Writers’ Mill Minutes Jan 20 2019
Twenty people attended January’s meeting, a number that included Matthew, celebrating his tenth anniversary with the group; two members attended for just their second time; and four newcomers. We are delighted to welcome all of you and look forward to a productive and encouraging year.
Sheila began the meeting with a tribute to Brian Doyle, a much-loved author and speaker who, it turned out, was also much-loved by our transatlantic member, Sheila’s mum. Members and new members then introduced themselves with brief comments and what or who brought them to the Writers’ Mill—ranging from information on a Cultural Event website to NaNoWriMo.
Besides offering talks from speakers (not all as famous as Brian Doyle was), and a place to meet people who don’t think you’re totally crazy for wanting to write, the Writers’ Mill provides:
- Monthly writing prompts for our online writing contests, to inspire and encourage you
- Feedback in the form of comments and voting on the contests
- Critiques either in small groups (we have at least two small groups and would love to help you set up more), or in the large group (see below for notes from this month’s critique)
- Snacks of course (we invite members to sign up and bring some. Bob brought fantastic snacks this month, carrying everything on his bike!)
- Friends!
- And more.
Find out more on our website at http://portlandwritersmill.org/
Karin handed out awards for this month’s contest: the prompt was “the Big Stare” so we all stared at her. The winner was Zita with A Student’s Nightmare; second place went to Joanne for Visibly Black; and third place went to Sheila for Invisibility. Contest deadlines are always the end of the first Sunday of the month, and meetings are always (except at Easter) on the third Sunday of the month. Voting on contests always ends on the Tuesday before the meeting. The winner of January’s contest gets to pick the theme (and small prizes) for May; February’s winner will pick a theme for June, etc. Upcoming contests are:
- Ending Feb 3rd, hosted by Matthew, Revisit (reprise a previous character)
- Ending Mar 3rd, hosted by Sheila, Dialog
- Ending April 7th, hosted by Sheila, Description
- Ending May 5th, hosted by Zita… TBA
Find more information on our website at http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/ using the appropriate password, and please WRITE!
- Send all contest entries to contest@portlandwritersmill.org,
- and questions about the website to admin@portlandwritersmill.org. (We are not the same person!)
Today’s meeting continued with our annual review of goals and achievements. While we may not all have achieved all we planned in 2018, it soon became clear we had each attained many goals:
- Nearly everyone wrote 500 words a day if you include emails
- About 10 people entered at least two writing contests (if you include our contests) and five entered at least 6!
- Two members succeeded in writing murder myseries, two finished writing novels, and two completed collections (one non-fiction).
- Four members felt their writing style had improved or expanded, and four had begun to write things they never tried before.
- Ten are published, many of those in our Fine Lines anthology, but at least three elsewhere as well!
- Seven feel they are reading more (essential if we plan to write)
- Four have managed to polish their work.
- Two are writing a story a month
- Two have worked on character studies
- At least one has worked on self-publishing
- But, sadly, none of us managed to get an agent or get a book into a bookstore. Still, there’s always 2019!
Everyone wrote their goals for this year on small (cat-adorned) bits of paper, which are now stored in the magic box, ready for our next review (in December 2019 or January 2020 I expect). Good luck everyone!
Next we tried setting some goals for the Writers’ Mill itself. What do we want to learn this year? How can we best help each other? We made a list of ideas and were pleased to find how well they mesh with speakers we’ve already arranged:
- Sheila Deeth, author of the Mathemafiction novels and the Five-Minute Bible Story Series, is our speaker in February. She will talk about how to choose a writing voice. What difference does 1st person/3rd person/past tense/present tense etc make to the reader’s expectations?
- Zita Podany, author of Vanport, will speak on how to set up your website and blog in March (on St. Patrick’s Day)
- Carolyn Martin—“I am a poet. What’s your superpower?”—is multiply published in many places, and a super-inspiring, much in demand, workshop leader. We’re incredibly lucky to have her return to us in April, on the Sunday after Easter, with more inspiration, and more help with our writing style and use of language.
- May is still open.
- Donna Reynolds is an experienced copyeditor and proofreader who helps writers make their work the best it can be. She will join us in June to help us learn how to self-edit and how to decide when we need help in producing a book.
- Which leaves August to December, in which we’ll attempt to address those other requests…
- A workshop where we take some writing that’s not quite working out and workshop how to improve
- A class on character design and development—what characteristics might matter, why, and how do we convey them
- A session on software—Walt talked about Scrivener last year, but what about all the other programs supposed to “help” us, and what about those of us who missed his talk? What about book covers as well as book interiors?
- A session on how to critique—some of this was covered by Sheila last year, but how do we set up a small critique group; what’s the difference between critique and beta-reading; how will Matthew find his beta-readers?
- And… how will anyone find anything on our website?
Actually, there’s an answer to that last one. As long as you’re using a computer rather than your phone, go to http://portlandwritersmill.org/ and look on the left hand side of the page, near the top of the black column. There’s a word “Categories” with a white space underneath (where it says “select Category”). Click on the arrow at the end of the white space and select the category of article that you’re interested in (there will be a number next to it indicating how many articles will appear). I should warn you, the minutes can be long, so looking for posts that aren’t minutes will be more useful, then click on “read more” to read more of the post. If that doesn’t work, look just above the categories box. Type the thing you’re interested in the search bar there and see what appears. I confess, I’ve not categorized everything, but I’ve done better than I thought, so it should be useful.
Our session ended with a critique of Jean’s story, led by Jim. Many questions were discussed and, as always, the critique provided all of us with ideas, inspiration and information. In particular:
- How do you pull in a reader? A strong first sentence, inviting questions, helps.
- How do you create a sense of date and time? You can specify when the action takes place, but including real details makes the statement real. Google is a good resource for old photographs of real places.
- How do you avoid overwhelming the reader with facts? Keep a natural voice; narrate the story with details as they appear to the narrator—details that matter to the narrator.
- How do you convey the passage of time—say of two years? Maybe mention something that’s changed.
- What effect does tone of voice have? Jean’s story was narrated by a very innocent observer, allowing the reader to provide the emotion. Why was first person narration so effective here?
- How do you balance detail and drama?
- How do you balance character development and action?
- Do you have to answer all the reader’s questions? Probably not. Leave them wanting more. Leaving them thinking and let them draw their own conclusions.
- How might you develop a short story into a novel or an anthology? What would you have to add or change?
Jean explained afterward that her story was based on real events, and even on a real doll; a photo is provided here. The story will be published in the Itty-Bitty Writing Space Flash Fiction Anthology! Congratulations, and thank you Jean; thank you Jim too.
