October meeting

Hello writers,

The Write Group met at the library last night and those of us who were there have come up with a few ideas for structuring the group. We have asked for one night per month to be dedicated to sharing and critiquing out writing, and different night will be dedicated to writing from prompts, writing exercises, and discussions about the craft. Mark will be sending out more information shortly.

Please feel free to send ideas and information about writing to be posed to this blog, and invite anyone who is interested to follow the blog. If you don’t wish to receive notifications, please let me know. Contact us at writegroupfredericton@gmail.com

J Heather

100 Writing Practice Lessons & Exercises

Hope everyone is having a great summer. Here is some writing practice for you. :)

http://thewritepractice.com/writing-practice/

Fwd: article

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "roxanne duplisea" <roxanneduplisea@rogers.com>
Date: May 11, 2015 11:21 AM
Subject: article
To: "Writergroup" <writegroupfredericton@gmail.com>
Cc:

someone in the last meeting was interested in learning more about dialogue - here is an article

Dialogue Technique Dos And Don'ts

Posted on May 7, 2015 by Writer's Relief Staff

When writing dialogue for stories or novels, you would think it'd be easy to talk the talk. But writing strong dialogue between characters requires knowing how to use specific craft techniques effectively—and knowing which grammar mistakes to avoid!

Dialogue Techniques For Creative Writers

Mimic the cadences of natural speech, but only to a point. For example: If writers actually wrote, um, like people talked—you know, in real life—then readers would have to, like, stumble through dialogue because of all the annoying, gosh, pauses, and stuff that happen in lots of real-life conversations.

Control the flow. Every time a character interrupts a conversation to explore a thought or make an observation, the pacing slows down. Sometimes that's a good thing—just be careful you don't lose the reader's attention. Be sure to remove any unnecessary conversation interruptions.

Keep speeches short. Unless your character has a really good reason for talking for a long time, and he or she is genuinely charismatic and compelling, resist the urge to write lines of dialogue longer than a few sentences.

Give each speaker a subtly unique voice. Characters who are truly developed in the writers' mind will often have their own subtle patterns of speech and diction. That doesn't mean every character needs an excessively distinct style. It just means each character should be fully developed.

Use dialogue to imply action. Rather than interrupting your dialogue for minor blocking, use it to imply action. "Hey, give me the phone. Thanks a lot. What was that number again?" There's no reason to interrupt the dialogue with a dull line like, "She did give him the phone."

If you need to get emotional, put the words in your character's mouth. Readers love when characters make big confessions or give voice to their epiphanies. It helps us to inhabit the moment with them.

Like our insider info and writing advice?

Then you'll love the many other ways Writer's Relief can help!

From effectively targeting markets, writing dynamic query letters, building authors' online platforms, and much more—find out how Writer's Relief can boost your exposure and maximize your acceptance rate.

And 7 Common Errors That Will Kill Your Dialogue Fast

Adverbs. If a line is truly evocative of the underlying emotion, then an adverb isn't necessary. "Oh, how I hate my life," she said gloomily.

Any word but "said" as a dialogue tag. Along with using excessive adverbs, new writers also tend to use words other than "said" in their tags. "I hate my life," she moaned. Or "I didn't know you were coming," he giggled. First, a person can't "giggle" or "moan" a sentence. A giggle is one thing. A moan is another. Characters speak sentences; hence, "said." You might occasionally get away with words like "whispered" or "cried." But take care.

Using "said" too much. The other side of the "said" coin is using it over and over. Readers should be able to tell which character is speaking without every single line being tagged with "Mary said" or "Shawn said."

Dialect. With some exceptions (David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, anyone?) heavy-handed dialect is passé. When imitating natural speech, make as few changes as possible to reflect your speaker's diction. "Ah am go-eeng to zee cin-ee-mah" is far more irritating to read than "I am going to zee cinema"—but both versions get the inflection across.

Cartoony language. If you're writing a character who may come off as a stereotype, be careful not to choose words that resonate as trite, generic, or cliché. Not all surfers say "dude" after every sentence. Write well-developed characters.

Repeatedly using character names. New writers often have their characters calling each other by name multiple times during a single conversation, even when they're the only people in the room. Unless characters have a meaningful reason to use first names to grab attention—"Jack! Look out for the falling piano!"—avoid it.

