December’s Writers’ Mill meeting was well attended, with 12 members online and 5 in person at the library. Those who’d been with us a while knew what to expect, as December or January is when we review the year that’s passed and make plans for the year to come.
Sheila pointed out that Jean has already made a start on planning for 2023, as we already have two speakers listed on our website. Go to https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/ and click on schedule, where you will find:
- January: Maryka Biaggio – writing detail and dialog to reveal time and place
- February: Cindy Brown – what novelists can learn from movies
The library are keeping our website funded, for which we are very grateful. This means we can continue to
- read minutes and speaker notes (https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/),
- find useful links (https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/links/),
- add our emails to the mailing list (https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/newsletter/),
- find contact information (https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contact-us/)
- read, comment and vote on contests (https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/), etc.
The meeting started with
CONTEST RESULTS
- First: Gary Romans for his letter: “Dear Great, Great, Great, (Great?), Grandchild”
- Second: Lyndsay Docherty for her poem: “Vanishing Point”
- Third, a tie between
- Sheila Deeth for the story “Sit”
- Von Pelot for the story “An Uncertain Future”
OTHER ENTRIES
- “Apocalypse” written by David Fryer
- “Dear Isabel of Grand Rapids,” written by new member, new to contest Jim Emerson
- “Lifespan Choices” written by Peter Letts
- “Max and Patty’s Space Adventure, Episode II” written by Matthew McAyeal
- “Playing a Hundred Years From Now” written by Michael Fryer
- “What if…” written by Judy Beaston
- And, of course, Jessie Collins’ essay: “From Long Ago to Far Away”
UPCOMING CONTESTS
- January 2023—deadline two weeks after
December’s meeting—SOON!!! JANUARY FIRST – Don’t delay, write and send today! https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/january-2023-contest-page/
- THEME from Sheila Deeth: Change – with an optional challenge to write using dialog.
- This month’s theme reflects, appropriately, our changing calendar, our changing lives, our changing world was we move into the more official throes of our winter season. And for those interested in adding a challenge to their inspired tale, consider a tale woven mostly from compelling dialog that captures us as readers and draws us into …. well, an argument, a debate, a thriller/suspense situation, mistaken identity, misunderstood, well-intended communication, or perhaps an unreliable character… still centered on “Change”.
- February 2023—Deadline is First Sunday in
February (February 5th) https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/
- THEME: from Michael Fryer: Winter Days
- Ah, the mystery of winter. Real mysteries to be solved or the spiritual, inner musings that are a mystery to contemplate. Are you—or is your main character—stuck indoors, or on a ski slope or in a snow-bound cabin? Days are short, dark but there are sparkles of light when frost delights…
- March 2023—Deadline is First Sunday in March
(March 5th)
- THEME from Gary Romans: Take the Other Road
- In homage to Poet Frost, it’s not the road less traveled, nor the easiest, nor the hardest, just the “Other”. The small fairly inconsequential decision that resulted in a major life moment.
MORE information about each contest is found on the website. Follow the links in the menu.
CELEBRATION OF ACHIEVEMENTS!
Becky Lovely started Writers’ Mill back in 2007 and her mother made a rather cool, square, green box. Each year we write our goals, anonymously, and put them in the box. During Covid, goals were announced online, put in the Zoom chat, or emailed Sheila, and she put them in the box. This year, in-person members were able to write their goals on cat-papers, while those online added them in the chat—Sheila will copy chat goals onto more cat-papers for the end of 2023, and if you have goals you would like to send in, just email them to admin @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces).
Many of us set seriously unachievable goals each year. But the aim of this exercise isn’t to see if you achieved your own goals. It’s to celebrate whatever you achieved, hoping to show that everyone has achieved something worthwhile with their writing during the year.
As Sheila announced each goal, members raised their hands (or their zoom reaction hands) if they had achieved that goal. Joe counted hands in the room, and Ruth counted online. The table, below, shows how those at the meeting did (half points mean members who sort of maybe thought they had achieved the goal). How did you do?
| 2022 PERSONAL GOALS | INPERSON | ONLINE | TOTAL |
| Stay interested in writing | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Enter any contests | 4 | 5 | 9 |
| Seeing any book released with your work | 4 | 4 | 8 |
| Finish what I’ve started | 4 | 3 | 7 |
| Edit a draft | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| Moving forward with writing | 4 | 2 | 6 |
| Lengthen a novel | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| Start something new | 2.5 | 3 | 5.5 |
| Enter every month’s contests | 1 | 4 | 5 |
| Focus | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| Set writing deadlines and stick to them | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Continue a novel | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Find a direction for something | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Get beta readers | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Finish a draft | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Add images to something | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Enter more contests | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| See my book released | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Self pub any book | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Get an agent | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Self-publish a seasonal book | 0.5 | 0 | 0.5 |
| Self-publish a poetry book | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Complete a book of poems & images | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Collect and catalogue family records | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Get a paper, article or essay or letter published | 0 | 0 | 0 |
GOALS FOR 2023
Having rejoiced in our achievements, we went on to set goals. But first we checked out the goals we set for 2022. These can be found at the bottom of the schedule page: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/schedule/ but they will soon be replaced by this year’s goals.
