Perhaps you’ll want to check out one or more of these books to get a clear idea of what our writing group could be:

Writing Alone, Writing Together: A Guide for Writers and Writing Groups by Judy Reeves

The Complete Guide to Writers Groups That Work by B.J. Taylor

The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide: How to Make Revisions, Self-Edit, and Give and Receive Feedback by Becky Levine

Let’s brainstorm together and work out a format that meets our needs as a growing and evolving writers’ group.  Bring your ideas to the May meeting, or email them to Theresa.  We do hope you will share in person, because that’s what being a writers’ group is all about.  Showing up, sharing, and helping each other.

While I’m on this subject, some of you may want to keep a “Personal Log.” If the current installment of the story is about you, your team or anything else that might affect your character, you may write your reaction to it. You can also record your daily or weekly “Activities” aboard the Galileo. Or even share your “letters” to your character’s loved ones, if you wish.

We'll see you at the Daviess County Public Library this Saturday at 11:00 a.m.  Bring your writing tools!

Our main topic was how to increase attendance at future meetings. We decided to launch more advertising!! I’ve mailed out two flyers.  Members are asked to make copies of one (or both if you wish) and then hang the resulting poster wherever you think other people will see it. Please try to keep a record of where you put up an advertisement. If possible, send out a weekly email to the group telling us where you’ve posted them. In addition to this, I’m listing our meetings on Craigslist and I’m going to ask the Library if they can make any announcement about our group as well.

In addition to this, we want more accountability from each other. We will be asking each other how much writing we’re doing, what type(s), and whether or not we are meeting our goals or keeping our resolutions for writing. This will be brought up at most, if not all of, future meetings. So print out your Writing Goals if you haven’t already and record these facts. If you desire, you may even send out group emails in between meetings and tell everyone what you’ve written, submitted or had published. Shannon, Kristine and I talked about doing this every week, but I haven’t followed up yet. Maybe I’ll have one made up by this Saturday which will be exactly two weeks after the meeting.

We briefly discussed having monthly assignments again. If enough people want to do this in May, we will decide on writing something short enough to be read aloud during our June meeting.

David R. and Suzanne showed up to talk writing. 

They chatted for a while about how they thought the Round Robin story might progress and about research they planned to do before writing their parts.

Suzanne had the opportunity to read the intricately detailed world-building David has done for his science fiction work in progress.  They discussed the next steps David needs to take to begin working on the manuscript.

They then adjourned the meeting in order to enjoy the wonderful weather.

Our first major group project for the year is a Round-Robin saga.

Theresa has created the beginning of a story, spun the mystery of a new world, and assigned parts to each of the twenty-three writers on our membership list. 

Each Owensboro Writers Group member will add between 100 and 1,000 words within three weeks of receiving the story.  Detailed information writing order, adding to the Round Robin and passing it on were included in that email.  If you have misplaced these directions, please contact Theresa for a copy.

The working title for our saga is “Looking for Life” because that’s exactly what our space traveling characters are hoping to do.

With the number of writers on our list, and with three weeks of writing time for each person, this project should run through most of the year.

We ask you not to leap off the spaceship before it reaches your planet!

If, when the story reaches you, you are truly unable to participate by writing between 100 – 1000 words, please do a Pass on the story. 

Wait until you receive the story, then:

    1.  Change the name of the email to PASS – mmddyy – Looking for Life – Your Name

    2.  Do a Forward to the entire list, but say Hi to the next person on the list so they know that's their cue to write

If the document doesn't pass through everyone's hands, we'll lose track of who is next to participate, and either the story will stall somewhere, or someone who wants to participate will miss out.

Know that if you Pass, the Captain of our ship makes the decision about what happens to your character in the story.  You’ll have to read the Captain’s log to find out.

I’m looking forward to watching our story grow as the months go by.

Kristine Adams and a few others made suggestions. When we were finished, I went downstairs and checked out a book called The Writing Group, edited by Lisa Rosenthal. Below are some ideas on getting more people to participate in our group with Kristine's [idea] first:

1.      We only review the work of 2-3 people each meeting instead of trying to critique everyone. This would allow a person to read his or her work aloud (or have someone else read it). Others attendees could comment after each reading. We might also ask that a fourth person be prepared to read in case we have extra time.

2.    Ask a person or two to bring food for sharing. This would not need to be expensive, just something for us to snack on.

3.    Create a second meeting time every month. Anyone who works on Saturdays or has previous commitments on the third Saturday can make suggestions of when they can meet. I know this would probably be a small meeting, but we're trying to increase participation.

4.    Share the responsibilities of maintaining the group. I'd be delighted if someone else volunteered to keep meeting notes, send out the Agenda and/or emailing meeting reminders.

5.     Extend our meetings by 30-60 minutes. This way, we could take up the first thirty minutes catching up and waiting for stragglers. If we choose to add 60 minutes, we could spend 15 minutes making announcements and/or have more time at the end to discuss our next assignment.

6.    Encourage everyone to bring links, writing books or magazines and/or announcements of writing-related events to the meetings and we pass them around.

7.     Start an expense fund. Have everyone bring $1-$5 per month (we can decide on the amount together). Then we can choose to buy food instead of # 2, give out prizes on a monthly or quarterly basis, OR save it up and plan a special event such as paying a publisher or noted author to come talk to our group.

8.    Form groups to attend other events. For instance, a bunch of us could attend the Third Tuesday Writing Group and support a writer who wishes to read there.

9.    RSVP to meeting reminders. Anyone that doesn't show up without telling us ahead of time has to put extra money in the expense fund or gets drafted to bring food next time.

