Writers groups/Conference

Joining a critiqueing writers group is the single most important thing I've done to advance my writing career.  A writers group without critiqueing is like a hospital without Doctors and Nurses.  When your sick you need expert adviive on how to get well.  The same goes for your manuscript.  When it's sick, you need your writers group to first diaginois, and then prescribe treatment.  Like you do with your doctor, you might not always heed this advice.  Up to you.   


The second is attending the Las Vegas Writers Conference in May of every year hosted by the Henderson Writers Group.  this conference is unique in the fact that you get ten minutes face time with Agents and editors to pitch your work   Trust me, you can do a lot in ten minutes.

Stay tuned!
More on the Henderson Writers Group and their conference to come

 

Beta readers/ Writers groups

Hi all,
Education is important.  I had been out of school for umpteen years before I started my first novel and frankly, english wasn't tops on my list of priorities during my academic endevaors.  I didn't realize how much I needed a refresher until I had completed it and started getting feedback.  So I took a creative writing course at our community college.  I really enjoyed it.  And the saying 'you can't teach old dogs new tricks is bull.  I was the oldest student and got an A-, the highest grade in the class.  (The dufus teaching the class told us he didn't believe in giving A's.)      

Beta readers are also very important to your project.  Relatives are nice, there's only one problem with them.  By nature, they don't want to hurt your feelings.  You need people who will will be truthful.  That's where a writers group comes in, and not just any writers group, but one that critiques.

I can't stress enough how important this is.  The critiques, not just on your work but on other writers material as well, is invaluable.  I think the biggest satisfacation I get out of belonging to the Henderson Writers Group is the improvement and increased confidence I see in our  members.  It's awesome to see.       

BEWARE!!!!!

Okay.  You've finished your novel.  You haven't had anyone but friends and releatives vet it and they tell you it's great.  So, in your mind, you're ready for the next step.  So, you grab a writer's magizine and look for agents. 

BEWARE!!!!  If they ask for money  BEWARE!!!!! 

I did.  A year, and six hundred dollars, later, nada.  It took awhile but it finally dawned on me dawned on me.  I was being taken.  

I quit sending money.  Now, you would think the guy would send me an over-due notice.  Another nada. 

This soured me for a long time on writing.  DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!!!!!

Checkout anyone you are considering to send your work to on "Predators and Editors"  the best rating source around.

More next week.

#7 Busy writing

Sorry, one day late.  Our daughter is visiting from Oklahoma.

So, picking up from last week, I burn the midnight oil on my new computer. I finish my novel.  My friends and family tell me it's great so I find an agent in the back of a magazine that says he will get me published .  All I have to do is give him fifty dollars a month for expenses.

A year goes by.  Nothing.  Apparently the only thing good about my 'wonderful novel' is the idea.

To be continued.  

#6 Moving day. Back to the beginning

Hello All.  I am moving my posting day to Friday.
Let's get back to the beginning of my first novel.  After driving all over Ventura County for days buying every package of correction tape she could find for my type writer, BJ, my wife, told me I had two choices:  Buy a computer or see a divorce lawyer.  After factoring everything in, I figured the computer was the cheapest way to go. And, though as cranky as she was at the time, she is the love of my life.

The big day!  The computer arrives.  Holy Cow, that thing was huge.  BJ had the foresight to get a printer also, which meant  a trip to Walmart for a bigger desk.

We fast forward to our loft where everything is set up. New computer, new printer, new desk, new desk lamp new office chair, and a new room divider on a track like those that separate patients in an emergency room.  I looked at my wife and said, "nothing written yet and we've already had to take out a second on the house."
She responded with: "Yeah, but the upside is no damn correction tape."

To be continued.

#5 Another excellent guest speaker.

The Henderson Writers had another great Guest speaker this week.  His name is Todd Isbell and he is the Nurse responsible for the emergency room at one our local hospitals.  The man is amazing.  He kept us enthralled for over an hour and a half.  We thank you, Mr. Isbell for giving us your time and probably ruining every medical show I watch in the future.  (If I ever watch another one,that is.)

Access to people like this is one of the many reasons you should belong to a writers group, especally one that Critiques.

See you next week,
Jay

#3 Flash fiction

Hi All,
We had a blast at the last Henderson Writers Group Meeting.  We learned about "Flash Fiction" from best selling author Siabhan Muir.  (No, I don't know how to pronounce her first name even though we met on Monday.)
Doing flash fiction helps you tighten up your writing because there are strict rules  You are given a phrase, words or pictures and then work under time and word count restraints to write a story about them.  What's neat about this is you can put the subject into any gendre you want.

It also helps you clear your mind when you have writers block.  Here are a few sites to that have contests.  Some even give prizes.
MENAGE MONDAY
MOVATION MONDAY
TUESDAY TALES
THURS THREADS
FRIDAY PICTURE SHOW.

If I got my notes straight, Thurs Threads is Siabhan Muir's site.

It looks like I'm out of space,  see you next week.
Jay


     

#3 Typewriter

Hi All,
Did anybody but me start writing on a typewriter.  Mine was an IBM and it had,ta-da, correction tape.

There it sat on my desk , the IBM,calling me.  So, I sat down with the idea in my head and nothing else.  I soon learned you need more than that.
After two weeks BJ, my wife, was thinking of buying stock in the correction tape company but was afraid of getting nailed for insider trading.

Next week:  The computer arrives.
See you then
Jay

Hi all.  Whew!  It only took me an hour to correct my boo-boos on my profile page and get to the point I could actually blog.  This is  a hell of an improvement.  Last week, I started in the morning and my wife threatened me with the couch unless I turned off the computer and came to bed.  Lucky for her, I had completed my task.

I think it's interesting what inspires people to write.  There's no telling what will set an author off to put the first words of his novel on paper.  With me , it was at our friends house in Oceanside, Calif.  They owned a small antique shop and after a day of rummiging through garage sales, they brought home an old trunk.  When my buddy and I finally got it open, it was full of old, personal papers and pictures, you know the ones, where a photographer comes by and everyone lines up in the front yard sporting their best gingam and overalls for a family portrait.

After shuffling through these treasures for a while, I commented a good plot for a book would be  after someone buys an old trunk at a garage sale, bad things start to happen to them and their friends because of something hidden in it.  To make a long story short (or is it to late for that) They challenged me to write it.

I did, using our families as the main charcters, and it was fun.

Enough of me.  Please share what inspired you. 

Until next Thursday.
Jay

First blog.

Hi everyone, welcome to my first blog.  I thought I could get this out yesterday but I'm a baby boomer just getting into this social media stuff so, please, bear with me.  Though frustrated with the process, I actually resisted the urge to get my.38 and end it all.  (By shooting my computer, not myself.)

This blog is going to be about my experences on my writing journey from the start to where I'm at now, working with a publisher to get the wrinkles out of my novel so it can go to print.  It will be fun, I hope you join me.

See you next Thursday.
Jay

PS:  Remember, your never to young, orold, to  begin writing.