Writer’s Ink

Attending: Erin, Jamie, Stephanie, Alex, Donna, and Virginia
 
Note: Don’t forget to check out the upcoming events below to see if you’re scheduled for anything!!! Write-in hosting and meeting activities are listed.
 
SPN Collection: Final version of stories due to Virginia by the end of July. Can send out for re-crits prior to that, if you want. If you want re-crits, make sure you crit all the re-crits. However, you don’t actually have to change anything — it’s your choice. If you’re not planning to make any revisions, you can go ahead and send the story to Virginia now.
 
APC Collection: Cafe Press had some technical difficulties with the cover file. Jamie is waiting to hear back.
 
Goals: Kudos to Donna and Erin who made their goals from last time!
 
For next time:

• Virginia — Write one short story.
• Donna — Get back to revising SPN story.
• Alex — Submit 2 stories and work on SPN revision.
• Stephanie — Revise 1 SED story and SPN story.
• Erin — Revise and submit 1 SED story and work on SPN revision.

Upcoming Events:

• 6/28 — Saturday write-in, 2 to 4 p.m., Eurotazza on Camp Bowie.
• 7/8 — Lunch meeting, Summit (13), 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., activity by Chrissie.
• 7/19 — Saturday write-in, 2 to 4 p.m., Sandra’s house (Saginaw).
• 7/22 — Lunch meeting, Blue (12), 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., activity by Janel.

Mood: good
Word Count: SED contest COMPLETE!

Category : General, Meeting Minutes

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Attending: Alex, Virginia, Donna, Brittany, and Erin
 
SED Contest: The contest is off with a bang, but even if you missed yesterday, you can still participate. It’s not too late!
 
Meetings: NO ONE had responded to any of Erin’s emails about signing up to provide a meeting activity. Expect personal emails from Erin for you to pick a date. Really, you can pick any date of a meeting all year. The only people who have signed up, except in one instance, are Erin and Virginia, and they will be happy to swap. The group voted on having this as our goal, so it is up to the group to work together to meet it!
 
NaNo Prep Month: October is going to be NaNo prep month. We’ll do planning activities to help us prepare for the novelling endeavor in November. If you’ve won NaNo in the past and want to help think of activities we can do, email Erin.
 
Goals: Cheers to Brittany and Alex who made their goals from last time!
 
For next time:

• Virginia — Write 13 more stories in the SED contest.
• Donna — SED contest.
• Brittany — Compete in SED.
• Erin — SED contest.
• Alex — Submit two stories somewhere; SED contest.

Upcoming Events

• 6/22 — SED contest ends.
• 6/24 — lunch meeting, Summit, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.; planned activity from Alex.
• 6/28 — Saturday write-in, Eurotazza (Camp Bowie), 2 to 4 p.m.

Mood: creative
Word Count: 2 SED stories DONE!

Category : General

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Here’s a nifty little link for all you LJers out there. Looks interesting and helpful!

http://community.livejournal.com/food_in_fiction/

Category : Links, Misc.

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These were the prompts I handed out in March, minus the ones you guys used.

1. Write a story in which the narrator’s roommate/spouse/tenant is a criminal (or leads some other secret, shadowy life), but the narrator doesn’t know.
2. Write a story in which a salesperson is trying to sell something supernatural/otherworldly/high tech/just really bizarre (adorable deadly furry thing, cursed monkey hand, death ray, pretzel shaped like Gooloo the Mighty, whatever).
3. Write a story that uses at least 3 of the following: a guitar, a time bomb, a badge, a movie camera, a fire extinguisher.
4. Write a story featuring only two characters, neither of whom speak the same language.
5. Write a story in which a child unwittingly embarrasses the adults in his or her company.

Category : Writing, Exercises

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Here are the unused prompts from the April contest. Feel free to use them for the SED contest or any time you need an inspirational kick in the butt.

1. Three things: a paper clip, a hospital, an exotic dancer

2. Word Puzzle: heart, cat, psychotic, tea, salty, lovely, gameshow, pink

3. Word puzzle: enhanced, captain, atomic, sunset, orange, loathe, inventive, chicken, sandwich

4. Write a story in which the main character finds out their spouse/significant other isn’t who/what the main character thought they were.

5. Word puzzle: soap, bucket, accordion, porch, puppy, grizzled, stumpy, sour, boyfriend

6. A schizophrenic patient who thinks he is Jesus escapes from a mental institution. Write what happens next.

7. Write about a door-to-door salesman who sells souls to demons who live in hell.

8. A glazed doughnut holds the answer to all life’s questions. Write a story explaining how this came to be.

9. End your story with this sentence: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

10. Write a story about time travel.

11. Story starter: Death isn’t the end of life, but the beginning of something beautiful.

12. Three things: a Victorian mansion, an apple, an assassin

13. Word Puzzle: rose, skyscraper, concrete, clueless, indifferent, sparkle, dress, glass, effervescent, water, humid

14. Write a story about cowboys and Indians. In outer space.

15. Johnny’s best friend is high out of his mind. Write about what Johnny does next.

16. Use this somewhere in your story: She couldn’t believe she ate the whole thing.

17. Write a story about a CEO who quits his/her job to sell used cars.

18. Three things: a hot dog stand, a vegetarian, an interdimensional portal

19. Start with: Every morning, she wrote down another reason to nuke the planet.   End with: She found that the green glass complimented her decor quite nicely.

