Writers’ Roundtable
Welcome
- Thanks to those who joined us today. It was a good start and should get even better. I will expand publicity and I ask you to bring a friend too.
- Sign the email list
- I need also to know who is not on the email list
- I will want to see if there is a way to contact you, share MSs, etc.
- What kind of group will this be?
- Any and all forms of writing are welcome here although I would prefer to keep poetry to the Poets’ Roundtable that meets on the first and third Thursdays of each month at this same time.
- Any and all levels from beginner to published expert
- Our policy is to critique writings, not writers. The table will be safe for all, the attitude supportive. In the words of Don Sheehan, former director of the Robert Frost Center for the Performing Arts in Franconia, NH, “When the choice is between intelligence and compassion, choose compassion. The result will be a higher intelligence.”
General considerations
- What are you writing?
- What do you want to write?
- Why are you writing?
- What are your goals
- Production (pages, volume, etc.)
- Date, deadline
- If deadline, then why the deadline?
- What stage is your project at?
- Done, half done, just an idea, notes
- What is your audience like?
- Family
- Public
- Personal only
Sharing MSs?
- Depending upon the size of the group and project attributes we may be able to make good use of online communications. In the prior incarnation of the roundtable we had just a few participants and their projects were well-along. We exchange excerpts via email so that all had read them in advance of the meeting and prepared notes, questions, ideas.
- There are any number of ways to do this and email may not be the best.
- NB: The key here is to fully participate. Everybody signs up, posts and comments.
- This may be a subset of the larger group.
Things we will cover
- How we write
- Frequency and duration
- Word processors
- Backups
- Online resources
- Software
- Websites
- Publishing
Link to “How to Revise a Novel”
- I covered during the meeting some of the points in this article particularly apt for the writing process in general. Here is the link:
- https://hollylisle.com/how-to-revise-a-novel/
Friday, September 9, 2016
August 8, 2016
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ReplyDeleteGeneral considerations.
1. What am I writing? A. I have finished a memoir. That is, I have enough copy for a memoir. Because I decided to write as inspired, my material scans years, events, and ideas written about over the last two and a half years, maybe less. I need to bring this together, but more importantly, I need it proofed. Someone has volunteered. I’m also writing poetry. I wrote poetry and published. That was over twenty years ago. I’ve returned to writing poetry with the poetry group you teach, and I like what I’m doing.
The title of my memoir: Leaving Maine. The subject is the troubles of being Franco American while growing up in a Maine town in which the street language was French the language of merchants was French, even the butcher on Main Street or at the local market spoke French and did all clerks anywhere in any shop in town. That’s all gone.
2. I want to write other kinds of pieces, op. eds., magazine and such.
3. My friends have or have had different kinds of hobbies. I have always wanted to be a writer. I started writing Friday afternoon notes to my faculty, anything that crossed my find. Some on staff might have though it was puff. But some liked them and one, a secretary, turned to op. ed. writing for the local paper. She was successful contributing weekly pieces to the town’s newspaper and even gave me credit for inspiring her with my short Friday Notes. I liked that.