East
Beach Writers’ Guild
November 14, 2013
Meeting Notes
November 14, 2013
Meeting Notes
Present: Sally, Gina,
Randi, Elizabeth, Shelley, Michael, Pat, Jenny, Mary Jac, Juanita, Siobahn
Welcome and Introductions
New Business:
Meeting
Times: Some Evenings? The majority were ok with alternating
evening times with mornings. We will try
this at some point in 2014.
Upcoming meetings:
o
Friday, December 13: Editor - We will hope to have author, Sheila Buff
Skype in with information and tips on the critique process. Google Sheila and Joe Buff – authors.
o
January 17: Critique session - the first 5 people who email in their five
pages of double spaced, Times New Roman, 1” margin publications before Jan 8th
will be considered for the group critique.
o
February 22: Self-Publishing - we hope to have an author speak to us on
self-publishing. Perhaps this will be an
evening meeting.
o
March 21: Possible Road Trip to Virginia
Festival of the Book Charllottesville.
o
April 18 (Good Friday…possible change): Critique
Session
Toys for Tots: Bring an unwrapped book to next meeting for
donation to Toys for Tots
Starter
Sentence: This month’s starter sentence
was, “The turkey was delicious but something tasted funny about the gravy. Then all of a sudden…” (See some of the submissions on our Facebook
page and/or blog. – Send Randi your sentences completed if you’d like them
included). rgklein@verizon.net.
A
community service project was recommended…Organizing and cataloging the East
Beach library in the clubhouse. Randi
volunteered to lead the project and many others volunteered to help.
Michael – Michael had a handout that was very helpful about
watching the “Lard Factor” and having too many extra, unnecessary wording.
Elizabeth – Enjoys observing children and what interests
them in order to see what types of books they may like. She watches and learns.
Sally –
“Write every day.” And remember “POV – Point of View” – Think of the character
with a movie camera on their head. And, From
Josip Novakovich’s “Writing Fiction Step by Step”:
On the topic of character motivation: A character does not work in isolation. A
wolf in a cage, away from its natural habitat, does not appear to be his
natural self—the wolf is without will, has no motive to hunt or roam, and hence
does not even look like a wolf but more like a beaten dog. A character in
isolation, alone in a room, pretty soon becomes like a wolf in a cage—he
becomes solipsistic and depressed. How many interesting stories have you read
about highly motivated, exciting and excited characters who stay alone in a
room? So don’t spend pages, as some inexperienced writers are wont to do,
escorting your lonely character into ever deeper levels of self-consciousness
and depression. Instead, take him out to a party or on a date or put him to
work at a construction site or send him packing on a trip to some exotic place.
Randi
– Sheila Buff told her the best piece of advice: “Ass in Chair” J
Mary
Jac – A 74 year old friend told her “Watch your point of view – don’t have 3
different points of view expressed.
Watch your introductory phrases.
“Show don’t tell” and your first draft is just the beginning.”
Gina
– “If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.” –
Natalie Goldberg
Jenny
– Grammarly.com – advice on grammar mistakes and what to avoid.
HOW TO WRITE GOOD…
1.
Avoid alliteration always.
2.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences
with.
3.
Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old
hat.)
4.
Eschew ampersands & abbreviations. Etc.
5.
One should never generalize.
6.
Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
7.
Be more or less specific.
8.
No sentence fragments.
9.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than
understatement.
10.Parenthetical remarks (however
relevant) are unnecessary.
11. And
always be sure to finish what
Courtesy of grammerly.com
Juanita
– Consider “The Artists Way” a book that is a 12 week workshop toward better
creativity. Including, “morning pages”
that encourage you to write every morning – a “mind dump” that creates space to
think differently.
Shelley
– Consider events like the one she went to at the Columbia Teachers College of
Columbia University. She heard
professionals speak and learned a great deal of advice from children’s book
authors.
See you at the next meeting, FRIDAY,
DECEMBER 13TH – BRING A CHILDREN’S BOOK!