We had a small but productive group last Thursday as I took the helm for the first time in a long time while Kay visited relatives in Reno. Billy opened the meeting with more questions about writers conferences, i.e., how to pick one that's right for you. This led to a discussion on genre conferences vs. broader conferences, the art of networking, receiving critiques, and cost of attendance.
From there, we moved to critiques, reviewing three novels: Billy's contribution to his The Voyage of the (Unpronounceable), Amanda's Questionable Morality, and Zack's The Dead Machine. A large part of the conversation focused on structure, making a story smooth by removing exposition and redundant scenes. We also covered rules about e-submissions and putting your name on your work. Don't make me bring back my third grade teacher!
The meeting ended with a conversation on the night's topic: overcoming story block. Not writer's block (where words fail to come), but story block, where a story gets lost, bogged down, stopped. Zack suggested simply writing through it and cleaning it up with editing. Additional suggestions included reviewing your outline, rereading your work to see where it went off-track, focusing on the next plot point, creating additional scenes, and experimenting with characters.
Next meeting we'll delve deeper into Amanda's and Zack's novels, and a new contribution from Kay (submitted in late July). See some of you there.
Details: August 19th, 7-9pm, Holden Room, Crandall Library, Glens Falls.
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