April 25th Meeting

We will be meeting on Saturday from 2-4 PM to share our poetry, short stories or novel excerpts, memoir, nonfiction...any writing (up to five pages--so everyone gets a turn). Bring 5-10 copies to share with the group so you can receive feedback.

April 11th Meeting

At this meeting we went over excerpts of short stories, a short humorous memoir, flash fiction, and many wonderful poems.

These are some of the things that were pointed out to me in the critique of my piece.
1. Have a hook early on the grab the reader (and agent’s attention)
2. Allow the reader to get to know your characters, what they want, what are the relationships between the main characters.

Last night I looked at the first few pages of books from my bookshelf. I had the advantage of having already read these, so I knew what happened in the story. I was able to see how the first few pages gave a sample of the characters and their relationships to each other and what was important to them.

The best example I came across was the novel Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand. In the first few pages we are introduced to each of the four characters. It didn't reveal the conflict of the story, but it illustrated how each character generally acted and the descriptions of them revealed how each of them was dealing with their conflicts appeared to a stranger. One was worried, one sour and the other flighty and distracted.

What did you learn at the meeting or from some other source recently?

A Writing Buddy

A writing buddy can give you instant feedback. They get to know your writing style and point out your strengths. I recently learned that I have realistic sounding dialog. I never would have known. And as you edit your buddies fiction you also learn how to edit your own work. I think just looking at a fresh piece helps you get out of your own head and look at your work with new eyes.

You can also learn how to develop your craft. I’m learning form my buddy how to pay more attention to writing and researching details. And that when you are working on a piece, you may have something significant that doesn’t fit into the story. Its okay to develop that as its own piece which is an advantage the fiction world has over real life.

And if you’re writing buddy is just putting out a lot of new work, it inspires you to keep up.

Do you have writing buddies or have you had any? How has this person influenced your writing?

Published Works by Members

Am I the Only One That Signals by Bob E. Sherman
http://bobesherman.com/

Description:

Am I the Only One That Signals is a collection of comic essays on a variety of subjects covering everything from Alpha to Zulu. As the title suggests, the author considers himself one of the few people in this world who uses his turn signals. However, the reader needs to keep in mind that this book is in no way intended to be a driving manual about how to change lanes properly.

Published Works by Members

The Eyes Have it by Madelyn Lorber

Available at Books and Books
http://www.booksandbooks.com/NASApp/store/Product?s=showproduct&isbn=9781934248447

Description
When a desperate woman hires a private investigator, the secrets they discover about her birth force her to consider two shocking possibilities. Convinced she is a no one, with nothing, she suddenly finds her life is in peril. Set in a contemporary southwest rich in ethnic diversity, the story involves prejudice, fear of ridicule, the search for a missing person and elusive answers to controversial questions. The Eyes Have It takes the reader on a multi-faceted ride filled with historic reflections as it joins the age-old debate between believers and debunkers.

National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month

Check out these websites to learn about and read poetry:

http://www.poets.org/
http://www.nybooks.com/poetry-month/

New Link: Books and Books

Check out the Books and Books links to find out about authors visiting the bookstore and other interesting things like virtual book clubs.
If you know of any other events please feel free to post it to the group.

Cherrie

Writing Tools

What do you write with/on? What computer programs do you like to use?

If I am writing (as opposed to typing) I must use black uniball pens. I write with Microsoft Word. I don't handwrite often, because I found I rarely bothered to type my work. I have also found Microsoft OneNote a wonderful tool.

Its pretty much a binder on the computer. You have different sections separted by tabs and then pages under each tabbed section. You can save different "notebooks" which I find helpful for my different novel ideas or random thoughts. It automatically saves and you can copy and paste things from the internet and even audio clips. It probably does a lot more that I don't know about. I recommend it highly.

What do you like to use, share your favorites with the group.
Cherrie

April Meeting

Hello,
We will be meeting on April 11, at the NMB Library from 2-4 pm. Please bring 5-10 copies of your work if you would like to get feedback.
See you then!

Cherrie

Meeting on February 28, 2009

We will be starting out with a creative exercise and then we will read the work we brought to share. The challenge for this meeting is to try something you don't normally do. Here are some suggestions:

• If you never write poetry, you can write a poem.


• If have never written before, write 3-5 pages. Here are some links to sites with writing prompts: http://www.writing.com/main/handler/item_id/920368 and http://writersdigest.com/WritingPrompts or you can make up your own.


• If you have a hard time finishing things, focus on revising a story or a chapter of your novel. Think about improving the description of the setting or characters. Tidying up your dialog by adding (or removing tags like "he said") or just making sure your characters dialog is meaningful.
• If your stories always have happy endings, write a sad ending or vice versa.

Please bring 5-10 copies of your pieces so everyone can follow along and so you can can get feedback from the members. We will read up to 5 pages per person so everyone can get a turn.

Cherrie

To finish or not to finish?

What do you do if you're reading a book and you just can't stand it?

Do you keep going until you reach the end? Hide it under your bed? Give it away?

If I'm reading a classic and it seems like everyone else in the world has read it except for me, I keep going. Some books like Moby Dick and Catch 22 started out good, but I lost interest in the middle. Fortunately these two got interesting again.

But lately I've been reading books that I have lost interest in for different reasons. (I will refrain from listing the authors names because honestly, I don't want them to hate me if I am ever a blip on their radar. But if you're dying to know, I will be happy to tell you privately.)

One of them had so many characters to keep track of I just stopped caring. Another one, and it pains me to say this because it is one of my favorite authors, wrote the most boring book ever. I read about a quarter of it and just couldn't go on any longer.

One could also say, reading a "bad" book teaches you what not to do as a writer. Sometimes I entertain thoughts of picking them up again in the hopes that they get better, but there are so many books out there to read...why torture myself?

What do you think?

January 24th Meeting

We will be meeting on Saturday from 2-4 PM to share our poetry, short stories or novel excerpts (up to five pages--so everyone gets a turn). Bring 5-10 copies to share with the group so you can receive feedback.

See you Saturday!
Cherrie

Meeting Dates

Dear Writers and Friends:

Happy New Year! I expect that 2009 will ring in success for those of us who are pursuing some publishing deal and those of us who are polishing up a book, poetry, or a short story!

We are booked for the following dates:
January 10
January 24
February 14
February 28

Looking forward to catching up on new material and new members!!!! The location of the meeting is at the North Miami Beach Library, every second and fourth Saturday, starting at 2:00 pm and going until 4:00 pm.