character, Minutes, novel, plot, story structure, Writing

Writers’ Mill Minutes May 2019

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Writers Mill Minutes May 19th 2019

Seventeen members attended our first “bring your own words” workshop at May’s meeting and we’d love to have your feedback: Do you want to do this again?

Norm passed around three excellent books (also recommended by Jean) which offer ways to describe characters and character traits. The books are by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, called the Emotional Thesaurus, the Positive Trait Thesaurus, and the Negative Trait Thesaurus. Look up Ackerman and Puglisi at the library, on Amazon, or at your favorite bookstore.

While passing around the clipboard we introduced ourselves and our most pressing writing challenges. Topics included:

  1. Timing of events
  2. How to kill your characters
  3. How to find the right words (whether or not English is your first language)
  4. What to do with clunky sentences
  5. How to leave out the boring stuff (and what is it anyway)
  6. How family history might provide inspiration
  7. How to find an editor… and more

We also looked at our need for volunteers. In particular we need volunteers for

  1. Next month (June 16, Fathers’ Day). Donna Reynolds will speak about editing, self-editing, finding an editor… Robin is bringing snacks.
    1. Would anyone like to be critiqued or to lead a critique?
    2. Should we try another workshop experience?
  2. July 21st. Mollie Hunt will talk about mystery writing and getting published. MaryJane is bringing snacks. Ria will send something for critique.
    1. We need a critique leader. Please volunteer.
    2. Please will someone take minutes?
    3. And please will someone lead the meeting as Sheila will be at her brother’s Jubilee.
  3. August 18th. Jim will introduce us to software he uses for writing.
    1. What software do you use for writing/ formatting/ publishing…?
    2. Would you be willing to talk about what you use?
    3. Please let us know what you use, even if you’re not willing to talk about it. It will help us know what to include.
    4. And we need a critique volunteer and critique leader. Your chance to get great feedback AND your chance to improve how you critique your own writing. Reply to this email and sign up!

Next came the workshop, starting with Norm, who is writing a novel set in 1924 in Egypt. The novel opens with a letter sent by a young man to a friend in England. He’s not been in touch with the friend for several years, and the letter will explain why he is not returning to England. It will also introduce the fact that this young man has fallen in love…

  1. How do you convey emotion in a formal letter?
  2. What makes a female character intriguing to a female reader?
  3. How do you choose between/ switch between formal and lyrical voices in a letter?
  4. If you keep the letter formal, how do you get readers into the lyrical world of the character’s head?
  5. If letter writing was slow, deletion difficult, and paper expensive, could a writer wax lyrical, semi-regret it, and still send the letter rather than writing it all over again?

Joanne’s true story came next, with the scene of a young woman invited to Portland Golf Club and realizing several relatives and ancestors had previously worked there. The woman takes a picture on her cell-phone and sends it to her brother, evoking memories of past events. But how do you switch between the two points of view?

  1. Visually, stars can be used to separate paragraphs where point of view changes…but the writing still has to keep the reader grounded in the story
  2. Ending one section and reviewing the same event through other eyes at the start of the next might provide some grounding. E.g. woman sends photo, new section, brother receives photo.
  3. Making the image particularly significant could drive the story forward. E.g. a tree spectacularly struck by lightning evokes a memory; the woman takes a photo; the memory becomes real in the brother’s point of view.
  4. Chapter changes also provide good point of view transitions. If there were more description leading up to takng the photo, the author could go straight into the brother’s point of view at the chapter change.

