What the world needs now – more writers!

Caution: if you suffer from excessive political sensibilities, this post may prove hazardous to your emotional health. Just stop reading. Now.

Right now.

I mean it.

Oh, you’re still here? Well, then, don’t blame me if the following makes you cry.

Did anyone else realize – after the shock of the January 6 events wore off slightly – that what the world needs now is more people with imaginations? And not just more people, but more groups, militias, armies of people with rampant imaginations and the fortitude to put their imaginings into practice? Well, I’m about to reveal a secret that those who merely rampage in funny furry hats don’t want you to hear: we exist. We, that is, the people who know Neanderthals currently walk the Earth. That living beings can travel through portals to the past, the future, and other dimensions. That monsters are real. That justice will triumph. And of course, that happy-ever-after true love still exists. (Yeah, if you believe that last one, you’ll believe anything!)

I found out about them from attending (shhh, don’t tell) writing groups. Obviously, we have to cloak our knowledge by calling it fiction in order to keep them, the overlords, the ruling cabals, from trying to silence us. We’re writers, and we meet regularly to discuss our plans to overthrow well, just about everything. Find us. We dare you.

And if you dare, if you’re one of the brave, the chosen, the many, who are willing to put your own sweat, keyboard, and emotional strength to the test, here are some clues to follow. Catch us if you can, but for now I’m only listing groups meeting online in my home ground of North Texas.

DFW Writers Workshop – Currently, the workshop meets online every Wednesday from 7 p.m. to approximately 9 p.m., holiday or not. Participation in critiques is limited to members (annual dues $100). Visitors may listen but not comment or read their own work. Want more talk about writing? Keep tuned into the Zoom chat following the end of the critique sessions. DFWW also hosts an annual conference, currently scheduled for October .

Dallas Writer’s Garret – I got a first taste of creative writing at this group with its cozy atmosphere and no-pain critique groups in both prose and poetry. The Garret’s free critique “Stone Soup” groups are currently meeting online. These include a prose workshop first and third Sundays from 2-4 p.m. led by Diane Parker, a mixed genre workshop first and third Tuesdays from 7-8:30 p.m. led by Duana Cockrell, and a prose and poetry workgroup second and fourth Saturdays from 10 a.m. – noon led by Mark Noble. See the site for each leader’s contact information and group guidelines. 

Writers’Guild of Texas – This group’s critique group meets online the third Wednesday of each month from 7-9 p.m. Participation is limited to members (annual dues $35). See the site for additional information.

Dallas Mystery Writers – Although this is the Dallas chapter of the Mystery Writers of America, membership in the national MWA is not required. Meetings on the first Saturday of each month (except January) include discussions by writers in the mystery/thriller/suspense genres, craft discussions, and critiques.  For information, see the site for details.

Sisters in Crime, North Dallas – This group kicks off 2021 virtually this coming Sunday, January 24, from 2:30-4 p.m. Annual membership ($25) is available to all members of the national Sisters in Crime, regardless of gender. Members may bring 1-2 pages of their work in progress to read. RSVP by noon January 24.

Many local groups are still scrambling to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, but for more options, check WORD (Writing Organizations ‘Round Dallas) for those with online availability.

***

There is one major difference between writing groups and other revolutionaries: not everything can be said. At least not without devolution of the entire group and possible bloodletting. There may be a million ways to give and take criticism successfully in a writing group, but the best ones I’ve seen are to start and end with something positive about the fellow writer’s work. In between, mention what needs to be fixed.

“Fixables” include such items as continuity errors, factual errors, and plot holes. Also, word choice errors that confuse the author’s intent—as when the writer said a character was bemused when she meant amused. And anything that’s confusing or unclear, characters who lack depth, and lazy prose. Fixables, however, do not include changes to the writer’s style or genre choice.

For in-person (or online discussions), most likely each writer will be given a limited amount of time for reading, followed by specific, limited time for critiques from other group members. In general, a group will need a moderator. Only one member at a time should speak. Some groups allow the writer time to ask/answer questions or request clarification after each critique. Others (most) only allow the writer being critiqued to speak after all critique members have spoken. Time will be limited, so the writer should not waste theirs in arguing. And neither those giving or receiving the critique should act as if the rules apply to everybody but them.

