Thank you, Anne Perry Moore

SPECIAL OPEN MIC OPPORTUNITY

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Read your own work at a Chautauqua Open Mic

Would you like to read your own work (poetry or prose) at the Chautauqua Institution (via Zoom) this summer? Because of Coronavirus you may be able to do that from the comfort of your own home—no travel to western New York needed.

 

This summer, even though the Chautauqua Institution is foregoing its normal season of in-person programming, the Chautauqua Writers’ Center is continuing its tradition of Sunday at 5 Open Mic readings using Zoom to bring readers and listeners together. We encourage you to join in the experience.

 

Sessions will be held each Sunday at 5:00 pm beginning June 28^th and will continue through August.

 

Guidelines. Readers must be at least 18 years of age. We only allow 4-5 minutes per reader, depending on how many people sign up. We go for about an hour, so that's usually about a dozen readers, give or take.

 

We do not give feedback, beyond applause and laughter.

 

If you’d like to read your work, please email event organizer, Fred Zirm, at

zoomzirm@aol.com

 

If you only want to be part of the audience, that’s great. You will find the link to the Zoom meetings here:

 www.chq.org/fcwc

Pre-Meeting Post

I got an email from one of our writers, Kerri Dieffenwierth morning, she always finds the most interesting articles and blogs to share with us. 

A wonderful writer on her own, Kerry shares stuff with us which is educational and inspiring. When she shares her writing I see expressions on the listener's faces that say, "I wish I could write like that." 

What she shared with me this morning bears sharing with all of you who are involved in writing a memoir. I especially took note of the part about showing actionable steps to help your reader with their problem. Too often I see memoirs reading like a 'poor me, I suffer' plea for sympathy. 

If you're writing a memoir, give this a read, you might find a few helpful tips from a pro.

 

New post on BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog

Nobody Cares About Your Dead by Allison K Williams    I read a lot of not-yet-published memoirs. As an editor, I'm sometimes the first stop after the first draft: I needed to write about the crazy year I had. Should I keep working on it? Sometimes I'm a last resort: I've queried 100 agents and nobody wants my book. Should I just self-publish? The answer is always another question: What does your book do for the reader? Memoir already lacks suspense. We lose the novelist's standby of "will this character make it?" We know you survived—you wrote a book about it. Most of us are not such brilliant writers that our shining prose fascinates regardless of the subject. Most of us are working hard to raise our storytelling skills to the level of the story's own power, because raw trauma is not enough. But there's a shortcut. Write a book that does something for the reader. Write the book that beautifully expresses the pain of your addiction, or the trauma of your childhood, or the desperation of your divorce, but revise it to directly help the reader. Beyond "my story is universal." Beyond "people need to know this situation exists." Yes, one of the gifts of memoir is showing readers "you're not the only one who felt like this." But unless we are writing National Book Award-level prose, our personal pain is not enough, no matter how honestly we express it. When a promising manuscript veers from story into eulogy, I sometimes howl internally: ...nobody cares about your kid! ...nobody cares about your pet! ...nobody cares about your dead relative! Readers are sympathetic, but sympathy for a stranger's problems doesn't last 285 pages. Transforming your painful (or joyful!) experience into a book that sells means tying your problem directly to the reader's own experience, using your writing skill and personal credentials. This does not mean writing self-help, but showing specific, actionable steps the reader might be inspired to take. What does "do something for the reader" look like in practice? ·         Medical memoir: My dad died and it was horrifying and Mom was no help at all and here's how I navigated a medical system designed to rip us off, and what I learned about myself and about Medicare. Also, I'm hilarious. The reader gets: OMG my parent had funny death stuff too and I felt so bad laughing but it's OK to laugh, and wow, I don't have to pay that bill! ·         Death of a child memoir: My kid died and it was horrifying and here's how I lived in a fantasy world where drug abuse didn't look like my kid, and what I learned. Also, I'm a brilliant writer. I'm not the only one who missed the signs and I don't have to feel dumb and guilty because I see why she did too, and wow! That paragraph puts my grief into words! ·         Death of a pet memoir: My dog died and it was sad and here's what I learned about alternative pet medicine, when to stop medical intervention, and how I knew it was time to let her go. Also, I'm a veterinarian with stories about how others knew when to treat their pet or let them go. I'm not a terrible pet owner for not buying another kidney for Princess, and wow! Now I have specific ways to process my grief without hearing "it's only a dog"! ·         Family memoir: My grandchild is precocious and I taught myself how to talk about climate change and human destructiveness without crushing a child's spirit. Also, I'm an educator and will fill you with hope. I don't have to be a scientist to have an age-appropriate conversation with my six-year-old about human extinction, and wow! I'm a little more hopeful myself! Take a look at your own manuscript: ·         Is the first chapter backstory and exposition because "No one will understand my family if I don't tell our history"? We are not as unique as we think. That's why memoir is "universal." Cut those pages. Get the reader hooked emotionally. Identify your problem that might also be their problem. Fill in backstory later as needed. ·         Got more than two pages in a row about how great someone was, or what living with them was like? A eulogy is not a story. Cut to the best paragraph or the most significant gesture. Show them through actions. Put their greatness in context with your problem. My husband was so thoughtful, when I was widowed I didn't know how to pay the electric bill and here's how I navigated that. Or, My dog was so amazing I had to learn how to grieve an animal when she died and here's what I did. ·         Is how you tell your story inspiring, hopeful, or educational? Not textbook or self-help, but can readers productively channel your experience to walk away as better people? H is for Hawk* teaches readers about falconry and processing grief through new experience. Wild inspires taking a physical journey to purge our past. How to Be Black examines American racism through a personal lens, and the lessons are truly absorbed through comedy. Pour out your love and tragedy and joy in words. Maybe you'll have a 285-page eulogy. Maybe it'll be the first draft of a book you sell. For readers, honoring your dead is not enough. Not your dead mom, your dead kid or your dead dog. Write to honor your love and your kin. Revise to do something for the reader. _________________________________________________________________ Allison K Williams is Brevity's Social Media Editor. Follow her on Instagram for writing advice, travel adventures, and workshop and retreat announcements.

