Ideas from the sole

Last night was proof that even the smallest suggestion can result in the biggest idea. Heather was our facilitator and the writing warm up was a great as ever. Heather brought with her an array of unique items, all no bigger than what you can fit in one hand and each with distinct characteristics. We were to choose an item and write. Simple and creative. Many of us were coming off of poetry mode after a week of getting ready for the poetry contest on the 30th. Even Mike wrote a poem, more to his own surprise than anyone else's.

For the main event Heather's idea was simple, "shoe on the road", and from it all members that turned up came with varying ideas and some of the best writing we've heard to date.

Nola started us off with her first person journey from the shoe's comedic perspective. Susan weaved her story of a satin Italian hand carved heel through three generations of shoe wearers until it met its fate. Nicole (I) made the shoe the victim of a sour relationship that ultimately panned out on a city freeway. Margaret inspired us with an uplifting Father/Son piece. Heather continued with three shorter pieces one in particular that dug deep with feelings of grief. Mike was so inspired by the prompt he completed the first chapter of a new mystery novel that involved several fingers of Highland Park Single Malt.

There was plenty of applause and much hootin' &hollerin'.  I'm particularly proud to say that we're are slowly inching our way into a more critical mind frame. Heather had some suggestions for critiquing one another's work; I think we should try this at our next meeting.
1. What would you like to hear more of?
2. What did you appreciate?
3. What would you have approached differently?

I think this meeting has definitely inspired me to keep the prompts simple more often than not. With simple prompts the imagination opens a gate to a huge garden of possibility. What fun!

See new "writing prompts" in the column to the left...

The next meeting will be Tuesday May 11th. I will be loosely facilitating (I'll just bring a warm up exercise). We'll be changing the format slightly for this meeting. Many of us have been working on larger manuscripts and so this will be an opportunity to bring print-outs for everyone to look over or take home. Alternately between now and then we will also be emailing one another with our writing. I know all those in attendance last night will be happy to read, edit and give feedback so let's get those pieces circulating!


Nice work everyone!

Laugh it off; Meeting Recap

Wowee! Another three 'keeners' have joined the writing round table. That puts us up to seventeen interested people since we started meeting only a few short months ago. Welcome, welcome, welcome, and of course, welcome back everyone else. Not sure what we'll do if everyone decides to show up on the same night, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

This group just seems to get more and more dynamic. The spread continues to widen with the new perspective each member brings and of course the gender mix is providing great balance for everyone. Just think of what Mike learned about the female mind from Nola. I've said it before and I'll say it again. It's like a night of entertainment, just sit back and enjoy the show!

Each evening we get together a tone seems to nestle in and after a few heavy sessions it was a great change of pace to feel the mood lighten. Mike started us off with a warm up exercise that I missed because I was late. Apparently the idea was to write a story opening twice. The first time was to begin with setting and narrow in on character and the second was to begin with character and narrow in on setting.

I did make it in time to hear everyone's outcome which was fun. Skiing and snow were a major theme. I felt a particular strength from the group in being able to describe a setting. Very nice everyone. Alas, we moved on to the feature work.

Humour wiggled its way into everyone's work last night. The assignment was conflict and resolution primarily in dialogue. Mike chose the task and although he changed it without telling anyone it was still a great exercise.

We laughed our way through Nola's internal dialogue (I'm sure 'self doubt' and 'fear' were laughing too). Joanne took the pirate dialogue to the next level. Heather swore while moving furniture. Susan took us into 'Lily's' magical world. Tara described her change of career which ended in applause. Don took us into the dangerous back country. Mike/Muchacho invited us never to look at HP sauce in the same way. I made myself laugh with my own story about Barb Kenneth; I'm sure I'd make a terrible stand up comedian.

A great night overall. Welcome again new members. Can't wait to hear more.

READING RECOMMENDATIONS
Barbara Kingsolver; The Lacuna

Lawrence Durrell: The Alexandria Quartet

Jill Gustafson: The Outlander (Sorry, couldn't find a link - not sure if it's right)

A library's lack of luster

Last nights writing group session was, in the very least, inspirational, hilarious, and moving. Margaret's exercise 'write in a location that you do not ordinarily write' proved to take us all down similar paths. Extrordinarily the bulk of us felt that our choices were limited to the library, a coffee shop, or the airport. Must be the time of year. We all had one thing in common; the library is not a very stimulating location, although Nola did do a great job in there.

New member Joanne joined us and fit right in. The group was missing a few, but the night was great. Everyone's writing seems to be coming along. More definitive style, a knowledge of what to ask and most importantly more critiques.
Great work everyone. The next meeting is Tuesday March 2. Our facilitator will be Christine and here is her assignment:
Write approximately 500-1000 words (or as Joanne says: when it's over you're done) about your cooking experience with a focus on thoughts, feelings, and where it takes you. For example, where does your train of thought go when you're chopping a carrot?
In the meantime I challenge anyone out there in blog-land to post something!
If you're still intimidated by blogging check out the BLOGGER TOUR or after you sign in to Blogger choose New Post and follow the directions in this video...

How To Create Your First Blog Post 3/118 - Funny bloopers R us
You could post a link to a great article or website or video. Maybe a poem or piece you've been working on or just your thoughts and frustrations and accomplishments. Would love to see more interaction on here from all directions.
Let's inspire!