20. Write a story about a divorce from the perspective of the couple’s mail carrier.

21. Three things: a has-been rock star, a state fair, a deep fryer

22. Word puzzle: charming, grotesque, gold, cart, lunge, scrape, anonymous, ease, pungent

Category : General, Exercises

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Below is the list of prompts for the May competition. Though you can’t use them for credit in a future prompts contest, you can use them for credit in the June SED contest. They are also available in case you need some random inspiration.

1. Write about a man and a woman at a night club. They are strangers to each other. What happens? And what do they find out? (If you want to use two people of the same gender, that’s OK, too.)
2. Write a story that ends with this sentence (if you want to swap genders or use names instead of pronouns, that’s OK): She smiled; she knew exactly what he’d done.
3. Take an everyday experience and make it extreme — extreme dog walking, extreme birthday parties, extreme weed prevention, extreme dating, etc.
4. Write about a librarian searching for the only book never returned to her small town library.
5. Write a story using three of the following: a rusted buckle, an old journal, a faded painting, a diamond ring, rose petals, a cracked mirror.
6. Write a story using six of the following words: blast, teleport, squad, lupine, waterfall, autumn, ship, velvet, beam, amulet.
7. Write a story about a rattletrap ship (spaceship, pirate ship, air ship, ocean liner, etc.) and its crew.
8. Write a story about someone larger than life (superhero, werewolf, sorcerer, movie star, rock star, super spy, etc.) in one of the following situations: dealing with the mundane, on vacation, on a blind date, changing sidekicks/minions/personal assistants.
9. Write a story using three of the following: a child, chocolate sprinkles, a designer outfit, a hymnal, a secret door, water.
10. Write a story starring one of Tami Cowden’s character archetypes that you’re inexperienced writing. Make us understand why this character does what he/she does, especially if it’s something out of the norm. (A thumbnail sketch of each archetype can be found on her website — http://www.tamicowden.com/archetypes.htm. If you’re interested in the long version, email me and I’ll bring my copy of her book.)

Mood: tired

Category : Writing, Exercises

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Attending: Brittany, Alex, Jamie, Erin, and Stephanie
 
Meeting Plans: Email Erin to claim one of the empty meetings. We need the group’s help on this! Otherwise, we won’t meet the group’s goal of having one planned activity per meeting. Available are 6/10, 8/12, 9/9, 10/14, 10/28, and 11/11. If everyone signs up for one meeting, we will more than have this.
 
Prompts: You have 4 days left to get Erin prompts for the May contest! They must be emailed by 11:59 p.m. on Saturday, 5/31. So far, it’s Alex (4), Steph (3), VA (1), and Chrissie (1). C’mon, guys… let’s give away a prize this month!
 
Story Every Day (SED) Contest: Starts next month (6/9 through 6/22), so there won’t be new prompts until July. Some people will be on vacation or out of the office during part of the contest. If you’re away and don’t have access to email, write the stories and email them all to Virginia at the same time the first day you’re back/have access to email again. The same thing applies over the weekend for anyone who doesn’t have Internet at home. Otherwise, don’t forget that the stories should be emailed to Virginia by 11:59 p.m. that day to count.
 
Goals: Kudos to Stephanie and Erin who met their goals from last time!
 
For next time:

• Jamie — Write prompts.
• Alex — Write one prompt, catch up on Steph’s novel crits, and continue SPN revision.
• Brittany — Start revising SPN.
• Stephanie — Keep working on novel and write a flash piece.
• Erin — Finish SPN revision and finish lunar colony story.
• Virginia (via email) — Revise SPN story and write 4 prompts.

Upcoming Events:

• 6/9 (Monday) — SED contest begins!
• 6/10 (Tuesday) — 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., lunch meeting, Summit (13).
• 6/28 (Saturday) — 2 to 4 p.m., write-in, Eurotazza (on Camp Bowie).
• 6/22 (Sunday) — Last day of the SED contest!
• 6/24 (Tuesday) — 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., lunch meeting, Summit (13), Alex is facilitating an activity.

Note the meeting changes (you should already have received meeting appointments). The June write-in was moved back one week, to 6/28, and will be at Eurotazza again. It was great fun there last time, so come one, come all! Also, due to executives needing Blue, the 6/24 meeting will be in Summit.

Mood: okay
Word Count: Time to revise superhero wives story

Category : General, Meeting Minutes

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