Meeting Minutes March 6, 2011

"Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." - Sir Francis Bacon

It was a much smaller group this week than in weeks past, but it was no less entertaining!
Jayne was leading this week and did a wonderful job.

Pat announced that we've decided on a June 4 date for our next Brian Henry workshop which will be about developing characters. He is leading a "Writing with Style" workshop in Guelph March 12.

Judy read a revised story called "Words from Beyond" that she sent to the Toronto Star Short Story contest. It was very well done and she got a well-deserved round of applause!

Marilyn was "channelling Isaac Asimov today" and read from her new blog! She has a great story about meeting Mr. Asimov.

Pat told us that "Diane inspired me to write about anything." She read us her story called "Stalker Mom" which was very funny and well done. We look forward to hearing where this story ends up!

Nancy was interviewed on CBC Radio this past Tuesday regarding her article about why she loves the f-bomb that was published in Facts & Arguements in the Globe and Mail in 2009. It got a lot of attention then and, with someone using the word at the Academy Awards last week, they called her up for her reaction.

Kelli was going to bring her rejection letters she's gotten since starting to submit her children's book to publishers. She forgot them at home, but will bring them next time.

Caitlyn read a piece from the POV of being a ghost walking through the world. Eerie and fascinating all at once.

Joe had a technical problem. He has saved most of his writing onto floppy disks and has bought a new computer that doesn't accept them. Pat said she has a reader that will allow him to transfer the info from his disks to the new computer. The general consensus was for him to email the info from his old computer to his new one. And to get an external harddrive.

And we come to The Prompts!
Jayne had a book she'd read called Creating Character Emotions by Ann Hood and gave us an interesting assignment:  we picked slips of paper with an emotion written on it from a plastic bag. We had to write about the emotion without using the word or any like it. We actually did this one twice since we ended up with lots of time to spare. The second time, she told us to close our eyes and feel the emotion before we wrote about it.

Some of the emotions we wrote about were:
sympathy, contentment, tenderness, hostility, hope, confusion, loneliness, love - parent/child, curiosity, forgiveness, despair, jealousy, revenge, suspicion, gratitude, restlessness, happiness, fear, surprise, anger, excitement, passion.

We all agreed that it was nice to not have the usual "prompts" and that our leaders are getting creative with the things to motivate us to write. It's nice to have some ideas that promote building our skills as writers.

Nancy told me to make a special note to Laura that Pat was especially funny this meeting.

Our next meeting is March 20. Nancy will be leading.
Come on out and write!

Writing Characters Workshop, Orangeville

"Writing Characters," a full-day workshop, Sat, June 4, Orangeville, Ontario

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - now there's a character!
How to find and create great characters
Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Tweedsmuir Presbyterian Church, 6 John Street, Orangeville.
Pesented by the Headwaters Writers Guild

Whatever you're writing – fiction or nonfiction – readers will care about your story only if they care about your people. In this workshop, you'll learn techniques for creating fictional characters and depicting real people. You’ll learn how to breathe life into the page so that your characters start telling you how the story should go.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led creative writing workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Charlottetown. But his proudest boast is that he's helped many of his students get published.

Fee: $38.94 + 13% hst = $44 paid in advance
or $42.48 + 13% hst = $48 if you wait to pay at the door
To reserve your spot, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Writing For Children and YA Workshop October 2, 2010

On October 2, HWG hosted a workshop by Brian Henry about writing for children and young adults. As well as giving us some instruction regarding the many different types of books there are, he also did a critique of samples we brought from home. I was the only one brave (or stupid) enough to stand up in front of the entire class to read mine aloud. It made my day when one of the other students announced, "I want to hear more" and Brian echoed her sentiments.

There are several formats for books that we discussed.
Board books - for babies, published on cloth, plastic, or paperboard
Picture books - 1,000 - 1,500 words,meant to be read to children.
Easy Readers - Pre-school to Grade 2, Usually 32 pages divided into chapters
Chapter books - Grades 2 - 4, About 4,000 to 20,000 words, divided into chapters
Juvenile novels - Grades 4 - 7, 100-150 pages or 25,000-50,000 words.
Middle-Grade non-fiction - about 40-100 pages or 10,000-25,000 words
Young Adult - grades 7 and up, about 175- 200 pages, 40,000-50,000+ words
"High-Low" books - high interest, low vocabulary for students with reading or language difficulties or new English readers.

