Writers’ Mill Minutes August 21^st

You may remember Jim Stewart, poet, short story writer, novelist, musician and more from our May meeting. He returned for a much-anticipated second visit in August, where he  invited and answered questions on editing poetry and how to make words count. Around 16 members of the Writers’ Mill braved the heat to attend. Notes on the questions and answers will follow these minutes.

Karin provided delicious snacks, which were followed by interesting snippets of news. Did you know Karin and Beki have both had pieces accepted by Chicken Soup? Catherin has had a piece in Cirque, Jean’s first short story collection has just been released (https://www.amazon.com/Night-Alcatraz-Other-Uncanny-Tales/dp/153471720X/ ) , Sheila’s second novel was released just before her trip to England (https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Sum-Mathemafiction-Novel-2/dp/1630663891/), Robin and Minnie are setting up a small critique group, possible meeting on second Sundays (contact RobinL at portlandwritersmill dot org for more information), and… well, there’s also the Writers’ Mill Journal, now in the editing phase. If you want to add yourself to the list of intrepid editors and can space a few hours to nitpick a section, please let SheilaD at portlandwritersmill dot org know.

Oh, and Wordstock—that great Portland tradition, cheap writing conference downtown—takes place on November 5^th this year. Find out more at http://www.literary-arts.org/what-we-do/wordstock/2016-festival/

Snacks and news were followed by contest awards from Karin’s photo-inspired August contest.

1. Robin with Duprass
2. Karen Alexander-Brown with the Pact, and
3. Judy with Empty Heart

The next contest deadline (September 4^th) is fast approaching. Jean asks us to start with the sentences “The last time I saw (my brother) was twenty years ago. (He) didn’t look so good.” The words in brackets may be changed, but no others. Write a story, poem, essay, snippet… up to 2,000 words, and send it to JudyB at portlandwritersmill dot org (not me) before the end of next Sunday September 4^th.

October’s contest is Fred and Joe fanfiction (animal stories, poems, etc, 1500 words max), ending on October 2^nd, followed by November’s contest—what happened next, from an animal’s point of view, based on Sheila’s swan picture (1500 words max)—and December’s, RING (750 words max): Find out more at: http://portlandwritersmill.org/contests/upcoming-contests/ (and if you can’t see the swans, try this link: http://portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/SheilaSwans.jpg)

A critique of Catherin’s short story followed, provoking discussion of:

• Location as an illustration of theme (what does an icy place make you think of?)
• How emotion can be conveyed in a storyline (immobilization of grief…)
• What does a first person narrator mean to the reader? (more immediate, more trustworthy—not hearsay; puts you into the scene)
• What does present tense mean to the reader? (again more immediate. Leaves open more possibilities—less assumptions about how the story will end)
• Importance of title (in a story called “Rescue Me,” who is being rescued?)
• Power of parallelism (more than one rescue perhaps)
• When is it okay to leave out the backstory? (hints can be more powerful than detail)

Our next meeting will be on Sunday September 18^th, with Brian Doyle. We expect this to be a great meeting, hopefully attracting new members, so invite your friends and arrive early! Meanwhile, write your contest entry and send it in!

Notes from Jim Stewart’s talk

1. Start with the ordinary. Evolve toward the unique. Your poem will probably start out very ordinary and that’s fine. Reread it, change it, rewrite it… until…
2. When you’re no longer creating, it’s time to stop. (And if you’re still not satisfied, come back later—six months, six years…)
3. While editing, you’ll probably add and change visual metaphors—write what you see, and more than you see.
4. Get rid of adjectives that don’t need to be there. What’s left are the ones that really count.
5. When you’ve edited your poem, retraced your steps, re-edited etc, you just might have two very different poems arising from the same beginning. One stanza/thought might take you in a whole new direction.
6. Write whenever the words come to you. The middle of the night’s okay.
7. Grammar and punctuation are not essential but might be important. They alter how something is read, so they might alter how the poem sounds. The initial version of the poem might have no punctuation. Later versions will have more. But, like the words, the punctuation has to be deliberate—it has to be there for a purpose.
8. Poetry is the oldest art and may even predate music. Yes, there is rhythm. You define it. Could be rap, but doesn’t have to be.
9. Poetry has fashions. Some fashions remove all punctuation.
10. Poetry can have rules—ethnic rules—haiku. You might rewrite a poem to fit a format. You’re less likely to start it to fit the format, but with a format in mind, you might nearly fit it at the first attempt.
11. Form, sound and feel… how many lines in a stanza… where do the lines break: All these change how the poem reads. A line break is a pause. A stanza break is a silence. A line break raises a flag in the reader’s brain.
12. Line and stanza breaks affect how the poem looks on the page too. Appearance matters. Try writing in a small journal so you have to have more line breaks to fit on the page.
13. How do you choose when to break a line? Underline a phrase that really matters. How can you make sure your reader “gets” it? Maybe break with the important phrase and rephrase what came before… or hide a phrase by removing a break so you can bring it back later, even stronger through repetition.
14. Sound matters. Read your poetry aloud then change and reorder phrases.
15. How do you know what’s important? Try moving things around to get a feel for it. Writing poetry is like a voyage of discovery.
16. And like a song. Which comes first, the lyrics or the tune? Poets and musicians often work together. Usually the music comes first, but no always.
17. Lyrics often rhyme. Rhyming creates anticipation in listeners, making them guess what will come next.
18. Start with flow of consciousness and see where it takes you.
19. Novels have to be edited by someone other than you—someone who doesn’t hear what you expect them to hear. In poetry you’re trying to make people hear what you expect—more condensed—more diy. The reader of a novel reads through their own eyes. The reader of a poem reads through the poet’s eyes.
20. So, what if nothing you’ve written seems worthwhile. Stafford says, “Lower your expectations.” And keep writing.
21. If you’re stuck, ask “What’s missing in my poem?”
22. Poetry can be collected and published in chapbooks. Again, appearance matters. Choose your paper size, type, color and fonts carefully (and enjoy reading a history of fonts). Fonts and kerning (space between words and letters) are important!
23. How do you collect the poems? Here you might want someone else—an editor—to help, though…
24. Writers and poets do tend to be solitary, so join a group. Willamette Writers conferences are expensive but membership is cheap. And there’s always Wordstock.
25. Keep writing!