Writers Group

Today I participated in my second session of my new writers group.   Belonging to a writers group is good as it gives one an opportunity for feedback.  My first writers group was different.  We brought something to the meetings that we had written and read them out loud.  Members then gave feedback.  At this new group we email something we’ve written in advance and members critique it.  Then the members comment at the meeting and give you their copies with the critiques.

Since this is all new to me, I didn’t critique the others like I could have.  But I don’t feel qualified to make critical remarks because I am a writer, not a teacher.  I can tell when I like something and when I don’t and that is what I feel comfortable saying.  I might see typos or some grammatical errors, but judging whether something needs to be changed dramatically is not something I feel I should say to the other writers. 

On the other hand I don’t mind hearing critiques from members of my new group.  Their intentions are good and I welcome the comments.  That doesn’t mean I’ll always use the suggestions made, but it is worth it, hearing things I might not have thought of myself.  What I most especially like is leaving the meetings inspired to write more.  Today a couple of the members read poetry.  Each came from a different point of view and both wrote poetry for completely opposite reasons than I write poetry.  But I did appreciate their poems and glad I heard them.  And I did enjoy the other member’s writings.  I wanted to come home and start re-writing the first chapter of the novel I submitted.

It is not always easy to push the envelope and do things that force us to step outside the box.  Taking a good long look at what we write from another person’s perspective takes courage and thick skin.  But is also makes us better writers.  Seen through our own eyes a piece of work remains static, but seen through the eyes of another gives us a glimpse of what our audience sees.  And what a gift a writers group can be to open that door and be the voice of experience, know-how, knowledge, skill, and understanding that we as writers crave, fear, and yet need, to be the writers we strive to be.

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Write What You Know…or Not

I came across an old article in Beginners Basic Magazine by Writer’s Digest.  Freelance writer, Linda DeMers Hummel writes that, “Writers should delve beyond the regular rules for writers to make your next book the best it can be.”

No. 1 on her list is to put a desk by a window.  I write at my desk in front of my window.  I posted on hearthealthyboomer.wordpress.com on that very subject.

No.2 is let the wall inspire you.  I have plaques and awards that I hold dear on one wall; my favorite being a water color of a Brownie Girl Scout, a gift for serving as the day camp director one summer in Houston, TX.  Another wall is filled with books and pictures of my grandchildren; a third wall has a piece of hand blown glass, and pen and ink prints of scenes on the Mississippi River in Louisiana, my home state.  And the last wall is where my writing desk and window sit.

No. 3 suggests making a list of negative people in your life.  These are the people that don’t read your work, don’t give you support when you think you need it.  When the list is complete, tie the list up and throw it away.  I have not tried this literally, but I do struggle to accept when I write something and then don’t seem to get any feedback or comments from some in my family.  But then No. 9 is don’t let your love ones read your work.  “They love you.  It isn’t their job to guide your career.  So I will quit stressing over that issue and move on.

No. 4 is my favorite suggestion and that is to make a list of twelve people you, “Like, love, admire, and don’t hear enough from.”  Then write them a letter (emails and cards don’t count); a relative who would  love to hear from you; an unknown author who appreciate your praise; an old college roommate.  “Good writing is about relationships, so resurrect, enhance, create or feel some of your own relationships.”

No. 5 is eavesdrop on the public.  I do that all the time and written about it.  She adds, “The best dialogue you’ll ever write has already been said.”  With No. 6 suggesting you give blood and not just because it is a good thing to do, but “It’s and eavesdropping paradise.”

No. 7 is to learn a new word every day.  She signed up for a free email with a new word.  So I did too at A.Word.A.Day by Anu Garg.  Today I learned the word picaresque.

No. 8 is don’t throw anything away and keep a notebook.  I carry my notebook everywhere I go, but what I didn’t know and do now is that I should not throw away my notebooks.

No. 10 is to start over every morning. Basically she is telling us to keep on writing. 

Today, I will write about something I have never written about before; I will write a letter to someone who has not heard from me in a long time; I will take the time to soak up my surroundings inside and outside and expand my mind; I’ll listen to the rhythm of words that I hear; and I will write about the things I know and then some that I don’t know.

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Journaling

Other than writing, probably one of my favorite things to do is cook.  And even more fun is to write about my cooking.  I found a journal that my grandmother kept when I was five years old.  She was a wonderful cook and although she worked part time in my grandfather’s speedometer shop, keeping the books for him, she found time to cook three meals a day, wash and hang clothes on the line, attend her Monday Morning Book Club once a month, volunteer at her church, entertain on a regular basis, and write in her journal.

In some ways I’m just like my grandmother as I still cook three meals a day, wash and dry clothes, belong to various organizations and write in my journal every day.  My grandmother wrote what she planned to cook, what friends came to her house to polish the silver and help prepare for the party and who attended the party.  She would sprinkle in a recipe for a certain dish or what flowers were used in the centerpiece.  Sometimes she would make a note if the flowers came from her garden or if she purchased them from a favorite local florist, Billy’s Flowerland on Perkins Road in Baton Rouge, LA.

My journals are spiritual and part of my daily devotions.  I throw them out at the end of the year.  At one time I had ten year’s worth of journals packed away in a box.  It took a great deal of courage to throw them away, but I realized they served their purpose when I wrote them and like an old dress not worn in years, I had not looked at the journals since I packed them up.  They were wasting space.

But my grandmother’s journal was personal and intimate and revealing.  She wrote to remind herself what happened that day and by not throwing it out, the journal came to me to preserve.  How pleased I was to read in one passage that she felt it important to write that I had called her on the telephone, not once but at least five times in one day.  She was so proud of me, at age five, to have learned her number.

 I think in some way my personal blog www.prisnasonshartle.blogspot.com  has come to be a journal not unlike my grandmothers; for it is here that I write about the foods I cook, my days with my family, the things that make me who I am. I hope one day my grandchildren will read my blogs and remember me with love as I remember my grandmother.

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Inspired to Write

I knew I wanted to write when I picked up a paperback copy of a Phyllis Whitney mystery. I was fourteen and on a Girl Scout trip to Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas.  Our school bus stopped at a gas station and the book was on a wire turnstile.  I finished it by the end of the weekend and was inspired to write my own novel in a notebook as the bus took us back home. (Somewhere packed away in the attic is that notebook; although I could never compete with America’s Queen of Gothic Romance!)

Thirty years later I found myself writing for a local newspaper, reporting on local events and people.  And although it was rewarding, I did not feel the inspiration I needed until I participated in the first Festival of Writers sponsored by the Arts and Education Council of Chattanooga. I took a class led by Clyde Edgerton that turned my world around.  Among many of the lessons I learned, one was to carry a small notebook with me at all times.  Here I write things I hear people say, contact numbers of people I meet who have a story to tell, and even thoughts or ideas for stories that come to mind.  To be inspired by one of America’s best-loved storytellers; well folks, it just doesn’t get much better.

Unless you get a second chance to join a writers group.  I got that a few days ago.  My first writers group was so good and set the standard for any writers group I might later join.  My first disbanded four years ago and so it was with some trepidation that I showed up to a new group in my area.  Six writers met in the conference room of our local library; all came with the same hopes and dreams of publishing.  And we all left inspired to write- a note to everyone praising the new group, an old novel tucked away in a drawer, a sample of our writing, or commit to posting a blog a day as I did.

 

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