We talked about how the writer of a children's book usually is not the illustrator - even if they are a professional artist. Most publishers keep a list of illustrators and use them to create the artwork for manuscripts.

Brian also gave us information about children's book publishers, a few books about writing for children, and some examples of query/cover letters to submit once your book is complete.



Several of the group that day were interested in Picture books. Personally, during our writing time, I started a Chapter book which may turn into a Juvenile Novel for my sons.

Meeting Minutes June 13 2010

I'm baaaack....and I'm in a bit of a rush so read fast.

We had another small group this weekend, which was a shame because Clare had some interesting prompts. He used objects this week. A lacrosse ball with a hole in it, a snake head with feathers behind it, wooden spoons for making music, a raccoon tail, and a woman's ceramic spittoon. Yes, they have those! We had as much fun joking about the objects as we did writing about them!

We welcomed two new members this week. Amanda writes young adult fiction and is currently submitting a novel for publication. David Chesterton has self-published 3 novels and is working on 2 more. He is also the grandson of G.K. Chesterton, writer of Father Brown mysteries among many others. David is also a fabulous artist, but I'm biased since I know him fromt the Orangeville Art Group!

Ron announced that he is looking forward to a trip to tour Normandy with friends from England. He is getting closer to getting his book on the wars published! Stay tuned for more news.

Gloria announced that she was the First Prize winner at the Elora Festival on June 6th. Congratulations! She was also Honorable Mention at the Eden Mills Festival and at Words Alive in Sharon, Ontario in September.

Alberta introduced herself as the sister of the First Prize Winner. Ruth told us she is the friend of the First Prize Winner. Jayne added that she is sitting at the same table as the First Prize Winner.

Jayne also told us that she attended Bloody Words Crime Writing Conference on May 28 - 30 this year. She showed us the program which contained such people as Linwood Barclay, Ross Pennie and many, many others. Keep an eye out for this next year.

Richard had some good news regarding our Anthology. He has been in touch with Allen from the Orangeville Citizen. The newspaper will happily support us in our venture and is helping us to seek even more funding from the community. The Citizen will help us out with any book signings and publicity in In the Hills and Country Roads as well as the paper itself. Richard said he would write a proposal to send to Allen Monday since he would be meeting with a prospective supporter then.
We agreed that there would be no cap on the donations we would accept, but anything over and above publishing costs will be donated to the Headwaters Hospital for the Children's Library. Richard will contact Catherine Matzig to give her the heads up about our plan.

Our resident Camera Guy also volunteered to shoot us all. Richard plans to bring his camera to the July 11 meeting to take headshots of all the contributors for the book. And possibly anyone else who is in need of a good headshot. Put on your Sunday finery and look your best.

Retreat.... Just a reminder that the retreat is this weekend June 19 at Eramosa Eden. We only have a small group attending this year and will take any late comers. The cost is $10 and you have to supply your own lunch. Check the Eramosa Eden website for directions or email the group if you need a ride. www.eramosaeden.org.

Patricia told us that there was a presentation of music scholarships in her father's name recently. While she was there, she met Barry Shainbaum who lives in the Dundalk area. He has written a recently published book about celebrities and would like to come talk to us about writing. It took him 200 submissions to get it published. So DON'T QUIT!!! You can check him out at www.barryshainbaum.com.

Richard reminded us that he was the winner of the ratings game on C. Patrick Schulze's blog. He will get a copy of Manuscript Submissions from Patrick. (And he will probably share if we all ask REALLY, REALLY nice...) Congratulations again, Richard.

Nancy read a new part of her story "Till We Meet in Heaven." Very powerful.

Richard talked to us about movie scripts since he does consultations for movies. He had a copy of one called Midnight Rambler by Frank Caruso. Richard told us that if you want to do good dialogue, write a screenplay. You have to be precise and not too wordy. At one point he had sold the movie rights for The Camera Guy, which has since lapsed. There is a partial copy of the screenplay floating around somewhere though.

Gloria told us that she has written 2 movie scripts. She and Alberta used to own a theatre for 5 years. She read her First Prize Winning story Seventeen Crows.

Nancy also reminded us that there is a Brian Henry workshop coming up Oct 2 in Orangeville. More details to follow. You can check out Brian's newletter the Quick Brown Fox.

Ruth read her poem Inspiration, which inspired us all to write!

