Yesterday's meeting

A few of us met last night, and talked about the chapter Lisbeth had submitted from her project, "Fortunate Ones." We talked a lot about worldbuilding, which is more relevant to some of you than to others, as well as about how to apportion information for readers without making it feel like backstory is being heaped on them. To that end, the workshops this fall will focus less on getting ideas and getting started than on how to put those ideas into action -- in other words, how to get past Chapter 1.

You guys also missed an extended clash about the merits of Frank Herbert's Dune. Very entertaining!

There might be a meeting next week; please mention in your comments which day and time would be best for you. We're also taking submissions for next week; otherwise you guys will have to put up with reading my project.

Also, would anyone be interested in having another reading this fall? It would be in mid-November or later. We would need to have people sign up to read their work, as well as any musical acts you guys can get your hands on.

Lastly, keep thinking about NaNoWriMo. It's not as far off as you think!

Tuesday's meeting; recs and NaNoWriMo

Sorry to have been remiss in posting! Here's what we talked about this week.

Recommendations for reading:
+ Wonderboys (Michael Chabon)
+ Riddlemaster of Hed
+ The Name of the Wind (LeGuin)
+ Bleak House (Dickens)
+ The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (... am I the only one in the world who hasn't read this yet?)
+ books by Wilkie Collins
+ books by A. S. Byatt
+ The Shadow of the Wind (Sara, help me out on the author!)

We also talked about the upcoming November, which happens to be National Novel Writing Month. I quote: "National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30."

Even if you're writing a BA this year, take a stab at writing for NaNoWriMo. Remember, "the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output," so you can write whatever you want and rewrite it later. A lot of you have mentioned that it's hard to just get started, so take this as your chance to put pen to paper (or fingertips to keyboard) and write whatever comes. You can revise it later.

To that end, it's important to start NaNoWriMo with a fresh idea. Don't bring preexisting characters or plots into it. I'll be starting with the kernel of an idea I already have, but not with the complex world I've built around another project in the works.

Having primed you, here's the prompt for this session.

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Write a scene in which a character's body, as well as his mind, is engaged in doing something. Here are some possibilities:
+ repairing something
+ playing solitaire or a game involving other players
+ doing exercises
+ painting a canvas or a wall
+ cutting down a tree
+ giving someone a haircut

Explore how various activities and settings can change what happens within a scene. For example, what happens when characters are planning their honeymoon while they are painting an apartment, or while one of them is cutting the other's hair. Pay attention to body language and choreography.

(adapted from What If: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers, by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter)

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Last, but not least, the next meeting will be Monday, August 25, at 7 p.m. at my apartment.

Summer WIP

Since a few of us will be in Chicago this summer, I thought it might be fun to hold a few meetings or just hang out and talk about writing. If you're down for that, let me know. The first meet-up probably wouldn't be until July. And just so you know, all of you will have to listen to me agonize over my B.A. at least twenty times. Hope that's okay with you.

What we did, and what we'll do

In our last meeting, on April 22, we did a free-writing exercise that consisted of the following:

+ Write the sketch of a character.
+ Write the sketch of a character who is opposite to your first character in at least one significant way. It doesn't have to be obvious.
+ Write a scene in which these two characters interact.

For many of us, this exercise made us think differently about characters we'd already been working with.

And for next week, choose your response to one of the three prompts to read aloud. We'll talk more about character development and realistic scenes at the meeting.

Additionally, please spread the word to your classmates and friends about Nic's Q&A, which will be at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, in Rosenwald 405. There will be food. In case you're debating whether or not to attend, refer to Sara's account of an after-class talk with Nic, in which he decried UChicago's lack of support for writers who really would like to use their skills practically. A kindred spirit, he.

Notes from Week 1 Meeting

Here's another minutes post, because you all love them so much.