10.   Have a Round-Robin of story-telling! In case you don't know, that means one persons starts a story and then we pass it around. This is what we decided to start with! I'm starting it and will be sending it to the next person no later than March 3rd. I figure two weeks per person should be enough. Each following writer will add 2-5 pages when it comes to you and then send it to the next person.

Do you see any suggestion(s) that you particularly like? Any that you hate? Do you have an idea that I didn't list? If so, please "Reply All" and let us know.

Until later,
Theresa Jewel Pinkston
OWG Manager

We’ve already had area writers call for more information about Owensboro Writers Group, and showing up at our meetings since our first appearance on his website and in the newsletter.

If you found us through the Kentucky Literary Magazine, post a comment and tell us where you’re from.  You're welcome to join us.

Theresa Jewel Ammons

NONFICTION:

“Newburgh Area Petsitters”
Jan. 23, 2011
Evansville Pets Examiner
Published by Examiner.com

“Wilma Mankiller”

Submitted to Native Peoples Magazine

[Theresa says she recently received a no-thank-you on this article, but an invitation to submit other proposals.]

“Finding Meaning”
1,621 words from about three months of research
Presented on July 31,2011 to Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Owensboro, KY

“Finding Your Roots: Part One”
Nov. 3, 2011
Evansville Genealogy Examiner
Published by Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/genealogy-in-evansville/finding-your-roots-part-one

“Finding Your Roots: Part Two”
Nov. 16, 2011
Evansville Genealogy Examiner

Published by Examiner.com

http://www.examiner.com/genealogy-in-evansville/finding-your-roots-part-two

FICTION:

“We Need To Talk”
Submitted on April 25, 2011
The First Line Literary Journal

Council of Weres – Book One

Chapters 1 – 3  -  First draft of chapters sent to first readers

Annabel Bea

 Addiction Counseling – manual used in teaching correspondence college courses for Harvest Land Ministries in Africa

Counseling the Elderly – first draft of manual used in teaching correspondence college courses for Harvest Land Ministries in Africa

“The Chicken Plant” – finished short story

Finished first draft of memoirs of her missionary experiences.

Deb Blanton (writing as Ann Blanton)

Winner of the Long Ridge Writers Group submission contest with 120 nonfiction submissions and 3 fiction submissions from September 2010 – September 2011.  [Way to go, Deb!!!  You are an inspiration to a lot of people.]

       “Leap of Faith” – http://fitplusmag.com/magazine/fit-for-life/leap-of-faith

       “A Champion at 40” – http://fitplusmag.com/magazine/success/a-champion-at-40

       “Go Nuts for Pecans” – http://fitplusmag.com/magazine/feature-articles/go-nuts-for-pecans

       “Mastering Metabolism” – http://fitplusmag.com/magazine/health-report/mastering-metabolism

       “Stop Making Excuses” – http://fitplusmag.com/magazine/feature-articles/stop-making-excuses

       One article pending publication

       All published in Fitness Plus Magazine: Arizona’s Largest Active Lifestyle Magazine

Clayton Galloway

Shatters

Chapters 1 – 11  -  First draft of chapters sent to first reader and reworked .

Plus “a couple of new chapters written.”

“Sharecropper’s Daughter”

Published in Open 24 Hours annual anthology – 2011 edition

Brescia University, Owensboro, KY

Suzanne Gochenouer AKA Su Zanne

Critiqued and edited two complete first drafts for client.

Critiqued and edited three partial first drafts for clients.

Critiqued and edited close to thirty articles for clients.

Book Review – Big Bottom Church by Bill Patterson

Published in Writing Craft - Long Ridge Writers Group eNewsletter – 07/15/11

“Spring Tonic”

Runner-up – Stella Cameron Scarlet Boa 2011 Contest – all-dialogue scene

http://www.stellacameron.com/scarletboa11/scene1.html

“Forward Gratitude”

“The Gift of Hours”

Both published in The Gratitude Book Project: Celebrating 365 days of Gratitude, 2012 Edition

Shannon McKeever

Shannon reports that she wrote “a bit” over 30,000 words in her National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) manuscript.

Katie Tillwick

Dr. Carver: Healer of the Dead

Completed manuscript and submitted query to agent.

“Welder’s Rebellion”

Published in Aoife’s Kiss – September 2011 edition

Mary Zimmer

            POETRY:  

          “From New Castle”

          “Today’s Ozymandias”

          To be published Spring of 2012 by The Single Hound Literary Journal

          “Everyday Eschatology”

          “Suburban Dominion”

          “Clean Air Act”

          To be published Spring of 2012 by The Heartland Review

          “Invisible”

          To be published Spring of 2012 in No Longer Silent (a compilation of women’s writing on abuse)

Hello, everybody. Here are notes from the December meeting and below that is our January assignment:

December Meeting

Suzanne, Mary Zimmer, Annabel, Bill Patterson and I (Theresa Jewel) met on Dec. 17, 2011 at the Daviess County Public Library. Suzanne and I talked about the Christmas stories she's publishing on our website before anyone else came in.

Near the end of the meeting, we talked about writing again and set up our assignment for next month, January 2012.

January Assignment

2012 Writing Goals:  Make a reasonable list of writing goals you hope to reach in 2012!

Suzanne suggested splitting them into First Half and Second Half (or Jan-June & July-Dec). Most of us agree that each writer should come up with your own minimum number of submissions. After all, you must submit your writing if you hope to ever be published!

Start making your list as soon as possible, if you haven't already done so. After all, you probably want to start working on fulfilling the goals on January 1st. Just be sure to bring a copy of the list to our next meeting on January 21, 2012.