Ron read a section from his book called Battleground, which talks about visiting Juno Beach 60 years after the war. He interviewed 17 Queen's Own veterans on the beach and had comments from them. We learned that the movie Saving Private Ryan is as close to real as any movie version has ever come. There is a lot of debris still on the beach and in the water.

Clare wrote poetry! He read a poem called Fool's Gold about the oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

We had a lot of fun with Clare's interesting objects and everyone wrote some great pieces.

Our next meeting is June 27th. Diane will be leading. Oh, that's me. Better get some ideas together by then!
Keep writing!

An E-mail from Alex

I thought I would pass on the note I got from Alex this past week. He will be leaving us for a while - but I'll let him put it (with his permission) in his own words:

Hi Diane,

I shall not be back now until the fall. Argentina is calling for a month - my blogsite is www.lodgeatpinecove.blogspot.com and I shall be writing little observational essays, as I travel across that lovely land with my backpack - please send it on to the others if that is appropriate. In the fall I may well be off to Argentina for the winter and if not, Devon, UK or Victoria, B.C. I know, I know they are all such boring places but I am looking to find a spot with a bit more warmth and a place where I shall not be bothered a lot. I want to start "really" writing and if Argentina, then I shall also learn Spanish with the hope of reading Neruda, Marquez, Lorca, Borges and all the other great Spanish poets and authors in their own language. W then to see only glimpses of these giants of literature in our part of the world which is a pity.

So, thanks to everyone and I really mean that. You were welcoming, interesting, and full of humour.

All the best,
Alex

Just a footnote, Alex has my address and will try to send postcards and notes via snail mail when he can. Aside from that, be sure to check out his blog!

Diane

Meeting Minutes March 7, 2010

I'm posting this a little later than usual. I was abducted by a friend this morning and taken on a road trip. Aside from that, I've been busy writing and submitting. No good news yet, but there are 5 more agents who've heard my name. LOL.


We had a large crowd on Sunday and most of them brought things to read, which was fabulous! This means we're all writing! We spent a lot of the meeting reading, except Richard who said that he slammed his head in a door and thought he had an epiphany, but discovered it was really a concussion. Let's hope it jarred something and you put the pen to paper again. We're anxiously awaiting Book 3.


Nancy reminded everyone to register for the Brian Henry workshop on March 13 if we haven't already done so. You can contact Brian via his link on the side of our webpage.


We also decided to make a donation of $100 to the church twice a year. Possibly at the end of April and the end of Oct/Nov.


Nancy got Diane (a.k.a. me) to read a couple paragraphs from Natalie Goldberg's Old Friend from Far Away. There had been some questions in the group as to what was best to write with so we think we have that question answered: (I hope!)

Begin to work those muscles. Just like you'd go to the gym every day, or at least three or four times a week, pick up the pen and to these ten-minute exercises. Choose a cheap notebook, in which you are not afraid to make mistakes. Use a fast pen. Try out different ones. Find what suits you. The mind is faster than the hand. Don't slow the hand down more wiht a ballpoint or a pencil. Cover both sides of the page.

But I like a pencil, you say.

Then use it.

What about a computer?

Use that if you like. Only know that handwriting and pressing the keys with your fingers are two different physical activities and a slightly different slant of mind comes out from each one. Not better or worse, just different.

But remember: there are no excuses not to write. You can't say, but I'm in the woods and don't have my computer with me. Learn to be comfortable with the most simple tools. What if you can't afford to pay your electric bill? You should still be able to write.

Often people who use a computer at work prefer handwriting for memoir to create a boundary between their professional and personal writing. Many writers I know do handwritten first drafts. Then they take it to the keyboard.

We all initially learn to handwrite. Arm connected to shoulder, chest, heart. Come back to the beginning. But maybe that's not true anymore. You might be part of the generation that used a computer as your first way to begin to write. If that's so, then use what you know naturally.

We introduced ourselves to Caitlin, a friend of Jayne's who joined us today. She submitted her novel to Humber School for writers, but the teacher doesn't read her genre which is gothic/horror.

Clare announced that his cross to bear is Nancy. The sunny day, and spring fever, made us all a bit crazy.

Judy read "The Bank of Paper Bag" which she had published and showed us at the last meeting.

Harry reminded us that April is National Poetry Month. His group in Owen Sound will be doing poetry readings at the Grey Roots Museum on April 24. Their theme is: Climate Change and Ecology.

Pat read a story called "Retribution" about a lucid dream she had.