The moderator should never allow more than one person to speak at a time or allow separate conversations. Writing isn’t easy and neither is receiving criticism. It’s even harder if you have trouble hearing each other – and sound quality at Zoom or other online formats doesn’t make hearing any easier.

Some groups I’ve attended also allowed/required writers to present copies of their work either ahead of time or alongside their oral readings. Other critique groups offer only written critiques. In this case, follow the same rules for offering in-person critiques as far as finding both positives and areas for improvement.

2020 countdown – readers’ favorite posts, day 4

 Continuing the countdown of top posts for 2020, here’s: 

Never write alone – there’s a critique group for that! 

Has anybody else ever been in this situation? I found an adorable premise for a story – actually, stole it, but that’s a tale for later – only to have critique partners shoot it down. And thank dog they did! 

It seemed so lovely. My fingers flew over the keyboard until the workshop members at the Writers Guild of Texas said, in the politest possible way, really? Would anybody in the character’s situation think like that? Part of the problem, I realized, was that the style wasn’t a good fit for me. The rest of the problem was that my eyes willingly overlooked whatever I didn’t want to see. Hello, rewrite. And a much happier me with the resulting version. 

But what would have happened without those other sets of eyes on my story? And how can a writer find those other eyes and voices in a time when writing workshops probably aren’t included in our states’ list of “essential” activities? 

If there’s a bright side to a global pandemic, it’s the plethora of online activities it’s given rise to. Once, writers in places without in-person workshops were isolated from their peers. Now those peers are little more than a click away. 

I live in North Texas, home to WORD (Writing Organizations ’Round Dallas) whose site includes a map of member groups, including those with critique and discussion groups. You’ll need to contact groups that catch your attention, because not all websites have been updated to show which offer online activities. But for those that do, distance is no problem. 

I’ve even joined another critique group since first writing this post, at the DFW Writers Workshop. 

Image: Pixabay

Or maybe you’ve decided your writing skills could use a brush up during this time of sheltering at home, but cost, distance, or safety prohibit in-person classes. Hello, internet again. Besides WORD’s interactive map, check out the likes of Writing Workshops Dallas, a brainchild of multi-published short story author Blake Kimzey, for its online offerings. And don’t overlook the Writers’ League of Texas for ongoing, online classes. 

Yes, I am partial to Texas events, but again, with the internet, residence is not an issue. Writer’s Digest, for instance, offers its own school of online courses, as does The Write Life (which also helps with finding critique partners). There are also many other online courses listings that I haven’t had an opportunity to vet but would welcome reader feedback on.

Time and tense: past or present, the writer’s dilemma

The critique session was billed as friendly, supportive, helpful. No one’s work, the group leader assured us, would be torn to pieces by the panel of four much-published authors. Until, that is, the authors sat aghast at my reading. Because it was, shockingly – and I beg you to contain your horror at this – the pages were written in present tense. 

One panelist declared she would never read a book written in present tense. Another, at a loss for words, said nothing, but only scribbled on the pages, “present tense – ick.” Still another delivered an impassioned monologue about the evils of present tense, a fad which could only appeal to millennials. 

image: pixabay

However, far from being a mere millennial-generation fad, a few minutes with a search engine turned up some thought-provoking examples of present tense novels written in pre-millennial days, including these from The Write Practice site: Bleak House, (admittedly, with some past tense sections) by that 19^th century codger Charles Dickens; Rabbit, Run, by John Updike; and All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque. 

All of which left me wondering why present tense ever got such a bad rap. And why, if it was so bad, no editor or writer in the numerous other classes and workshops I had attended had ever cautioned me against its use.

So, it was with a feeling of chagrin that, when checking my earlier posts at this site, I ran across my own admonition against the use of present tense: “. . . the equivalent of running (a marathon) in leg shackles.” 

My only excuse for such a shocking comment is that it was written in 2010. (I also had a strange prejudice at the time about writing with a first-person point of view. Go figure.)

