We’d all love our readers to fall into our writing and not know how to get out. Walt showed a great graphic to entice us. But how do we get there?
Continue reading Help your reader get lost in your book, with Walt SochaCategory Archives: plot
What Novelists can Learn from the Movies—presentation by Cindy Brown, 2023 02 19
Cindy’s presentation can be found on our website at https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/What-Novelists-Can-Learn-from-the-Movies-4.pdf : Please don’t share the link.
She gave us a very clear explanation (with examples) of the 3-act plot structure, which, apparently, dates from the time of Aristotle. If it’s lasted this long, as a way of telling stories, there’s got to be something to it!
Continue reading What Novelists can Learn from the Movies—presentation by Cindy Brown, 2023 02 19Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21st2021
Cindy Brown is the author of some wonderfully titles mysteries, Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, … She’s been writing professionally for 20 years, starting with playwriting (hence her interest in the relationship between plot and dramatic structure), then screenwriting, and then… She fell in love with mysteries as a child – loved Nancy Drew, was introduced to John D MacDonald, and finally started reading Sue Grafton and decided she wanted to write like her, especially as her books are set on the West Coast! So… here’s how she led us in understanding more about genre, character and plot.
Continue reading Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21st2021Writers Mill Minutes 202103
Members from around the world and from around Cedar Mill met together for Cindy Brown’s mystery writing workshop in March, and Sheila did her best to take good minutes for those who couldn’t make it. Apologies to those who had problems with the email link – in general, if a link doesn’t work, you need to cut the whole link – or, as one member put it, the whole set of gobbledygook letters and numbers – and paste it into your browser. Judy has kindly offered to field requests for help if anyone has problems with the link at future meetings, thus freeing Sheila to continue to take minutes, so please remember: If you can’t cut and paste the whole link, email Judy for assistance!
Protected: Monsters are Needy – a talk from Author, Editor and Ghostwriter Erick Mertz
Writers’ Mill Minutes September 2020
September’s Writers’ Mill meeting was well-attended with around 24 members sharing space in the Zoom Room provided by Laura at Cedar Mill library. We enjoyed a particularly good speaker, Erick Mertz, announced contests, discussed the anthology, and generally had a very successful time. If you missed the meeting, do try to join next time.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes September 2020Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown July 19th 2020
Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown
Writing Character-Based Mysteries
Cindy Brown
cindybrownwriter.com
info@cindybrownwriter.com
Books: Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, Murder Most Theatrical (Anthology – August 2020)
Continue reading Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown July 19th 2020Writers’ Mill minutes July 19th 2020
25 people attended the Writers’ Mill Zoom meeting this month, and enjoyed a very informative, inspirational and encouraging talk from Cindy Brown, author of the Ivy Meadows mysteries. Cindy’s handout can be downloaded from https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Mysteries-handout-from-Cindy-Brown.docx and I’ll include the edited version with notes from our session at the end of this email.
Continue reading Writers’ Mill minutes July 19th 2020Writers’ Mill Minutes June 2020
Writers’ Mill Minutes Fathers’ Day, June 21st 2020Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes June 2020
We had close to 20 attendees at our Fathers’ Day meeting, including two new members and one returning member. It seemed to be the perfect number to inspire lively Zoom discussion, so those of you who missed the meeting missed lots of fun.
Writers’ Mill Minutes May 2019
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? Continue reading Writers’ Mill Minutes May 2019