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Below are the 18 most recent journal entries recorded in thepackworkshop's LiveJournal:

Saturday, February 7th, 2004
4:10 pm
[elmofromok]
New Community
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.
Thursday, February 5th, 2004
7:05 pm
[galateadia]
For Everyone Coming To The Meeting
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!

Current Mood: pleased
12:19 am
[elmofromok]
More Photos to write about?
Should I find some more photos to bring to the meeting, or would someone else like to do it?

Thoughts?

Current Mood: curious
Sunday, February 1st, 2004
4:24 pm
[galateadia]
So I Received Something Yesterday...
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. :)

Current Mood: happy
Tuesday, January 27th, 2004
12:37 am
[elmofromok]
Here is my photo writing exercise.Collapse )

Current Mood: creative
Sunday, January 25th, 2004
5:07 pm
[ex_weatherwa556]
writing exercise #1
As set by elmofromokChad 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.

Current Mood: bustin' for a pee
Saturday, January 24th, 2004
1:48 pm
[towanda]
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, elmofromokChad 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!

Current Mood: content
2:20 am
[elmofromok]
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 )

Current Mood: creative
Friday, January 23rd, 2004
9:24 am
[elmofromok]
I will need a ride if Iam to attend tonights gathering of souls. Anyone able to help?

Current Mood: hopeful
Thursday, January 22nd, 2004
11:27 pm
[towanda]
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!

Current Mood: enthralled
Wednesday, January 21st, 2004
11:30 pm
[towanda]
Final Decision Time-- SO SPEAK UP YA CHEEKY MONKEYS!
Friday....my house or Borders?

Talk amongst yourselves.

Current Mood: apathetic
Tuesday, January 20th, 2004
8:32 pm
[anab1]
What should folks intending on coming be prepared for? I know I for one will probably be participating in a listener capacity only. Should current writers bring something they have written to be read? or bring sharp pencils and paper to write with? etc?

Current Mood: curious
7:05 pm
[towanda]
Okay so its official..
the first meeting of the Pack's Writer's Workshop will be on Friday Jan. 23rd


However, we still don't have a place to meet and its pretty divided. I've heard that it would be a good idea to alternate Norman and OKC but that we should start the first meeting at someone's house in a non-formal setting. halcyon_vesperFree has offered his house and mine is open too. If you would rather do it somewhere in the city, I'd be happy to drive one Normanite comfortably and three Normanites very uncomfortably for those who don't want to drive.

What do you think?

Also what expectations do you have for the group? Go and check out some of the links that elmofromokChad posted and see what about those groups appeals to you. Or at least be thinking about it and bring those ideas to the meeting on friday.

Finally, what times are best?

Current Mood: curious
8:29 am
[elmofromok]
7:51 am
[elmofromok]
I was wondering if all posts to this community were friends only by default?

Current Mood: curious
7:26 am
[elmofromok]
writers group thoughts
So I have been thinking about this writing group thing. I think we need to organize some as we start to make things better down the road. Having never been involved in a writers group before I naturally jumped to the interweb to see what I could find...

The first site I found was the 6' Ferret Writers' Group and it turned out to be a really good resource. The name is from something they wrote:

In fact, the official mascot of The 6' Ferret Writers' Group is a "giant 6' ferret driving an 18-wheeler"-this odd character is the result of some of our writing exercises, several of which could only be stopped by killing off all of the characters with the now infamous line, "Just then, a giant 6' ferret driving an 18 wheeler came along and ran them all over. The end."*


Take a moment to read some of their guidlines and ideas:
Starting a Group
Example of some bylaws
Critique Guidelines
Writing Exercises


Then I found this article on http://hollylisle.com/:
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, or How to Choose a Writers' Group

Which led me to:
Schrodinger's Petshop Members' Handbook

OK enough for now.. Thoughts?



*That SO sounds like something we would do :P Maybe with a super intelligent sentient daisy that says DUDE!

Current Mood: excited
Monday, January 19th, 2004
4:41 pm
[towanda]
Hey everyone! I took it upon myself to invite a few of you who did not answer the poll so do not feel obligated to join, I just wanted to make sure you got in if you wanted to.

I hope this name suits everyone at least a little. It was really hard to come up with something that everyone was happy with. If we come up with something else later, we can always just delete this community and switch over or something.

I set us up an account with Yahoo so that we can upload our work in .doc format instead of or in addition to posting it here. If you would prefer to just copy and paste into LJ that's fine too. I personally just find it easier to print things out and read them in hardcopy or even in a Microsoft Word window.

To upload:

  • Go to http://briefcase.yahoo.com

  • Sign in name is thepackworkshop and the password is penissauce. What else? *grin*

  • Click on Add File and chose the document you want us to read. Make sure it is titled so that we know who's it is.



Not everyone has taken the poll yet, but so far it looks like this Friday, Jan. 23 is in the lead. As for location, well that's pretty much equal all around so I figured we'd open up discussion about it. About half of us live in Norman, half in OKC and Amy lives in Tulsa. We can alternate locations too. Thoughts?

Current Mood: excited
4:46 pm
[elmofromok]
Here we go!

Current Mood: excited
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