Meeting Minutes July 25, 2010

I was late arriving to the meeting. Thanks to Pat for taking notes for the first hour that I missed and for sending them to me right after the meeting.

Richard passed around headshots for individual approval. Some retakes were done after the meeting.

Gloria shared page set up samples for bios and content for the anthology. She advised that she has decided on a 6x9 inch book, a little larger than her previous anthology Stories of Prayers and Faith. The group agreed that the smaller sized bio and picture were more appropriate as to not overpower the page (Richard's words). Headers and footers were agreed upon by the group members present.

Kelli pointed out that the website still has the photo of the library on it. Richard is going to take a picture of the church and forward it to Shirley so she can change it on the website.

It was agreed that A Walk in Fields of Gold is the final title for the anthology. Richard has been trying to match the font from the HWG logo, but has been unsuccessful. Pat will email Rich Landriault who produced the logo and see if he can help.

Pat advised that the official HWG membership list includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and birthdates; and that this list is only distributed to Nancy, Shirley, Laura and Diane. She suggested sending to the group via email a list of names and addresses only. Everyone agreed.

Another reminder was issued to have submissions and bios emailed to Gloria by the end of July.

And this is where I took over.....

Richard brought up a discussion about using prologues and epilogues. A lot of editors don't like them. They feel the information should be woven into the body of the story. Richard argued that there are times when they are appropriate to use. For example, when part of your backstory takes place hundreds of years before the novel, a writer can use a prologue for the distant past information. When a novel concludes in a way that the reader needs a little more information to be sure things ended up "happily ever after", you can use an epilogue to let us know how things turned out. They are mostly used in mysteries, sci-fi and fantasy novels. David wondered if it was the editor who was unnecessary, not the prologue or epilogue.
Richard reminded us that 2001: A Space Odessey was a prologue.

Laura read a piece to us that we asked her to post to the blog. It was called "Revenge on the Editor" and included several members of our group in the cast! Very funny story.

The prompt was based on Richard's last blog post about "What's in a Name?"
We were handed names written on slips of paper and told to write a character description and plot using the name. Most of us got something on paper, but some of us were caught up in the discussions about names and the stereotypes of names. As writers, we work hard on our story lines and settings, but sometimes forget how important names are. What it does come down to, however, is a matter of perspective and what the author chooses.

Some of the names Richard handed out were: Daniel, Theodore, Eugene, Laura, Betty, Wilma, Bella (Isabella or Belladonna), Wilbur, Warren, Elizabeth, Robert, Raven, Barry. Everyone found that we had to work a little harder for "stereotype" names and "non-exciting" names.

Ways that some of our members choose names for their characters are: from people they know or have met, baby name books, on-line name lists.

Last night I looked up some tips for naming fictional characters. I came across three interesting sites to check out:
www.babynames.com/character-names.php
http://www.charlottedillon.com/characters.html
www.fictionfactor.com/characters.html
Hope these can help to answer some questions. Out of all my writing books at home, I only found a short section in one magazine that even referenced this topic.

This is an excerpt from an article by Sam McCarver in The Writer from March 2009 (Page 23):
"Give characters fitting names that suit their roles and personalities. Would the name Felix Frump bring to mind a fearless, intriguing detective? No, but it might well apply to a comic character in a humorous novel. A tough detective would more likely have a name like Dirty Harry. A character, therefore, should be given a name that fits his or her individuality. The names Ebenezer Scrooge, Zorro, Frankenstein, Tarzan, James Bond and Dirk Pitt are all fitting, unique fictional names that in themselves can help evoke visual images and impressions of the characters.
Give your cast of characters names with clear differences-some shorter names, other longer, using various letters of the alphabet, each name having a different basic sound. The deadly villain of Star Wars is aptly named DarthVader, using hard consonants, while the heroic character exploring the far reaches of the universe is suitably named Luke Skywalker, emphasizing vowels. Janet Evanovich gave her female sleuth an intriguing name, Stephanie Plum, that is very rhythmical-a long, soft first name of three syllables, balanced by a single-syllable but soft surname.
Movie studios realized that the real names of potential stars could be burdens and so made them more memorable. Thus, we saw no movies with Archibald Leach, but enjoyed many with Cary Grant-his studio name. Greta Gustafson became Greta Garbo, and Marion Morrison took the name John Wayne.Elmore Leonard has said, "Sometimes a character doesn't work until I change his name." If your character names don't fit, change them."

Our next meeting is August 8, 2010. Harry will be leading.
Hope to see you all then.