This was our first “recorded speaker” meeting, and it went really well. 13 people attended (4 in person, 9 on zoom), which is about normal for a June/Father’s Day meeting. We discussed, among other things, shifting our June meetings to 4th Sundays to avoid Father’s Day. The library will be happy for us to do that, so please let us know what you think and, if it seems popular, we will make the change.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes June 15th 2025Melanie described how building a fire helped her think about building a story. She listed the journey, from spark to story, in eight parts:
Continue reading From Spark to Story with Melanie Dobson June 2025On the evening of June 12, our very own Ruth Leibowitz, who volunteers for Write Around Portland, will facilitate a 90-minute virtual writing session that focuses on flash prose. Freewrite consists of writing, sharing, and giving strengths-based feedback to each other. It’s a great way to unlock your creativity, build or maintain a writing habit, and get some writing done! No preparation or experience is required!
Continue reading Ruth Leibowitz’ “Short Shorts”, Flash Writing Prose class on Thursday4 people attended May’s meeting in-person and 11 were on Zoom for a total of 15 (+1 other briefly). We started with usual housekeeping reminders.
Our speaker on May 18th 20205 was Cindy Brown, the author of some really fun mysteries with the coolest titles – MacDeath, Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted… She’s also a ghost writer, copywriter, scriptwriter, content writer, traditionally published, self-published with Draft 2 Digital, and more. Find her at https://www.cindybrownwriter.com/
Continue reading Do you want to be Published, with Cindy Brown (and Draft2Digital) 20250515Cedar Mill Library, Beaverton and online Zoom
Ten participants attended online, and eight were present in the library meeting room, for a total of eighteen. We welcomed four newcomers to the group. Ron led the meeting in Sheila’s absence from the meeting room (she was present online.) Matthew assisted Librarian Christine Wong with technology. Jean took Minutes. Our guest speaker Carolyn Martin greeted everyone, and Ron introduced this month’s contest/ezine host Mary B to announce the awards.
Continue reading Minutes April 2025Carolyn provided handouts containing five poems by some of her favorite authors, to heighten our awareness of the ingredients for good poetry and to inspire our own writing. The handout can be found on our website at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Carolyns-April-27-Handout.docx
Continue reading Poetry Workshop with Carolyn MartinWriters’ Mill saw 8 attendees in-person and 7 online in March, for a total of 15 people. The topic was dramedy, and the meeting was structured like a writers’ room creating a comedy drama from a newspaper article. Conversation was lively and exciting, and full of invaluable lessons for all writers—fiction, memoir, even poetry as well as drama. I will try to convey what we learned in these minutes for the benefit of those who missed out. But more important than the details of discussion was the chance to see and hear feedback directly from our fellow writers, readers, and audience members. An invaluable session—thank you Ria.
Continue reading Minutes March 2025Ria Russell attended a dramedy class given by two Hollywood writers at a writing conference, and brought the experience to us all through a news article (ironically an NBC (peacock) article about a “therapy peacock” and it’s owner being refused permission to fly). We all had access to the article before the meeting and everyone had read it, so we were able to go straight into the “writers’ room” to plan our script.
Continue reading Dramedy with Ria Russell, March 2025