Saturday, November 30, 2013

December Meeting




Saturday, Dec. 7
10:00 - 12:00

High Mountain Church
681 High Mountain Rd., No. Haledon, NJ 07508
 
We will share a light Christmas brunch 

We have one week to complete our assignment: Write the all-important opening paragraph of a Christmas piece, fiction or non. Read up on Cecil Murphy's posts about Beginnings at http://cecmurpheyswritertowriter.blogspot.com/, scrolling back to October 15 for his first post. Be prepared to share your paragraph with the group.

November's Focus was Choose your Verb

During the meeting Susan encouraged us to use strong, descriptive verbs. Prior to that, our devotional challenged us to create writing habits that can be described with active, not passive verbs.
It is easy for us to substitute action with intention. Good intentions, careful lists and stated goals can make us feel as if we're actually doing something when, in reality, little is being accomplished.
James knew how readily we fall into this deception about our Christian life. He wrote, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says" (James 1:22). He knew that mental exercise is not enough in our Christian walk, physical effort is also required.
The same applies to our writing. Are we active or passive in our writing?
If you are active, what verb describes your writing activity since we last met? Did you type or edit? Stumble or soar? Research or outline? Submit or query? Limp or progress?
Whatever your writing verb is, let it be a powerful action verb.
Take-home thought: Don’t merely entertain good ideas or inspired thoughts. Act. Write. Research. Edit. Submit.

Thursday, November 07, 2013

December meeting preview

For any who missed the November meeting, here's heads-up for our December meeting: 

Barbara's assignment to us for next meeting (12/7/13) is to write the beginning paragraph of a Christmas story. 
We will have a casual brunch at the meeting and share our "beginnings". 
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She mentioned Cecil Murphy's blog for writers as a highly recommended resource that we should all subscribe to. He's running a 9 part series on Questions About Beginnings. Here's the link to the blog:
http://cecmurpheyswritertowriter.blogspot.com/Scroll back to Tues 10/15 for the first post on BEGINNINGS

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Happy writing!