6/24/13 meeting recap

Next monday's prompt: Take a story you've already written and write it from a different perspective. Another characters voice, a different tense, or take a third person story and let one of your characters tell it in their own words. Have fun!

Perspective and tense.

We did a little experimentation on monday to see how writing in different tenses and perspectives change the way that we write. While there are formally dozens of perspectives and tenses, we only looked at a few. And each presented it's own flavor.

Present tense: Leads to more "blow by blow" story telling. It's more engaging, because we tend to be learning things as characters are learning of them. Works well for building suspense, or for doing a quick switch of expectations for humor. 

Past Tense: Can be very similar to present tense, as though the story is commenting on events just after they happen; particularly in a third person perspective. A first person perspective makes it much easier to give a sense of distance between the teller and the events. Which works well to put the reader in a place where the narrator knows more about the way the story unfolds than they do.

Future Tense: This one gets confusing quickly, but has a definite purpose. We imagined a short story told in reverse. The events of the story are laid out in detail to the reader, and at the end the unsuspecting protagonist steps into the first event of the story. Excellent for creating a twist and making a story that you just have to read a second time.

6/17/13 Once Upon A Meeting

Once upon a time at Boulder Cafe, half of the writers couldn't make the meeting. The rest who could come, played two rounds of the awesome fun game Once Upon A Time after they read a couple prompts from last week. The prompts are now postponed to next week so that the writers who did not write will have a chance to and hopefully more will feel better by then.

What is the game Once Upon A Time? According to its publisher:

Tell your own fantastic tales of brave heroes and daring adventure!

Once Upon a Time is the award-winning storytelling card game that encourages creativity and collaborative play. One player is the Storyteller, and begins telling a story using the fairytale elements on her Story cards, guiding the plot toward her Ending Card. The other players use their own cards to interrupt her and become the new Storyteller. The winner is the first player to use all her Story Cards and play her Ending Card. The object of the game, though, isn't just to win, but to have fun telling a story together.

Want to see how it plays out? There is one of two ways you can do: 1) Come to Write Club and play! -OR- 2) Watch the Youtube video of the TV nerd Wil Wheaton play with his friends.

6/10/13 Meeting Recap

Hello, Fellow Writers!

For those who haven't finished their prompts from last week, please finish them! Rest of us would love to hear what you wrote.

For the teachable moment, we did some hilarious and fun interactive exercise. We each had a piece of paper and we wrote an opening line. Then we passed it onto the person on our left and we wrote correspondingly to the opening line that was written from the person from our right. Then we fold back the first line so that the next person could only see what we just wrote. We passed it again to the person on left and repeated. Twice we went in circle. How our pieces written by everyone in the circle were hilarious.

So as for the prompt for next week, transcribe your piece from this exercise on the Google Drive by Wednesday. So then, we can take any of the pieces and spin it into a story however we like.

6/3/13 Meeting Recap

We got a new guest today! Welcome, Andy. And welcome again, Sam!

The rules of Write Club are updated so please check them out. Click on the "Rules of Write Club" on top. Remember, anyone can join. All that is required is a desire to write and learn how to improve.

Please check your availability or preference on meeting during the week. Follow the link here to figure out when is best to meet for all of us. Feel free to forward it along to people who want to be a part of write club.( Link )

The discussion on last week's prompt was great. Each of us had our own unique way of thinking and writing when we were in transit. One was in the subway, one on a skateboard, one on walking in the office, and rest were in the car.

Different kinds of transits may spur different kinds of thoughts or process. It may depend on the mood of the day or different places.

The prompt for next week is:
Write a story where nothing takes place outside of one small room. You can describe the interior of the room, but refrain from describing anything outside of it. Take note of how this restriction forces you to rely on certain techniques of storytelling.

The roles for next week are:
Parsnip - Simon
Teachable and prompt - Jenn

If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, please fill out the "Contact Write Club" on the right side. Thanks.