+ meetings every week!
+ two or three submissions per meeting
+ Nic's talk, tentatively sched. for 4/22/08 at normal meeting time and place
+ we need publicity for this event! and funding!
+ we need someone to talk to ENGL and CRWR departments/committees to ask for funding and build networking, as well as sending out an e-mail to the listhosts ([ugrad-english] and whatever the CRWR one is, sent out by Julia Klein)
+ let's get started on the online magazine: if anyone has ideas for the website or the magazine itself, or about lj-style cuts to excerpt works on this blog, let me know
+ weekly writer's journal: blog about the problems and successes of everyday writing (this will rotate)... who's first?

And the prompt: write a piece that could only take place in a particular season. Explore the effects of setting on your action and characters.
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Notes from Week 9 Meeting

Last meeting of the quarter!

We discussed the stories by Sara and Matt. For Sara we suggested a number of ways in which the story could develop; for Matt we offered ideas on how to populate an unfamiliar world with fully human, fully realized characters.

We also talked about ways the group could grow, and plans for next quarter. We'd like to bring in a speaker, and go to various festivals in the spring. If you have any ideas, please post them! It would also be good to do something with FOTA, even in a tiny capacity. We should get involved with the English Department and Committee on Creative Writing, too. Would anybody like to be the liaison between us and those departments?

There was no prompt assigned, but I'll get one up as soon as I can. If anybody has ideas on a good technique to practice, let me know. Catalina suggested writing something from the point of view of a character with some kind of mental limitation, like being high or feverish. This could become a stream-of-consciousness narrative. If this appeals to you, go ahead and rock it!

Best of luck with finals, and have a great break.

5th-week meeting

Yo kids,

A meeting went down tonight! If you missed it, here's the deal:

+ We responded to a prompt RIGHT THEN AND THERE. The content of the prompt will be posted tomorrow. This prompt, in addition to the prompt from last week (describe the same event from different perspectives), will be discussed in the meeting in two weeks.

+ Changes to the structure of WIP!

- meetings will now be Tuesdays at 7, every other week
- stay posted for a location, soon to be made permanent (and on campus!)
- three/four people will be workshopped at each meeting
- submit your work by Sunday at 8 p.m. before the meeting, if not earlier
- we are now an RSO, but I think this is the twelfth time I've said this

+ Daniel, Catalina, and Matt will be submitting pieces for the workshop in two weeks. If you would like to be the fourth submitter, let me know.

Meeting specifics

A few people have told me that Tuesdays are inconvenient for meetings. However, others have said that Mondays are equally bad. I'm only free on Mondays and Tuesdays, so half of us will have to be slighted.

What are your thoughts on this? Should we alternate between Mondays and Tuesdays? Or should we break into smaller sections, with half of us meeting on M and the other meeting on Tue? Would someone be willing to lead a smaller section, if it meant that you could attend a meeting after all?

As always, e-mail me with suggestions. And as it stands, next week's meeting will be on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Stay tuned for location details.

Notes from Week 3 Meeting

I've sent out a few e-mails already, but here are the most recent news:

+ RSO status! This means we'll be holding meetings on campus, as well as making good use of ORCSA resources and funds. I need a member to accompany me to the RSO orientation next Friday at 1:30. We can talk compensation.

+ Reduced workshop loads. Expect to workshop two to four pieces per week. If your piece will be workshopped at the upcoming meeting, please e-mail a copy to me by Monday at 8 a.m. This way, everyone will have more time to read and comment on your piece. It'll also save you from staying up until 3:00 a.m. on Tuesday to finish your material. (Quit breakin' my heart, you guys!)

+ General guidelines on how workshopping will work, from now on: feel free to bring in whatever you're working on. Respond to all the prompts, but don't submit everything. Show us the things that you're most committed to, because if you don't believe wholeheartedly in your characters and scenes, we won't, either. What does this mean for future workshops? It means we'll be seeing a lot of cigarettes.



Annnd the prompt for 2/12/2008:

Since each of us has her own favorite point of view and voice, it's worth pushing our boundaries to see what different perspectives can do to a piece. In light of this, please describe a moment or short interaction from at least three points of view. While the same actions will take place, the voices you use to describe them will change from scene to scene. In addition to playing with first/second/third person, present/past/future, and regional diction, break out of your comfort zone by writing from the opposite gender's perspective for at least one of your iterations.

