Meeting Minutes October 30, 2011

Due to a technical glitch, there are no photos from this year's Halloween meeting. Sorry folks. I can tell you that several of the members were dressed up, including Patricia's "Quarter Pounder" idea. Very cute!

Clare was our leader today and brought wonderful buttertarts from his wife Dorothy, whom we love and have made an honorary member of the group years ago! Kelli and Diane brought chocolate bars, too. Bring on the sugar!

Nancy reminded us of the upcoming Brian Henry workshop on Feb 25, 2012. The chosen topic is: "18 Ways to Write a Page Turner." Time and location TBA.

Nancy and Diane are organizing an Artist's Way workshop beginning in November. Participants can get in touch with either of us to register. There is no fees to join, simply find a copy of The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron and have a great notebook, you'll be doing lots of writing and soul searching. Nancy told us that she's done the workbook several times and has grown both as a writer and a person each time. Alberta took the course when she lived in Hawaii with Julia Cameron. She told us that it opens up your relationships as well as changing you creatively. Creativity is the focus, but it will enrich your entire life.

The new Anthologies are here, authors picked them up from Gloria after the meeting. If you still have a book or two to pick up, please contact Gloria. She also had copies of a book called "Limericks from the Animal Kingdom" written by I. Mary Hackney a friend of hers who died this summer. The cartoons were done by Carly Hatton, a 19 year old Autistic woman. The books sell for $12.95.

Ron has become a blogger for "Women Writing for A Change." After doing a couple of guest blogs, he is now a regular blogger with them and encouraged us to check them out. http://www.womenwriting.org/

We had a wonderful treat! Alberta brought the movie she's been working so hard on titled "So I'm Dying...Now What?" It featured a feisty woman named Margaret Hackman who died of metastic cancer in 2009. The video will be premiered in Guelph on Nov 5. It was a moving yet inspiring story and had us all teary eyed. To find out more, Alberta's website is http://www.spiritvalleypictures.com/

Readings:

Nancy read an article she'd written for her Brian Henry workshop.

Trina read about an adult getting a child-like view of the world, reminding us all to take time to play.

Ron read his blog article about Foodstock, the protest against the megaquarry. They had originally expected 20,000 people, but over 28,000 showed up. It featured 100 chefs from top local restaurants and looked like a giant cookout. There is another Foodstock planned for the spring if negotiations are not going well with the quarry.
When Ron was done, Marilyn asked if this was a political forum or a writers group.

Clare's next article for the Banner is called "Food for Thought." and will be about Foodstock as well as how we sustain ourselves with gardens. Instead of reading that, he read a page about his accident in 1979 when he was hit by a car and spent a lot of time in Sunnybrook Hospital. "Beware Nurse Boyle" is a very funny piece. My favourite line was: she gave me "a pill the size of a ten-pin bowling ball." He got a rousing round of applause.

The Prompt:

The prompt was a little labour intensive to explain, but once we all got into it, it made for some hilarious reading later!

Number 1: Clare gave us a list of twelve book titles to choose from. We were to choose one and write it along with our name at the top of the paper he'd given us. That part was easy. Sort of.
The titles:
1) Cat O'Nine Tales
2) Footprints in the Sand
3) Who Killed Old Man Horowitz?
4) Shakespeare's Secret
5) The Cappuccino Murders
6) The Archer's Revenge
7) The Scribbling Preacher Makes Her Mark
8) The Monk in the Attic
9) The Voyage of the Tipsy Virgin
10) A Hand-full of Hounds
11) The Time Ticker
12) Wood Chipper on the Loose

Number 2: The Rest of the Instructions

Write the first two killer hook lines to introduce the book title that you selected.
Pass the lined sheet to person on the right. On the sheet you receive, read the title and lines, leave a blank line then add two more lines of your own.
Pass the lined sheet to person on the right. Read ONLY the title and last two lines that were written. Leave a blank line then add two lines of your own. Pass the sheet to the person on your right.
Continue passing the sheets around the group, again reading ONLY the title and the last two lines written.
When the exercise is done, return the sheet to the person whose name is at the top.
Be prepared to read aloud what appears on your sheet.
For homework for the next meeting, write the first chapter of the book, incorporating as many of the suggestions from the sheet as possible.
Good Luck!!

So how did this all turn out? Well, here's mine. I've alternated colours to show when a different person wrote:

The Cappuccino Murders
Java Jo's had been the only coffee shop in Packham for ten years until Lori's Latte's opened directly across the street. Wednesday morning, Lori Archer failed to open her shop for a very good reason.
It's a true story and Joe Cappucano has written about his mafia family and it put his life in danger.
I thought it was old coffee on the floor as I walked into the cafe - but coffee isn't thick or red.
I slipped, leaving a gross streak of burnished blood across my backside.
And feeling ashamed, I didn't look up.
I could feel the eyes of dozens of people staring at me and the cafe grew silent, except for one gasp.
The spoon clattered on the floor and coffee - dripped - in a puddle on the floor. Call for help now, please.
What the hell do you think I am, Mabel, your servant? Well the least that you could do is clean up  the mess!
"Why should I?" s/he yelled. "I do everything around here. It's your turn. S/he turned and left the room.
He ignored her and returned to the coffee machine. He still had time to brew her up a pot of poisoned brew. That would teach the bitch!
When she asked for tea, the plot fizzled out. What next?
Murder plots ran through her head each night. There were cunning ways of disposing of the corpses.

