Calling All Writers

Calling all writers from the group who would like to read a poem & /or spoken word.

Time would be approx. 5 min.

Please email by Friday Jan. 21st. sunflower@xplornet.com

Thank you, its going to be a good time

nola

"Buckets of" Meeting Wrap

Something interesting happened at this week's meeting. Nothing you can really put your finger on but it felt as if, as a group, that we've turned a corner. It was as nice as it has been on any other occasion but I personally felt challenged and critiqued. It was very exciting and I hope to see more of this sort of behaviour. We truly do have the ability to make each other better writers.

Jill did a stand up job facilitating this weekend. We started with a stream of consciousness warm up. Upon reflection we learned a lot about how each member thinks. All the way from fully formed grammatically correct sentences to abstract words and pictures. Very interesting and certainly appreciated.

Jill also started us off with our "buckets-of-personal-pronoun-free" exercise. Jill's piece was about a morning sunrise and a beast in the midst. Nicole recounted an experience where she saw her Father crying; buckets of tears. Heather gave us a laugh with a poem and told us more about buckets of hope. Sue set us all (literally) in a conflict that involved buckets of bucks while Mike wrote two poems: "ethnic cleansing" buckets of blood and a second that cheerily described buckets of milk and water and BEER. Nina wrote a descriptive piece about a  loved one filled with emptiness, bringing to life memories. Marget write "In Fear of Fifty" Buckets of chirpy exchanges, a piece that brought new meaning to coming of age with a memorable line "the young of the old". Don wrote of Bruce the dunny man and his hilarious adventures cleaning out the honey buckets. A new comer Kate gave us a colorful description of a birds and buckets of water in a yard that are faced with a tom cat.

The meeting was a huge success and a great start to the new year. We're all looking forward to cabin fever days. Another idea that was brought forth was to bring your work for more in-depth critiquing. We've made a group to decision to go ahead and do this. On the February 8th any members that would like to pass out their work for an in depth critique should bring copies. If you would like to participate in the in-depth critique please comment on this blog post. This way we'll know how many copies everyone will need to bring.

Woe is not 'me'...

Eye for an eye,

Tooth for a tooth.

I am a personal pronoun sleuth.

Leave out the 'he's, she's, me's and we's',

How about 'they's', and 'theirs' better bewares!

To write without pronouns maketh me cry,

To leave friends of nouns doth maketh me sigh.

For language will never again be the same,

And it's Ms. Christie's assignment that is largely to blame.

Hardy har har...

Yeah Write

Check out this neat user-contributed blog that focuses on Writing Prompts.

http://static.tumblr.com/jsyqb9t/XsFle4kq5/yawrthead.jpg

http://yeahwriters.tumblr.com/

Bad Writing

Check out this documentary entitled "Bad Writing". Might be neat to do a screening on one of our writing nights. Thoughts?

and your free gift is...

As a post-Christmas-gift-to-myself-because-I-didn't-get-what-I-asked-for I purchased a subscription to Writer's Digest magazine. With my subscription came a free copy of an ebook entitled "Do I Have What it Takes" (Cue mystery instrumental - Du Du Duuuuu)

The book is formatted in a series of questions and answers. I laughed out loud when I read the following correspondence.


How can I be sure I really have creative writing ability?
You'll never be sure. 

That pretty much made my entire $29.95 well spent. The editor, Jane Friendman, goes on to say:

It's best to believe in yourself and keep moving forward. Most writers cycle between periods of self-doubt and periods of confidence.

I suppose with the New Year approaching I'll be making the same resolution I've been making for the past few years. To write more, to finish (and start) the novel, to make an honest commitment to explore this craft and see if there's actually something in it that I need. It beckons me.

And so I pass the floor on to you. Will you be making any writing related resolutions this year?

Writer's Digest Subscriptions - $29.95

To clarify...

Jill just wanted to let folks know that the assignment is for us to avoid using any of the PERSONAL pronouns but that you can use any other pronouns in the writing assignment. She had trouble posting anything to the blog and said to pass this on. Happy New Year!