Four weeks ago, our winter writing group wrapped up. And it has taken me four weeks to draft and publish our wrap-up post.
Four weeks late.
But even though I am the worst, my writers are the best. They met goals and kicked some ass for a month, and I’m happy they let me lead them along, even if I was late with posts 80% of the time.
Good work, gang!
For our wrap-up post, I asked my group to send me pictures of their notebooks along with their wrap-up posts. I was inspired by Rachel’s lovely photo of her notebook on a table in a coffee shop in Paris, and I wanted to know what everyone’s notebooks looked like. So enjoy everyone’s final posts!
Winter Writing Group Wrap-Up Posts:
Alena:
Last week I had a complete breakthrough, realizing how to fix the ending of my short story. It is now close to publication ready, which was my goal for these four weeks. I just submitted it to my fiction workshop class to be critiqued before I submit it for publication in March. I’ve also made a lot of progress on my other story and figured out a new strategy for creating to-do lists. Overall, this group has really helped me! Thank you!
Anne H.:
For my final report, I can admit that I had many days when I didn’t do my study project, but also, I had days when I did, and I have learned much. I’m going to keep going with that project of reading books about writing and creating notes and worksheets. The worksheets are planning documents for projects like novels and screenplays. I have a notebook which I’ve had for about 20 years which is a very nice Circa portfolio, and I have extra supplies too. It’s never had a purpose until now, and it was unused. But now, I can see that I can put the worksheets in there, and I can carry the notebook around, and I can work on my planning. By the next time that I write to you, I’ll have that setup.
Anne’s Notebook
Laura:
I crashed and burned a bit for our last week, but overall, I was happy with what I did. I still want to do a bit of work on my new short story, but I’m still giving myself high-fives because I finished it. (*smack!* [that is the sound of me giving myself another high-five]).
Laura’s Notebook: sticker courtesy of Cynthia and her amazing, sticker-making friend
Lisa:
So I didn’t finish my story, but I did start and that’s pretty amazing for me! I plan to continue working on this piece until it’s finished (eventually).
I’m so happy to have been a part of the group again. Thank you, Laura! You help keep me on the good path!
I’m including a pic of my Wonder Woman notebook—one of my favs. It’s full of scribbles, to-do lists, and bits of stories.
Lisa’s Notebook
Matt:
I’ve finished our four weeks with a new draft of the book. Many of the same issues persist, in particular a cumbersome length, but I’m feeling better about the structure now. The monstrosity has been uploaded to my Dropbox and the link sent to my unfortunate friend Steve, who will probably never speak to me again.
Matt’s Legal Pads
Rachel:
My goal last week was to edit my essay, but I realized a big part of editing, other than chopping out as many words as possible while still retaining meaning (my favorite challenge), is to know your audience, and tweak your message for them. Since I wrote my essay largely just to get it out of my head, I ended up just letting it percolate. But I like that I have this draft at the ready, should the need arise to tell the story.
I did spend a lot of time thinking about the climate we live in and how it’s even more important, now more than ever, to keep writing. The outside forces that try to silence us, to censor us, can never take what’s in our minds, and as long as we can get what’s in our minds out on paper or on the internet or scratched into the side of a subway car, it has a chance of living on. It’s when we’re afraid to speak out is when they really win.
P.S. I’m not advocating vandalizing public transportation. (Sure, Rachel. Sure. [*wink*])
Rachel’s Notebook
Robert:
In this last week I wrote 1,384 words. For the entire session I wrote 9,426 words. I’m very happy with my progress. Attached is a photo of my writer’s notebook. I keep all my word counts and notes there.
Robert’s Notebook
Good job to all of our writers! I love doing this group, so I’ll keep doing it; and this summer during our eight-week session, I will have very little else to do, so my posts will be on time. On. Time.
Keep up the good work, everyone. Write on!
Get it done!
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