Don't forget, ZOOM meeting Wednesday, June 17th, 6:30. Email Rod or Ernie for invitation.

Testing

I've been working on this blog and made a few changes. Please, let me know what you think of the format.

June 3rd 2020

Another month of 2020 has passed, it seems like we’ve already had two years of this decade and we haven’t completed the first one yet. WOW! Oh well, another ZOOM meeting. Ian suggested we might try MS Teams instead of Zoom for a future meeting, I’m looking into that this week.

It’s nice to see those of you who attend the electronic meetings, but I’m looking forward to the time when we can be in the same room and visit personally. I miss you all.

Scott Anderson announced, he has entered some of his work in a prestigious contest and is vying for the lofty prize of $10,000. He has future entries planned in less lofty contests as well but a win here would be a great ego booster. We all know Scott’s work is exceptional and elicits a skipped heartbeat each time we hear him read. I can only hope the judges in these contests can read poetry with the same passion as Scott writes it. Good Luck Scott!

Scott read seven of his poems, all short but powerful. With each of these; Whisper; Senses; Roots; Dinner Time; Springtime; Waking; and Poems, he put his heart on display in holding love close even though it has passed. Even as I write this, I hear the solitude and feel my heart reaching out remembering my own lost ones.

Ian Schagen is heading back to the UK this week, we’ll miss him, but if he wants to stay up past midnight, he can join us via ZOOM. Attending this meeting before departing, he shared the first chapter of his new non-fiction tome entitled Obrunni. The title is from a dialect in Ghana meaning White Man. The opening chapter is entitled Rejected! One of Ian’s greatest assets is he’s not afraid to talk about his weaknesses. Here, he shows how he and his wife are rejected by the bureaucratic system in the UK because, as he succinctly says, “he was a grumpy old Brit.” As usual, even with the rejection and issues facing the couple, Ian finds humor in the situation and it shows in his writing.

 Joining us on ZOOM for the first time, Letitia ‘Tish’ Mcauley read a letter to her daughter. Tish’s memoir about her addiction to drugs and alcohol often details her strained relationships with family members, including her daughter. The heartfelt letter reaches out asking for forgiveness while not making excuses. I hope she finds some way of working it into her book.

Offering his latest book on Amazon last week for free, James Kelly, got over 300 orders. He continues on new work, a novel with a working title of Manifest Destiney. Moving west after the Civil War, the white man takes over Indian territory. Pushing the natives off their hunting grounds, taking land promised in treaties, and mistreating these proud people in a humiliating manner, the white man rides roughshod over the Great Plains. Fighting nature and enemies much of the way, the route west is fraught with peril. Tonight, we heard Chapter Two. A boy is growing into manhood, learning hard lessons about people, war, living, and surviving.

What with the interruption of reopening our meeting in a different ZOOM venue, we ran out of time on the first one, we moved on to Ernie Ovitz reading his latest situation in which Emperor Constantine faces some dissension created by some Senators unhappy with the Emperor’s choice to allow and subsidize the Christian Religion. Oh, what devious Villians these politicians can be.

Well, the evening seemed to fly by because we did have time to discuss each reading in detail. In these times of pandemic and unrest politically and morally, time seems to drag. Sometimes I think the only thing garnering acceptance in this world is Stupidity. Step back, look at what you have to do, and use common sense. Whatever else you do, KEEP ON WRITING!