Liz’s Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Join a Writer’s Group

Thank you Jack, Camille and Susan for chiming in and letting us know how you work with your writing groups. Through their networking (California Writers Club, Sisters in Crime, and online writer’s forums) the three have found communities to support their writing.

Liz’s Top Ten Reasons Why You Should Join a Writer’s Group

1. Help you with discipline! You know the date your meeting looms. If you don’t show up with a manuscript, you’ll be teased, shamed or forced to give up books and chocolate for a month.

2. Improve your writing. Through everyone’s critiquing of your work, you’ll discover your writing strengths and weaknesses and how to improve your craft.

3. Improve your own ability to critique. Learn how to discuss writing technique, styles, and craft.

4. Get ideas. Brainstorming frequently occurs and ideas multiply!

5. Form a bond with fellow writers.

6. Discuss reading, books, and literature when appropriate. Find the next book you should read to help you with your writing project.

7. Network with regards to markets, conferences, editors,
agents . . .

8. Get yourself away from too much work at school, home, work-work, noisy children, dirty dishes, elder care, a messy house, a cluttered office, or whatever is driving you bonkers at home.

9. Since you want others to take you seriously, saying you’re in a writer’s group gives you credibility.

10. Being in a writer’s group provides you with great therapy. If you receive a rejection and you tell a non-writing friend or a spouse they might look at you like a whiner or a loser. But tell your writer’s group, and they will surround you with sympathy, the right words, and the most important thing of all . . . chocolate.

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Writer’s Groups: Here’s How Mine Works. What About Yours?

This weekend our writer’s group met. I feel very fortunate to be in an excellent group of writers who all take their work very seriously. We all get along well, and no one takes offense at being critiqued. Focused on writing for children, we meet once a month (although we did take a couple of months off for the summer when vacations and life got in the way) and read our work aloud.

We also provide printed copies out for everyone. “Everyone” totals six people now, although up until a few months ago we had seven. One had to drop out due to her increased work schedule.

We take turns reading our work and then the group shares their thoughts on how the writer can improve the manuscript. Sometimes the writer brings an idea, and we conduct a brainstorming session. Fun energy abounds, as words fly back and forth. If we could see our thoughts, large colorful illustrations would pop up as giant bubbles all around us!

The great thing about our group is that we all get along, we enjoy each other’s work, and we are writing for a similar audience. We also share markets, advice, and industry news with each other.

What about you and your group? What do you like about it? Or are you having difficulties with it? Share what works for you or how you’ve overcome a problem you’ve encountered.

Writing prompts: 1. Write a scene using a writer’s group as the setting, with writers as the characters. Through in conflict for spice! 2. The title of this story: My Writer’s Group Went to New York. (Yes, it can be a fantasy. Or even a murder mystery!) 3. Write an essay about your experiences with writer’s groups.

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Rat Tales

Yesterday on our morning walk, my neighbor and I discovered a rat. Not an ordinary, wild rat. But a white, domesticated rat, with a brown stripe down his back. He stood up on his little paws and wiggled his whiskery nose right at the side of our path.

I stopped to stare.

The rat didn’t seem to care. He didn’t run. He didn’t hide. Just scampered to the side, cocked his head, and observed us.

“He’s not afraid,” said Hilde.

“Someone must have dumped him,” I said.

How could they?

We discussed it. He wouldn’t survive long out here. Hawks circled frequently. Other animals we didn’t even know about must come out at night. Not to mention the cats who ran freely around here all the time.

“We should try and catch him,” I said. “We could give it to a no-kill animal shelter or the Lindsay Museum.”

“I have a cat cage,” said Hilde.

We walked home and returned with it. I brought a cracker with peanut butter, and a small container with water. However, now we had a mission, the rat seemed to know. He zoomed into a mound of brush. We saw a flash of white beneath the branches. And then we didn’t.

“Where did he go?” asked Hilde.

“I don’t know. He was there, and then he wasn’t. It’s like he disappeared into thin air,” I said.

By now, we had attracted a crowd of walkers. They started peering into bushes and next to rocks.

“Look!” said Hilde, pointing to the brush.

There was the rat again, his head popping up. A hole was hidden beneath the twigs and branches. Ah, clever.
Our problem is that we weren’t thinking like an animal. We were thinking like people.

“He’s not going to come out now,” I said. “He’s going to have to get used to us. Each day we’ll feed him.”

Today was day two. He scampered right over to me, grabbed the cracker from the ground, and ran back to the safety of his ground cover.

What will day three bring?

***

Sometimes I find that my writing is like that. I’m hiding from my middle grade fiction right now. I write a scene, and then run and hide back into the safety of nonfiction, which is easier in many aspects for me.

Writing Exercise: 1. Take a risk. Write that hard scene! Go to the emotion of whatever it is that is the toughest part of all. Make your characters deep. Do the hard work that is required of writing.
2. Write about an animal you’ve known.
3. Write a fantasy story about an animal. Get into the animal’s thoughts and mind. Try doing the story from the animal’s point of view!

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Six Word Memoirs

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6678973.html?nid=3792&source=title&rid=1819285174

Inspired by
Hemingway’s legendary six-word story “For sale: baby shoes, never worn” a new book has been released where teens have written their six word memoirs. Why don’t you try to write some of yours? Visit this School Library Journal article to see some writing tips. Doesn’t it sound like fun?

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Keep Reading Rainbow on the Air!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/return-reading-rainbow-to-the-air

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National Contest for Middle & High School Students!

