaster, or for the book!