Tuesdays with Story

Tuesdays with Story
March 6, 2020

The first word . . .

Skip a day or more between writing sessions and your mind will drift away from the deep moments of your story. You’ll have to slog back to the place abandoned if you had written every day.  (a note that has been on my wall for so long I forgot who it came from)

They met at Barnes & Noble . . .which they won’t do again for a while because of Covid-19.

 A full table of authors commented on style, word choices, and moments in history. Much aid and opinion offered to the well being of all projects.

— Meg Williams (???) . . . A LOT of old noir crime feel going on with the first chapter and I need to get away from that

– A lot of character action logistics need a LOT of work.

– Instead of killing characters, I need to kill all of the adverbs used in the narrative portions

– A surprise plot twist involving human trafficking instead of a typical drug bust.

– Conclusion: First Chapter needs to be rewritten and resubmitted for critique. There’s definitely some bad writing habits that I really need to break. So I’m going to take a page out of Taylor Swift’s book and Shake It Off and Write On 🙂

— Huckle Rahr (chapter 7-9, Wolf Healer) . . . I was encouraged to engage my characters in more action. My chapter currently has too much static conversation. There are a lot of characters sitting around the table eating, but is no one passing food. Is the toddler being fed? Is the mother doing anything? I need to add more action to help the reader build the scene and to convince them to turn the page and read the next chapter.

— Jack Freiburger (3 contest poems) . . . Three poems with typos are now three poems.  The story line in Fred Goff was accessible to all it seemed and Last Hay seemed to engage half the group.  End.. was pretty dense and not very accessible.

— Bob Kralapp (chapter 12, Capacity) . . .

— John Schneller (chapter 16, Broken rewrite) . . .  Stinky was a favored character but alas, he will continue to be a minor character with no redemptive path throughout the series, even though he will make plans to rule the world in book three. The wolves will emerge as the primary antagonists. A number of good suggestions concerning clarity, especially on the prairie trek.

— Larry Sommers (first and last chapters, rewrites, Freedom’s Purchase) . . .  Several folks offered suggestions on word changed to the first and last chapters of Freedom’s Purchase. I have accepted some and left others on the table. Thanks very much to all. Next time, new material.

Who’s up next . . . hahaha, just kidding Covid-19 won’t have us meeting up anytime soon.

March 17

Amber Boudreau (chapter, Second Nature)

Bob Kralapp (chapter, Capacity)

Kashmira Sheth and Amit Trivedi (???)

Mike Austin (short story, “Second Date” – Part 2)

Huckle Rahr (chapter, Wolf Healer)

Jerry Peterson (chapters 33-34, Killing Ham)

Fifth Tuesday . . .

Our next Fifth Tuesday, yes, it’s coming fast . . . March 31 at Jack Freiburger’s Hickory Knoll Farm. For your GPS, the address is 5438 Highway M, Fitchburg.

This is a potluck dinner event, so plan now for the good food you intend to bring for the feasting table. Do send Jack a note telling him (a) you will be with us, (b) who you are bringing, if you intend to bring a guest, and (c) what you are bringing in your lucky pot.

Ah, yes, the writing challenge, here we are: Metamorphosis (Kafka, not Ovid). Like Gregor, you (or he/she) wakes up in the morning and something has certainly changed!

Your story, poem, or essay, 500 words max.

Our editor . . .

John Schneller <jrschneller@yahoo.com>. Do you have something you’d like John to include our next issue? Send it to him.

News about an early member of TWS . . .

At the time, 15 years ago or so, Tim Mickelburgh was teaching digital media at MMI—Madison Media Institute—and writing novels with us. A very fine writer. Work increased when MMI promoted Tim to department chair, so he left us.

He’s now retired and living in the Great Northwest. Here’s his most recent note: “Yes, I’m now living in La Conner, about 70 miles north of Seattle. Two novels written, neither published. Both need major revision, and it’s so hard to start again!”

What is he doing? “Photographing, printing old work, leading school tours at the local art museum. I miss TWS to this day, it was an amazing crucible.”

Popular books by state . . .

Creating a map of the United States by determining the best fiction book—most popular—in each state, then finding in that book the most popular quote, that’s an interesting idea. The writers at Business Insider did that, and the result is sure to stir a lot of debate.

It’s worth taking a couple minutes to scroll through the story and look at the map if, for no other reason, than to see which book was chosen to represent Wisconsin. Here’s the link: https://www.netcredit.com/blog/most-popular-quote-best-book-every-state/

The last word . . .

To be deprived of a sense of wonder and adventure in our lives is to be burdened with existence.

J.M. Norge