The Slush Pile

At our meeting last night we agreed on the new name for the group.

We are henceforth dubbed Silver Quill Writers Group

I have created a new community and everyone who is a member of this one should have received an email for the new one. If you do not please let me know and I will send you another one.

if you want to come a bit early (or even if you don't) i will be making a ton of turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes.
if you want to save money on dinner come over and eat at my place. :)
this is a one time only thing. i just happen to have too much ground turkey and too many potatoes that will go bad too soon not to use them. so i choose to feed all of you with them.
no need for anyone to bring anything, unless someone really, really wants to help out by buying/bringing soda for people to drink.

otherwise, i am looking forward to the meeting!

Should I find some more photos to bring to the meeting, or would someone else like to do it?

Thoughts?

the perfect "talking stick" for the group! (you know the thing we are to hold to signal to everyone else that it is our turn to talk.)

yesterday at the SWUUWcon i saw this booth with all kinds of large bright colored feathers.
so i went to see about them thinking they might have pens attached and that they would make a fun addition to our meetings.
unfortunately the big assed feathers on display did not have pens or pencils attached. :(
but the lady that was running the booth must have discerned some kind of disappointment on my face about them and asked me what i was looking for.
i told her, "a feather pen. i thought this nice big one would make a fantastic pseudo-quill".
so she said to me, "okay gimme just a minute", as she fished around in the bottom of some bag or purse she pulled out the cutest little pen with blue and peacock feathers sticking out of the end!
so i asked how much it was, and she told me i could just have it. it was free!
so providence has chosen to provide us with a modern day equivelent of a quill.
i think thats pretty neat. :)

( Here is my photo writing exercise.Collapse )

As set by Chad I have taken one of the images he posted and written something to go with it. Hopefully it'll be coherent and go well with the image, feel free to tell me if it doesn’t.

( the imageCollapse )

( the textCollapse )

*note* This piece is set in 1915 so I tried to write as someone would talk and think back then, the views expressed are not necessarily mine, just thought you should know.

Name change:

The name chosen for the community needs to be changed because:
a) it implies that only members of "the pack" can join or
b) it leaves out members of "the pack" who are not also writers.

We brainstormed ideas for the name but ultimately decided that it should be a group decision. However, a group decision means we need input. It was suggested that we pattern the name after the famous Algonquin Roundtable of authors from the 1920s.

Here are a list of possible names. Please let us know what you think of these and/or suggest more.

• Degenerates Roundtable


• Silver Quill Roundtable


• Blinking Cursor Roundtable


• PenUltimate Roundtable


• Squeaky Wheel Roundtable


• Witty Wonders Roundtable

How to conduct our meetings

At the beginning of each meeting we will check in, giving our name, and the state of our emotions, mind, being that we are bringing to the meeting. For example, "My name is Liz and I'm feeling guilty because I have not been writing as much as I should.

During check in no one can respond or react to what the person says. Its an opportunity for them to have control of their time. You can comment when someone doesn't give their emotions full power. For example if I say, "I'm feeling a little guilty." Does that mean I'm feeling guilty or not? It is important to own your feelings and not to qualify or diminish them. Finally, check in will be the time for us to report back to the group on our writing accomplishments if we choose to. Some of us will benefit from being held responsible for the work we do, others are not interested in the quanity they produce.

Giving Criticism

Basically, we found value in having a set time to speak without interruptions and in having an open discussion. So we figured that if we are critiquing someone's work, we will start by giving each person time to speak without interruption. After each person has gone around and said something, we will then open it up for discussion. However, as authors we should be careful not to defend our work too fervently during critique or spend too much energy explaining why we did something. We can give each other the benefit of knowing that we all had good reasons for doing what we did and we can all agree that as authors we make take the advice we're given and we may not.

Finally, we should always remember to temper the bad with the good and make an effort to keep all criticism specific and constructive.

Meeting times and locations

We decided that we will start out holding the meetings bi-monthly. We will stick with Fridays at 7-9 p.m. But by doing it on a Friday night it pretty much means we need to be holding the meetings at our houses. We would like to alternate locations so that the same people aren't always having to drive somewhere. The next meeting will be held Friday, Feb. 6 at Jess and James' house. If you need directions, let us know. Whoever hosts can be the moderator or leader of the meeting to whatever extent that we need one (if at all).

Staying focused

Keeping on topic was an issue last night, particularly since it was a rather informal gathering. So we realized that we will all have to make a point to keep each other on topic during the meeting. If the meetings are going to remain within a certain amount of time we will have to call each other on getting off topic. We can take time after the meetings to get together and be social. We don't always have to stay at the host's house, we can go out afterwards or something.

A few exercises to get us started

Finally, Chad gave us some photos as an exercise to get the meeting started next time. Write a poem, short story or vignette based on those pictures. Its completely optional and you can share during hte next meeting if you choose. Those are posted in the community already.

I suggested an exercise for those of us who already have ideas in the works. This is just for you and your purposes, you dont' have to bring this to the group if you don't want to. Its basically a way to make sure you have all the necessary elements and that you've focused your story. What you do is you have to summarize your story in two sentences.

The first sentence should include your character, her situation and her goal. The second sentence should be in the form of a question and should include the antagonist and the disaster. It helps you to determine whether or not your protagonist and antagonist are at opposing goals So if we were to do Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone it would go like this:

Harry Potter, a 13-year old orphan finds out he's a wizard and realizes he will finally get away from the abusive family and find a place where he belongs. But can he stay at Hogwarts when he discovers that Voldemort, an evil dark wizard killed his parents and now wants to kill him too?

I think that's everything. If I left anything out, please let me know! I hope to see you guys at the next meeting!

One of the things we discussed as a writing excercise was to take a image and write something based on it. It might be a story or a poem. Whatever you are inspired to do. So if you choose, select one of the images below and let those creative juices get bubbly!

( For valentines, I went with a romantic theme...but still wanted some variety. So have fun!Collapse )

I will need a ride if Iam to attend tonights gathering of souls. Anyone able to help?

With the help of some input, I've decided that we will meet tomorrow at Borders at 7 p.m. at which time we will usurp the children's section or the reference section for our meeting. Afterwards, anyone who wants to can come over to my house for whatever debauchery you choose. :) Its still BYOB unless Chai will sate you for the evening. See you there!