Thinking aloud when alone. If your character is often talking to himself or herself, you could be looking at a symptom of poor plotting. "If you are inclined to leave your character solitary for any considerable length of time, better question yourself. Fiction is association, not withdrawal." —A. B. Guthrie

libray meeting for may

hi

Last night was a huge success.  there were 8 of us there and some great stories were developed.

We went over the 5 Elements of a good story - Character, Setting, Plot, Conflict, Theme.

Four new writers joined the group. Estella Zhang - estellazhang24@gmail.com; joannehemming@gmail.com; heather storey - storeyheather@rogers.com.  the other person does not want her name on blog so Heather if you can give me a call I will give you the info.

no one wanted to take charge next month so maybe someone who wasn't there last night would like to give it a go.   the group talked about what they would rather see - which was - that we each bring in a part of something we are already writing to share with the group for some constructive feedback.  not a whole or long piece of writing - as this would be too much.  but maybe a part of something one is having difficult with or an opening of a story, or a scene, or a character description, etc.

The reason for this - everyone is busy and to write something different there is taking away from their writing.

Also if after a few weeks we see a weakness then we could have a mini lesson on that topic and then do an exercise. How does the rest of the group feel about this direction?

For June we are each to bring in something that we are working on to share.  This could be a poem.

See you all next month

Be well and smile

Roxanne

A prompt and things to read

Hi everyone,

I will update once a week or so as people send me items to share, but also feel free to post things to the blog yourselves. As new people join the group, they will find everything archived on the blog.

To start, here’s a prompt for those who want one:  wood, threat, hide.  Maybe for those who don’t like to write on the spot, it will give you time to work on something that you could bring in to share.

Here are some interesting articles that have been suggested to me.

51 of the Most Beautiful Sentences in Literature

People Who Still Read Fiction

Author Bio

Proper Manuscript Format

Be a Better Writer

How To Be A Great Writer

Contests:

ArtAscent call for Writers

A Midsummer Tale Narrative Writing Contest

"Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words." - Mark Twain

Blue Cubicle Press Newsletter_7.1 - April 2015: 4 Calls for Submissions

From: roxanne duplisea <roxanneduplisea@rogers.com>
Date: Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 10:37 PM
Subject: Fw: Blue Cubicle Press Newsletter_7.1 - April 2015: 4 Calls for Submissions
To: "writegroupfredericton@gmail.com" <writegroupfredericton@gmail.com>

On Saturday, April 4, 2015 12:20 AM, BCP Newsletter <newsletter@bluecubiclepress.com> wrote:

Blue Cubicle Press News and Notes

Volume 7, Issue 1: April 2015
-------------------------------------------------
Feel free to forward this newsletter.

 

FOUR CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS:

1. Workers Write! Tales from the Construction Site

2. Overtime

3. The First Line: Summer Sentence

4. The Last Line

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  

1. WORKERS WRITE! TALES FROM THE CONSTRUCTION SITE

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Issue twelve of Workers Write! will be Tales from the Construction Site and will contain stories and poems from a tradesperson's point of view.

 

We're looking for fiction about laborers, carpenters, plumbers, welders, foremen, safety inspectors, individual contractors – anyone who builds or works in construction for a living. Your stories and poems can take place on sites as large as skyscrapers and as small as second bathrooms. Drop us a line if you have a question.

 

The deadline for submissions is Dec. 31, 2015 (or until the issue is full).

 

Submit your stories and poems via e-mail to: construction@workerswritejournal.com.

Word count: 500 to 5,000 words
Payment: Between $5 and $50 (depending on length and rights requested). We will consider previously published material.

 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  

2. OVERTIME

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Overtime, a series of one-story chapbooks, was created to showcase some of the stories we receive that are a little too long for our Workers Write! series, but are worthy of publication.

We are looking for stories between 5,000 – 10,000 words, where work is a central theme.

If you think you have a story that would make an excellent edition of Overtime, send us a query at overtime@workerswritejournal.com.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  

3. THE FIRST LINE
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Don't forget that your stories for the summer issue are due May 1. The first line is:

 

Laura liked to think she was honest with herself; it was everyone else she lied to.

