Writer’s Mail
February 12, 2014
Tuesday night 2nd & 4th reconvened after far, far too long…
Carol Hornung started the night with a scene from Ghost of Heffron College – the big reveal explaining the ghost’s name. Jack thought the library building description contained too many mixed up architectural styles and suggested just looking at an existing library and describing it. Holly liked the back-and-forth dialog between the two characters but wondered if Jennifer would be so up front and personal. Also, the group felt Jennifer would be a bit more curious about the archives Kyle is looking into, and would probably ask a few more questions. Had a discussion, too, on whether a guy, when confronted with a friend who was now suddenly sporting a bright pink head of hair, would say “Love the hair” (too girly?) or just “Cool hair.”
Ryan Wagner read a poem “The Path Out of the Forest.” Carol really appreciated it a lot more read aloud than written on the page. Some words, like “lives” can be read two different ways and a little more context around them would help guide the reader. Jack suggested working on meter and structure, to create music with the verse. Also need images to make the poem more memorable. Holly said to look for the most important words and read the poem aloud again to listen for the natural line breaks.
Karen Zethmayr regressed us all back to preschool as she put scissors out on the table and passed out pieces of her do-it-yourself pop-up book, “Where’s Bear’s Stuff?” The more crafty folks among us blew through the instructions without difficulty, while those who were a bit more literal got a little left behind. Key comment – keep instruction lines short. Provide a supply list for each page and be sure to point out that the book needs to be printed on one side of the page only. A suggestion was also made to provide photos of each finished page for reference at the beginning of the book. (more…)
Tuesdays with Story 