Still, times change, and so do writers. Who doesn’t want to try a new technique, add a new tool to my box of craft. Why not try writing in present tense since, I told myself, it could always be changed later if it didn’t work. At first it did feel a lot like running in shackles. I found myself constantly pulled up short, constantly reverting to the more familiar, seemingly cozier past tense while hardly realizing what I was doing.

But like all skills, present tense got easier with practice.

In mid-2014, I wrote a science fiction short story for a contest. In past tense. It got some nice comments from the judges, but was only a runner-up. Not a winner. By the end of 2014, I had rewritten it in present tense. This time around, it sold. For the curious, the story was “Planet, Paper, Space,” published in 2015 in Luna Station Quarterly.

By that same year of 2015, I had revised an earlier novel into present tense, and achieved a first chapter which has since received thumbs-up from my online critique group. By late 2015, I even managed to overcome my introvert’s fear of first person and submitted the opening of a new novel with both the new-to-me techniques for the Writer’s League of Texas contest. I was driving down a country road on the way to a family reunion when a message popped up on my phone: “Congratulations! You’re a WLT manuscript winner!” 

I’ll admit, I’m still going back and forth with the agent who picked that piece of present tense writing out of the contest slush pile. But the small victories were enough to convince me that, yes, I can write in present tense if I want, and if the story needs it. 

Perhaps I should mention that some authors believe the use of present tense destroys a story’s suspense. However, through trial and error I had unconsciously learned the lesson author Jenny Martin would later put into words during her workshop at the Roanoke Writers Conference this past fall: that use of the present tense automatically raises the suspenseful question, “Does this person survive?” We know she’s alive now? But will she still be living at the story’s end?

If we’re going to get all grammatical, there are also multiple versions of both past and present tense, all of which have their own purposes. And for those asking, well, what about writing in future tense – Martin’s advice was, “just don’t!”. Although I can feel my fingers itching right now. . .  

Studying the techniques of thriller writers also clued me to another suspense-generating technique applicable to either present or past tense – use of multiple points of view. Which perhaps I’ll post about at some later time. 

Obviously, I haven’t embraced present tense for all purposes – as witness this post written in past tense. Because the events it describes are, well, in the past. As one of the panelists I dissed about at the beginning of this post told me later, readers’ – and writers’ – tastes differ, but the important thing is to tell the story that’s burning to be told. No matter what tense it demands. 

Wordcraft -- Write on: The Garret's alive and kicking

On the front of its Sunday Arts & Life section, the Dallas Morning News proclaimed the Dallas Writer’s Garret to be an institution “at the heart of Dallas’ literary community.” Like many nonprofit organizations, the Garret feels the pain of the current economic situation. But it’s operated under an the additional burden of grief since 2008 when Jack Myers -- poet, SMU professor and husband of the Garret’s founder Thea Temple -- learned he had cancer.

Although Myers died in late 2009, his latest book of poetry, The Memory of Water, was published this spring by New Issues Press. And the Garret continues its work as well, with the help of staff members Joe Milazzo, director of community and education outreach, and program and operations administrator Grace Kenney. They plan an open house Saturday, September 10, from 3-5 p.m. at the Garret’s location above Paperbacks Plus, 6115 La Vista Dr. in Dallas.

In addition to training writers, organizing youth programs and bringing world-renowned authors to the city, the Garret gives writers a place to hang out with other writers. Its several critique groups give us a chance to receive feedback on our work and listen to the work of other writers, as well as just talking about writing.

At this past Saturday’s meeting, participant Paul shared a quotation from Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk on the value of such groups -- a chance to make friends not because we share the proximity of working in adjacent cubicles or living in adjacent houses, but because we share a passion. The passion for writing.

Currently the Garret hosts regular writing critique groups in mixed genres on the first and third Tuesdays of each month from 7-9 p.m. and on the second and fourth Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m. solely on poetry; and on the second and fourth Saturdays from 10 a.m. until noon for prose and poetry. First visits to each group are free, and $3 thereafter.

It also hosts a reading for performance workshop on third Sundays from 4-6 p.m. (August 21) and a poetry discussion group on second Thursdays from 7-9 p.m. Participation in these groups is free.

For more information, see www.writersgarret.org or contact the Garret at 214-828-1715 or gen@writersgarrett.org