In honor of National Inventors Month in August, Inventors Digest Magazine and partners are sponsoring the 2059 Essay Contest for middle school and high school students.

Your assignment: What will the world look like in 2059?

In 1959, the internal pacemaker, the microchip, the Barbie doll and pantyhose were invented. Each was significant in its own right. But that was so 50 years ago.

Show us in 500 words or less what technology, tool, product or service will shape our lives in 2059 and why. The Grand Prize includes:

-A laptop computer

-Your essay published in Inventors Digest

-A year’s subscription to the magazine

-Possible appearance on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Everyday Edisons

-A killer T-shirt

-Brain-teaser games

Eligibility: All middle school and high school students ages 12-17 in the United States. Grand prizes will be awarded for best middle school and high school entries. North Carolina and South Carolina entrants also are eligible for the regional Grand Prize, an iPod, courtesy of charlotteobserver.com

Entry rules: Download official entry and all permission forms. All essays must be original work of the student. Only 1 (ONE) entry per student. Submit essays and forms to Inventors Digest, [email protected] with Essay Contest in the subject line or mail to Inventors Digest, Essay Contest, 520 Elliot St., Ste. 200, Charlotte, NC 28202 or fax to 704.333.5115. Include your birth date, school, address and phone number.

Criteria: Entries will be judged on clarity and vision of how we will use new technology or products in the year 2059. Winning essays will demonstrate imagination rooted in science and engineering principles. In other words, the best essays will show what’s possible as well as practical.

Deadlines: Submit essays Aug. 1-31, 2009. All entries must be postmarked by Aug. 31, 2009.

Winners will be notified on or by Sept. 28, 2009.

For entry forms visit www.inventorsdigest.com

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Poetry Contest for Students Ages 5 – 19

http://www.riverofwords.org/contest/index.html

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Memorable Books for You?

There’s a game on Facebook where you think of 15 books that have “stayed with you” for your life. Which books have had some special meaning for you?

Sometimes books play a part of nostalgia and bring back the wonderful memories of the time when we read them. With writers, these books often have taught us something valuable.

Which books have left an impression upon you?
Of course, it’s usually very difficult to limit it to only fifteen. Here are mine:
1. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White. (Read the first sentence. I think it’s the best first sentence! Propels the entire novel forward.)
2. The Borrowers by Mary Norton (Nostalgia for me in my youth. A complete “little” world.)
3. A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz (Great pacing, good “bad” characters!)
4. A Long Way From Chicago by Richard Peck (Verbs, setting, humor, characters . . . what isn’t to like?)
5. The Moffats by Eleanor Estes (One of the series that I loved as a child)
6. Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren (Humorous character series)
7. Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles (Should have won the Newbery in my opinion)
8. Owl Moon by Jane Yolen (Poetic picture book)
9. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank (Written by a teen that is AMAZING!)
10. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg (Characters AND plot. What more could anyone want?)
11. East of Eden by James Steinbeck (or just about any book by him)
12. Princess Bride by William Goldman (this is so funny I laugh every time)
13. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (obvious classic)
14. The Three Only Things by Robert Moss (for using dreams and creativity)
15. The Ghost Belonged to Me by Richard Peck (the entire series)

What are some of yours?

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Writing Fiction

From Christine:

I start with people/characters I know, making word sketches. I consider settings with which I am familiar. Then I consider what I want to say about our world – my beliefs, my joys, my sorrows. Next I create a crisis that will reflect this theme, and this will be the hinge of the plotline. Everything before will lead to the crisis, and everything after will be the denouement, epilogue, resolution. With this general outline, I begin to pull my characters through the story, and as they grow the story will change and mature. All the while I’m honing in on detail and pace. And all the while I’m reading good writing, immersing myself in the best of fiction. Ah, such a joy!
Christine Sunderland
http://ChristineSunderland.com

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Using your dreams to power creativity

I’m sharing some information that came across my computer. One of my favorite books of all-time is The Three Only Things by Robert Moss. Now this master of using your dreams to help your creativity will be in the Bay Area. Take a look at his book. If it appeals to you, the event will also speak to your creative soul!

Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and the Imagination
With Robert Moss

At John F Kennedy University
100 Ellinwood Way, Pleasant Hill, CA, www.jkfu.edu
August 14th, 2009, 7:30pm to 9:30pm

In this fun, high-energy program we’ll learn techniques for empowering and healing our lives, every day, through dreams, coincidence and imagination.
Dreaming, we have access to rich sources of healing and creativity. In our dreams, we are coached on how to handle challenges and opportunities that lie in the future; we become time travelers and communicate with spiritual teachers and allies.

Coincidence may be a signal from a deeper world, and a chance encounter may be an amazing opportunity. By monitoring the play of coincidence, we awaken to a hidden logic of events, and gain access to extraordinary counsel. Synchronicity opens paths we never noticed before, and draws new people and events towards us according to our passions and our willingness to go with the flow.

Through the practice of imagination, we can help to heal our bodies and move towards the manifestation of our heart’s desires. As Tagore said with a poet’s insight, “the stronger the imagination, the less imaginary the results.”
Fee: On-site tickets $15. JFKU students $8. Please make checks payable to “Robert Moss”.

Information: email: [email protected]

Robert Moss is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of shamanism and modern dreamwork and leads popular seminars all over the world as well as a lively online dream school. A former professor of ancient history and magazine editor, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His seven books on dreaming and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamgates, The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination and The Secret History of Dreaming. His website is www.mossdreams.com.

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