Most things had been covered in various meetings, with outside speakers able to advise us on such diverse topics as what it’s like to be published, how to write for teens, how to research a mystery, and much more. In particular:
- Last year’s discussion and experience with the anthology has convinced us that it’s good to have no set topic for submissions, and to have a willing group of volunteers who will spend hours reading, rereading, and reorganizing the submissions into a smoothly flowing book.
- Joe suggested we define success as completing something. We are committed to encouraging everyone to complete something and to recognize their own successes.
- We had a publishing panel many years ago, where
members who have been published (by whatever means) talked about the experience
and answer questions. We would like to do this again. Jean talked about her
recent experience where:
- The acceptance letter is a definite high point
- Followed by a long down-hill slope
- Missed deadlines, lack of communication, unhelpful emails etc
- But we hope the experience of the book finally being published will come soon and will make it all worthwhile.
- Member news in the newsletters (such as this email) would be great, but Sheila might need some help in coordinating this. Volunteers should email admin @ portlandwritersmill . org
- We didn’t cover poetry very well last year as Carolyn is taking a break.
This year, we hope to find speakers or arrange meetings to cover the following topics:
| 2023 GROUP GOALS |
| Submission grinder – submission tools |
| How to sell at bazaars |
| Publishing panel |
| Writing skills in general – use of semi-colon etc (could be included in editing) |
| Dialog, character, pov, etc (We could use these ideas for contest challenges) |
| Create a round-robin story together (We did this a while ago) |
| Collaboration in authorship |
| Editing prior to doing anthology (Sheila could lead this) |
| Four act structure (Chinese), story structure |
| reading/writing outside our comfort zone (Maybe a “what are you reading and why” session?) |
| Translation, different cultures |
| Add more challenges to contests (maybe one every 3 months) |
| Short stories + flash fiction (We would need a really good speaker, as otherwise flash fiction talks become tedious and discouraging) |
| How to use writing prompts (Ruth could lead this from experience) |
| Mystery |
| historical + research |
| Children’s books |
| poetry |
| Humor, direct and indirect |
| Agents, editors, etc |
Jean pointed out that it’s difficult to find speakers for specific months, so instead of having a July mystery month, we will attempt to assign genre speakers to whatever month works for them.
If you have additional topics you would like us to cover, please email admin @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces). And if you have suggestions for speakers, please emails speakers @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces)
One of our long-standing goals, as a group, is to have more group critiques, and Matthew led a critique of Robin’s story.
CRITIQUE
If you are willing to lead a critique, or to be critiqued in the group, or both, please email critiques @ portlandwritersmill . org (remove spaces). Group critiques give us a chance to hear how different members perceive different pieces of writing, and to learn, from discussion, about the importance of aspects that might not have occurred to us. In this critique we discussed:
- Consistency of world-building: It’s okay to create a mostly medieval world with some modern-day language use, but we should beware of anything that surprises the reader and pulls them out of the story—pulls them out of the bubble we have created for them.
- Setting is not the same as world-building: World-building includes lots of background, but setting is what we let the readers see.
- Flavor: The flavor of a story might be a combination of language, relationships, dialog, description, etc. We should try to maintain a smooth flavor when we write.
- Relatability: Whatever world we build, it’s important to make it relatable to the reader.
- Dialog: When does the contrast between formal and informal dialog (or between old-fashioned and modern terms) add to the story, and when does it pull the reader out of the story”
- Tension: Relationships and dialog can create powerful scenes.
- Rules: We can use events and dialog to imply the rules of the world we are creating.
- Mystery: The value of not answering every question, in order to maintain tension and interest
- Pacing: More attention to feelings slows things down, but sometimes that’s a good thing, so the tension when things speed up might be greater
- Genre: Historical time periods restrict the author. Fantasy frees you. We should try to have some sense of what genre we are writing in.
- Audience: How do we tell if something is YA (young adult) or MG (middle-grade). Middle-grade is more innocent than YA perhaps—more cute? Maybe we need more discussion!
DEADLINES
- Contest deadline is Sunday Jan 1st – New Year’s Day, so contemplate change, listen to people talking, and write! Don’t forget, the challenge is there for those who want to be challenged. The contest is there for all who want to write. Genre is any (just don’t offend). Word limit is 1200 words. And judging will be based on simply reading the entries, not on whether or not you undertook the challenge.
- Next meeting is Jan 15th with Maryka Biaggio talking about dialog and description to convey time and place.
THANKS
Various members expressed thanks to Angela and the library staff for supporting our meetings and supporting the website; thanks also to Judy for keeping our contests running smoothly, to Sheila for leading meetings, to everyone for showing up… and best wishes to everyone for the holiday season.
FEEDBACK
In-person members had some difficulty hearing the online members this month – there was clearly some sound distortion going on, but we’re not sure why. Some online members found the voices rather harsh and tinny too, and had difficulty hearing what was said in the library. Please send your feedback to admin @ portlandwritersmill . org and we’ll work with the librarians to diagnose and resolve the problem. Thank you.