That's my story and I guess I have to stick to it! It was certainly lots of fun reading all the results. Kelli and I laughed so hard we were crying! Nancy found a lesson in the whole exercise: Don't let other people write your story.

Our next meeting is November 13th, 2011. Marilyn will be leading.
November 27th, Nancy will lead.
December 11 will be our Christmas Luncheon.

JOURNAL - MORNING PAGES

It’s in the silence that I experience my creative voice. Noise shuts out my inner voice or soul that longs to express itself. All I have to do is show up at the page and record three morning pages (The Artist Way) and I believe I won’t experience writer’s block again.

I write morning pages daily to enable me to write from the prompts at our Headwaters Writers’ Guild (HWG) meetings. Otherwise, I would freeze on my page. It’s not like I write anything profound or awesome like Harry and Alex but at least I am able to write something.

I remember Barbara Kyle (author) saying, “Everything can be fixed.”

If I view my raw writing as if it were a masterpiece, I’d never pick up my pen. I would have quit writing years ago. And I certainly wouldn’t write anything at HWG’s writing sessions. Allowing myself to write badly frees the writer within.

Whenever my writing is edited, I am reminded that writing is really rewriting. It would be wonderful if my prose or poetry never needed editing. Possibly, in twenty years from now, it might happen but I’m not holding my breath waiting for perfection. If I waited to write perfectly the first time, I’d have given up a long time ago.

The late Ed Wildman used to say, “You can only be defeated if you quit.”

It’s not easy being a writer. One of my biggest regrets is that I stopped writing in my early twenties. My inner critic taunts me. “Imagine what a good writer you’d be if you never stopped.”

I disregard the thought and just continue writing. I focus on the present and not the past. I remember that writers, write.

Last week when I met my writing friend Bonnie for lunch, she wanted to know if I’d finished editing my poetry book.

“No,” I said.

“Do you have a deadline?”

“No.” I shook my head.

“Without a deadline your dream will never happen.”

Thanks Bonnie for the kick in the butt. I’ve finished editing (hopefully the second last edit). It’s great having writing friends that encourage you.

THE ARTIST WAY COURSE - 1999

In early January 1999, I noticed a flyer for a writing course based on The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. In 1996, I’d completed the three-month course in six months, by myself. I’d experienced writers’ block and I hoped by doing The Artist Way again with other creative people, it would inspire me to continue writing.

I emailed the instructor. She was waiting for more people to register and I bugged her repeatedly as I sensed this would be the perfect course for me. I intuitively felt it would be a go.

Finally, in February after numerous emails, Janet emailed me confirming my intuitive hit that we’d start.

This is the strangest course that I’ve ever taken. One woman whatever she wrote in her journal happened. Janet maintained our group was the strangest she’d ever taught. She credited me with making the course happen with my strong belief that it would.

I introduced Janet to Animal Speak by Ted Andrews. It’s about animal totems that we encounter in waking time and dreamtime. Today, Janet continues to thank me for recommending this book.

One week, I believe three of us bought the same book, Callings, Finding and Following an Authentic Life by Gregg Levoy. All of us, were in the process of reading it.

He writes a chapter on awakening to our dreams. He speaks about wake-up calls that influence us to live an authentic life

“Wake up calls, however, change the bottom line. What seemed important before doesn’t now. You have a new set of priorities. When you get sick, work takes a
backseat.”

Ask anybody who has had a near-death experience and visited heaven, how it changes everything in their life. Ask anybody who has experienced a life-threatening disease how it changes everything in their life. And they’ll tell you.

Are you living an authentic life?

Are you living your dreams? (Dreams are the language of the soul.)

Are you writing the story that only you could tell?

And yes, the course influenced me to continue writing. I have fond memories of it. Thanks Janet.

WRITING PRACTICE -- DAYDREAMING

Continued from March 3, 2010 post.

June 10, 2004

WRITING PRACTICE


Before The Artist Way, when my husband asked me what I was doing. I’d lie.

“Just trying to figure out what we’re going to have for supper,” I said.

After The Artist Way, I acknowledged that I was a creative being. I decided to admit to daydreaming.

“What are you doing?” my husband asked.

“Just daydreaming.” My husband stared at me with a shocked look on his face.

“Don’t act so shocked. You daydream, too. When I ask you what you’re doing, you always answer nothing. You’re daydreaming.”

I decided he must have thought that daydreaming was punishable by death, too.

It took a lot of courage but after writing for three years, I approached my father.

“Dad, I was just thinking, maybe but quite possibly, I think that I might have a creative personality.” I waited for the bomb to drop and strong profanity to fall from my father’s lips.

“I could have told you that,” my father said. “I’ve known this since you were little.”

I bit my lip. And I wondered why he never told me.