Notes from Tuesday's meeting

For those of you who missed Tuesday's meeting, here's what went down.

+ Cat led the meeting!

+ Sara brought in a piece she'd been working on as a staff submission for Sliced Bread. It was read aloud, and then we offered our critiques. Continue to bring in the material you're working on!

+ We talked about the differences between writing for class/workshops and for yourself.

+ Daniel opened to us the world of Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" (text here). Although I was thinking about doing a prompt based on setting, we agreed that the story was a better example of the possibilities in simple wordplay. I was also intrigued by the ways Poe shows us that his narrator is unreliable.

+ The prompt this week: Write a piece which prominently features wordplay, ambiguity, or some kind of misunderstanding. Yeah, it's nebulous -- but that gives you lots of room to do what you want. Give some thought to the way Poe uses wordplay and double meanings to show that his narrator has some serious psychological issues, giving us clues for how to interpret the story. You, too, can use subtlety to reveal your character's secret flaw.

And that's it! The meeting will be at my house next Tuesday at 7:00. Please bring the work you've done with the cigarettes prompt, and anything else you've been working on. In order to have your material workshopped at the meeting, please e-mail it to me by 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning. I'll then e-mail it out to everyone on my list for the meeting. (Please also send me your e-mail address, if you haven't yet, so that you'll be in on the workshopping.) When you receive the material, please look it over and be ready to workshop it at the meeting.

intermeeting post!

Hey, all. The next meeting will be at my place at 7 p.m. next Tuesday.

The agenda for Tuesday:
+ talk about your work on the prompt so far
+ discussion of material? (bring in what you're working on!)
+ "The Cask of Amontillado" and setting as a key element of a story
+ ideas for the blog: weekly posts, random journaling, posting material to the blog

As always, e-mail me or the group with questions, suggestions, and comments.

First things.

Thanks to everyone who came to the first meeting of WIP. It rocked... and there were five of us. Please try to make it to the next meeting! We are awesome, and you want to hang out with us. Trust me.

Here are the conclusions we've reached about meetings:

+ I'll introduce one new prompt at each meeting. We'll spend fifteen minutes working on the prompt during the meeting, and then take it home to work on it more. Give each prompt two weeks, so that at any given time you'll have two ideas to be working on. Do bring what you've done to meetings, so that we can workshop this material.

+ We'll be workshopping material each week. Given the number of people involved, and since we want to give pieces the attention they deserve, workshopping will be on a rotational basis. Details to come. However, it's certain that, in order to workshop your material, you must send it out to group members at least six hours before the meeting, preferably twenty-four. To do this, e-mail your piece to thisworkinprogress@gmail.com. This way, your piece will be distributed to the mailing list. Do this with both the material you're currently developing and the pieces that grow out of your responses to prompts.

+ We'll bring in writers to speak about the craft, the business, and other relevant, fascinating things in later weeks. Feel free to suggest potential speakers. Please note that, if we do host a speaker, you should be at least cursorily familiar with the speaker's work.

+ Prompts will include anything and everything. Send ideas along. If the prompt is not a specific sentence or passage to be incorporated into your work, it'll serve as a kind of springboard. For example, "Poe's 'Cask of Amontillado,' which could not have been so effective had it not been set in its particular time and place; write a scene which derives its movement and meaning from its setting."

+ Everything is currently in flux. At each meeting we'll try something new and see if it works. This means that your attendance is important! Please come to meetings; if you can't, contact a member in the group (before the meeting) to make your ideas heard.
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And now, concrete things.

The prompt from this week's meeting is:
"She was on her third cigarette, and it wasn't helping."

Write a scene that continues with this character. Feel free to change the gender and tense. Consider who she is, where she is, why she's smoking. Why isn't it helping? What has just happened prior to this first sentence? What's around her? Who's around her? Who/what isn't? Has she always smoked? Answer these questions through action and interaction, not narration.

Also, I'll bring in Poe's "Cask of Amontillado," possibly for use as a prompt, next week. Start thinking!