 

(We also need nonfiction essays about your favorite first line in literature.)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>  

4. THE LAST LINE
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
It's never too early to start writing your story for The Last Line. Here's the last line:

She said, "I will," and left.
Due date: October 1, 2015

Email your stories to: submission@thelastlinejournal.com.

-------------------------------------------------

 

Write on.

David and Robin

 

www.bluecubiclepress.com

www.thefirstline.com

www.thelastlinejournal.com

www.workerswritejournal.com

 

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Meeting #1 (April 1, 2015)

Thanks again to Marc Gathercole and the Fredericton Public Library for opening their doors to us tonight. I enjoyed meeting everyone and look forward to collaborating with you all.

I am posting this to the blog and I have set each of you up to receive an email whenever something is posted to the blog. If you would ever like to unsubscribe to the blog, please email writegroupfredericton@gmail.com. At this point, the blog is public. If you would like to share something with the group, but would rather not post it to the public blog, send it to the same email address and we will forward it to the members of the group.

There were twelve writers (yes, you are all writers!) at the meeting tonight. We will meet the first Wednesday of every month. If we decide we want to meet more frequently at some point, the library will accommodate us.

Here is a breakdown of the type of writing we do:

Fiction – Roxanne Duplisea, Diane Peck, Louise Somerville (Louellena), Heather O’Connell, Lisa Jodoin

Children – Cindy McArthur, Roxanne Duplisea, Diane Peck, Heather O’Connell

Non-fiction – Kim B., David Schwartz, Louise Somerville(Louellena), Roxanne Duplisea

Screenwriting – Alex Brewer, Lisa Jodoin

Poetry - Lisa Jodoin, Roxanne Duplisea, Diane Peck, Louise Somerville (Louellena)

Other – journaling (Joan Mitchell), Women’s fiction (Roxanne Duplisea), mystery, romance, adventure (Roxanne Duplisea)

I will bring the charts to the next meeting so that new members can add their names.

Feedback:

Many of you said that you enjoyed meeting other writers, writing to prompts, and that you enjoyed hearing what others had written. Not everyone was comfortable with writing on demand. We don’t have to share what we write on the spot. We could also bring pieces that we are ready to share.

Suggestions:

Writing prompts, learning to write better, writing exercises, discussion, share what you’ve learned, workshopping, giving feedback, expert guest visitors, writing workshops

Topics for discussion:

Why do you write?

What is the point of writing?

(List) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PDt9PDVGHgQ9zM_UNYyPC7ZgW1sjvvgpbxbfNYxRg4c/edit?usp=sharing

Recommended Books:

On Writing by Stephen King

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury

A Writer’s Book of Days by Judy Reeves

Writing Alone, Writing Together: A Guide for Writers and Writing Groups by Judy Reeves

Web resources:

http://Nanowrimo.org

http://polarexpressions.ca (short story & poetry contests)

Facebook (FredNoWriMo; FreddyWords)

writersdigest.com

random.org

Sadly, the awesome short script website I used to belong to is closed! http://moviepoet.com/lock.aspx

Events:

https://campnanowrimo.org/sign_in (April, July)

Prompts:

(Place/Object/Genre) https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8FhvrLUF5gWNkxTeTg4RjFfSkk

(Poetry) http://www.creative-writing-now.com/creative-writing-prompts.html

Contests:

(List) https://docs.google.com/document/d/10yIOe7fSR3cEf5x8CfVFuARXb07m_QeL-0QEny_MWHc/edit?usp=sharing

(Your Story) http://www.writersdigest.com/your-story-competition

Critiques:

(Feeling) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PUqZHUlIt5PDRhQ_5ngdgxs-ypFSwc5hvNu6rsqhlTQ/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CMuw98MH

(Shape Up) https://docs.google.com/document/d/18lHZ0fbnio_o1-gXfdoMFR6DXTjv5FRHD2DzGJUNq20/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CKTCgqYJ

(Poetry) https://kathytemean.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/revising-critiquing-poetry/

(Poetry)https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uLB8XlT3CZU0JhsDlz3AiXTDmEsts6JOFuWIeHjvMhY/edit?usp=sharing

The next meeting of The Write Group will be on Wednesday, May 6, 2015 from 6:30 – 8:30 at the Fredericton Public Library. Our facilitator will be Roxanne Duplisea.

See you then!

J Heather