Tuesdays with Story

Writer’s Mail
Tuesdays with Story
February 9, 2018

Welcome home – Pat Edwards, back from wintering in Arizona, and Kashmira Sheth, back from visiting family in India, joined eight of their colleagues to discuss the works of seven members Tuesday evening. Here are some of the thoughts shared:

Millie Mader (poems, “Loss” and “Reflections on Ancient Ephesus”) . . .  I read two poems, but didn’t get much critiquing. Jerry suggested changing a line, which I’m going to do. Trying to get a bit caught up with my short story.

Jack Freiburger (four poems, “Fred Goff”, “Late Snow”, “Memorial Day”, and “Last Hay”) . . . Not a lot of feedback as I’m not sure how comfortable most of the group is editing poetry, but generally positive responses and fewer grammatical errorsfound than usual. Will really try to get on Synopsis of A Walk Upon the Water novel for a month from now.  Will be in CA working on a mobility engineering project for disabled athletes the 20th, plus a few winery tours.

Paul Wagner (short story, part 1 rewrite, “Mad Jack”) . . .

Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (chapters 15-16, untitled novel) . . .

Larry Sommers (chapter 9-10, untitled novel) . . . Tracey, Pat, Jack, and others pointed out continuing POV problems. Tracey suggested reframing a long section of farming information as dialogue. Jerry and Jack helped with suggestions for more realistic handling of travel by horse and wagon. Jerry noted the last two grafs in Chapter 10 were anticlimactic and unnecessary. There ensued a granular discussion of my extremely incremental and iterative writing process, in which these Tuesday night critiques are playing a highly constructive role. Thanks, everybody!

Tracey Gemmell (chapters 2.5 and 3, Accidentally Fine) . . . The group generally considered the chapters interesting. Tracey had concerns the section dealing with Cassie’s journey to France was too long. It was agreed the language could be condensed a little, but the journey added interest and texture. Larry suggested Tracey cut back on sentences with multiple prepositional phrases. Jack felt there was some -ing and -ed confusion. Jerry noted a couple of paragraphs as ‘superior writing.’ Many thanks to all for the suggestions.

Jerry Peterson (short story, “How am I going to explain this”) . . . Confusion for Tracey Gemmell, not familiar with Jerry’s John Wads stories. She thought Wads and Zigman were teenagers, but what were they doing in a bar? Jack Freiburger suggested “think of the instructions to the cameraman” for the opening shot, the framing shot . . . the bar. “Make it the Dew Drop Inn or some other name like that that tells the reader this is a bar and show some of the worn interior. Teens aren’t going to go to a place like that, so we know Wads and Zigman are older regardless of what they’re drinking.” Pat Edwards said the tattoo was not on Wads’ ham, meaning the hamstring area, but on the glute.

Who’s up next

February 20
Larry Sommers (chapter, untitled novel)
Mike Austin (chapter, Riding with the Reed Gang)
Bob Kralapp (short story, part 3, “Faith”)
John Schneller (chapter, Final Stronghold)
Amber Boudreau (???)
Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (chapters)

March 6
Millie Mader (???)
Paul Wagner (short story, part 2, “Mad Jack”)
Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (chapters)
Pat Edwards (???)
Tracey Gemmell (chapters, Accidentally Fine)
Jerry Peterson (???)

Put it on your calendar

Our next Fifth Tuesday is May 29.

Our editor

Larry Sommers is our February editor. If you have something you want in the next issue of Writer’s Mail, send it to Larry.

Story ideas

Where do they come from?

Said Madison novelist Kristin Oakley – a former TWS member – in a recent post, “Neil Gaiman used to tell people that he gets them from a little idea shop in Bognor Regis. Now he just tells them that he ‘makes them up. Out of his head.’ (Check out his terrific essay on this subject). Stephen King says asking the key question ‘What if?’ leads to his story concepts. He gives more insights into what influences his scary imagination in his collection of short stories, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. The stories are prefaced with an explanation about their origins. Fascinating.”

A writing contest for you

The Wisconsin Writers Association’s Jade Ring contest. Entries open on March 1. Here are the details:

There are four divisions – fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and humor. Maximum length for the fiction, nonfiction, and humor entries is 2,000 words. There is an entry fee, but it’s not very much, and it’s free if you are a WWA member.

— Winners receive a cash prize, a certificate and recognition at the Jade Ring award ceremony during the WWA Fall Writers Conference

— All winners (first through third place and three honorable mentions in each division) will be published in Creative Wisconsin Anthology: 2018 Jade Ring Winners. Author retains all rights following publication.

— Creative Wisconsin Anthology will be available on Amazon.

— Each winner will receive a complimentary copy of Creative Wisconsin Anthology containing their award-winning piece.

— Top three winners in each category will be featured at a reading during the 2018 WWA Fall Writers Conference.

— Contest submission dates are March 1 – May 10. Go to this website for submission guidelines: https://wiwrite.org/contests/

Looking to get published. This is a good way. The top three in each division also get money!