June read from an old story she dusted off. Something she wrote years ago.

Richard wondered if there are contests to submit novel manuscripts. If anyone hears of any please pass the information on or post it on the blog.

Alex read a piece about how we are all becoming bland like "Kraft Dinner." We need to be free and "all used up at the end of our lives. To live and be alive.

Clare talked about his Meanderings column and how it was cut from 900 words to 500 or so. It was about the Creole pig in Haiti. That led to a discussion about censorship in writing and art. We talked about Gary Larsen's unpublished cartoons.

Sonja read part of her novel that we are all looking forward to reading someday.

Anita read a wonderful poem by a young friend of hers named Josh. I am adding it to our blog with his permission:

The Colour Red

Red sounds like a Canadian flag waving in the wind.

When red is bright, it's as smooth as silk, but when it's dark, it bursts with anger.

Red tastes like a sweet strawberry that you should savour in your mouth.

Red smells like a young rose on a bright sunny day.

At any time, red can be contained in a heart to symbolize love.

by Josh W. (Age 10)

What a wonderful poem, thank you for sharing that with us Josh and Anita.

THANK YOU to Dorothy as well for the decadent, scruptious, dripping with sugar squares that we all made disappear in record time! WE LOVE YOU AND YOUR TREATS!

We also discussed a group anthology. We began to write one a couple years ago before Len's death and decided this might be a great time to work on it again since we have a whole new group to include. Gloria Nye has offered to edit and put it together for us. We won't have a real theme and every author will maintain full rights to their work (plus get a publishing credit!)

Glenn has moved to Alberta for a few months and won't be with us for a while. If anyone wants to keep in touch, contact Nancy or Diane for mailing information. Nancy will send him our meeting minutes and updates on a regular basis (as regularly as I get them on the blog anyway!) so you can sent notes or whatever via Nancy's mailout.

In closing, Nancy asked if I can post her prompts from this meeting as well. Most of these are very basic prompts from Natalie Goldberg and always good for getting your pen moving when you slam your head in a door and your concussion needs inspiration (right Richard?)

1) What I don't remember is...

2) There are eight good reasons for men to lie.

3) When I die, I'll miss...

4) How poor were you?

Poetry or whatever flows:

Metaphors for a poem: a pitcher of bitterness, a taste of sacrifice, a house of delight, a course of sorrow, a spoonful of delight, a knot of hate. Courtesy of: http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/#

Thanks for the giggles.

See you all at the next meeting March 21, 2010 Clare will be leading.

HEADWATERS WRITERS' GUILD - Brian Henry

http://quick-brown-fox-canada.blogspot.com/

Headwaters Writers' Guild is featured on Brian Henry's Blog.

Brian Henry Workshop in Orangeville

About 30 people attended Brian's Nov 1st workshop . Aside from a couple of technical difficulties - the room was freezing and tea was accidentally dumped all over our table - it was a fun afternoon.

We did an exercise on creating prompts which led to a discussion about writing short stories and why entering the Toronto Star Short Story contest is a waste of time. We used some of our new prompts in our first exercise which was to actually write a short story. Brian's definition of a short story was: a prose narrative between several hundred and several thousand words that aims to achieve a single, concentrated effect.

After our break, we discussed plotting novels. His basic 3 step approach to writing a novel is:
1) Brainstorm
2) Organize
3) Write
Few writers will go these steps only once. For some of us, it's an ongoing process until we get to The End.

One of the most helpful things to do as you brainstorm is to create character sketches. The more important the character's role, the more detailed you want to be. This is also the stage to develop a 500-1000 word synopsis that highlights all the major and minor crises as well as the climax. Tracking your scenes using a flow chart or cue cards is helpful in keeping your novel moving smoothly.

Keep your eyes open for the next workshop!

Dr. Ross Pennie

Some of us attended a wonderful workshop this past Sunday. Brian Henry spoke about writing memoirs. His guest speaker was Dr. Ross Pennie who wrote his memoirs about his experience as a doctor in New Guinea. I sent Dr. Pennie an email thanking him and sent him copies of some pictures I took. Below is his response.

Dear Pat;Many thanks for the photos. I enjoyed meeting you and the other participants very much. It was a fun afternoon for me. And a tricky drive home in the snow. But the weather cleared about half-way there. All the best to you for success in your writing. It's a wonderful journey of fellowship and self-discovery.Cheers, Ross Pennie