Sheila’s search for the beginning of her novel was the last workshop item. Her protagonist is Siobhan, daughter of a stage magician and a herbalist. The story is set in the present day, in a small town near a forest, somewhere in America. Sheila wants readers to know how to pronounce Siobhan’s name, and to learn her background – that the family never stays in one place – that people think they’re weird and maybe call them witches; to meet her nice younger brother and the older brother who always blames her for things not working; to suspect early on magic might be real

At present her first chapters show Dad’s magic on TV, moving house, Mom’s explanation that people get scared when you’re different, the presence of an old village near the new town they’ve moved to, a scary forest, Siobhan’s persistent dreams of forest and witches, a new friend, and the dream where Siobhan gains her powers. The point of view switches then to a new teenage character who will interact with her. The “Siobhan gains her powers” is (possibly) the strongest chapter, but wouldn’t mean much without the dreams and the forest. Currently it’s chapter 8. So…

  1. How soon should the important chapter take place?
    1. Maybe chapter 4
    2. Putting a really enticing chapter at the start is good, but not if it loses out from having no background
  2. If it’s not at the start, how do you lead up to it?
    1. Okay to let readers mispronounce the name for a few pages, but not forever.
    2. If Siobhan is an interesting character, can we see her through someone else’s eyes at the start, especially if the book includes several points of view?
    3. Discussion about her name, her oddness, the fact that she’s a new girl…
  3. What shouldn’t be left out?
    1. The forest
    2. The dreams
    3. Some intimation that Mom and Dad’s magic might be real.

After excellent snacks provided by Jim, Zita handed out contest prizes. Jean, in third place, received a light switch to light her cellar. Glennis, in second place, received a Christmas gift for her Christmas in Wyoming story. And Karin received jam for her “other grandmother” tale. Thanks Zita for those delightfully appropriate gifts!

Upcoming contests are:

  1. Distractions in Blue (or any other color that distracts you), due by the end of the first Sunday in June
  2. Vacation Disaster, due by the end of the first Sunday in July.
  3. Watch this space http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/ for more contests as they are announced.

Norm led a critique of Jim’s chapter, and we learned that this is near the end of Jim’s novel – will it become another trilogy? He says no… Things we discussed included:

  1. The importance of detail – does it matter if the reader asks questions? – not if it doesn’t distract from their following the story
  2. The importance of repeated detail – does it matter if the information appears in an earlier chapter? – are you sure your reader is going to remember? If not, are there natural ways to repeat things, through a character’s point of view.
  3. What about reader questions where the answer is obvious to the author? – again, depends on the audience; should it be obvious to the type of reader you’re aiming for?
  4. What about details that some readers won’t believe – how do you make them believable?
  5. How details can add tension – shoes skidding, gloves gripping…
  6. How missing details can convey the wrong picture in a reader’s mind… does he jump down or up?
  7. How missing or inaccurate details can distract the reader into asking the wrong questions
  8. The importance of dialog – or internal dialog if there’s only one character: Does internal dialog have to be first person, with quote marks, or with italics? Or can it be third person? Which would be more or less distracting?
  9. How internal dialog might add tension
  10. Where to end and start chapters to create tension
  11. The value of ambiguity
  12. The value of parallelism
  13. When to name a character – does point of view make a difference to the use of names? What about point of view characters – should they always be named?
  14. Does it matter if a point of view character dies?
  15. How to make the reader hope the point of view character didn’t die.

The meeting ended just about on time BUT, Sheila really wanted some answers to questions about the anthology, so PLEASE reply with your suggestions:

  1. Overall topic: Current suggestions are
    1. Childhood
    2. Colors
  2. Title: Current suggestions
    1. The Writers’ Mill Journal Volume 7 (we published volume 6 in 2017)
    2. Something more topic-related (we published Fine Lines last year)
  3. Publication schedule: Current suggestions are
    1. Upload at November’s meeting, print copies ordered in November and delivered at December’s meeting
    2. Upload separately from meetings in order to deliver copies at November’s meeting (in time for mailing for Christmas)
      1. Note: This means you don’t get to watch and take part in the upload process.
      2. Also, it means we’d have to set an earlier submission deadline.

Next meeting June 16th. Yes, it’s Fathers’ Day. But it’s also a great day to learn about editing. See you there. Meanwhile

HAPPY WRITING !

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