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You are here: Home / Authors In Our Midst / Calling All Writers: UPDATE

Calling All Writers: UPDATE

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These are my concord grape vines – the grapes were delicious and the fall colors awesome (you can read about my grape jelly escapades here )

There seems to be enough  interest to pursue this. What I’d like to know next is when is a good time? I’d like to do it twice a month (at least to start) and find a time that works for most. We won’t start until after the election. What works best for you – weekend afternoon, weekend evening or week night? I’ll try and find what works for most. Of course we won’t be able to make everyone happy, but I’ll do my best to find a good time.

Hillary and I are still discussing format and how to approach it all. Stay tuned.

Here is the original post:

I have been toying with an idea since Authors in Our Midst.  I really enjoyed the comments on those threads and it seemed like we had a lot of people who were in progress on some writing project or another. Do we have enough interest to start a writing support group here?

I was thinking we could “meet” a couple times a month and encourage each other, offer advice and suggestions. Maybe a secure drop box to share work to critique. I can see if our published authors would be wiling to pop in and offer their experiences and answer questions.

Hillary Rettig has offered her support/expertise with this, too! So if you’re interested, leave a comment in this post and I’ll take it from there if we have enough interest.

 

Reader Interactions

50Comments

  4. 4.

    Pest Bog Mummy, Frakensteinbeck

    I’ll keep an eye on it. I’m not sure how it would work. I never mind giving out advice. Writing is my favorite topic, or I wouldn’t be in this game, and I get a big kick out of the Successful Published Novelist authority figure role.

  6. 6.

    TaMara (HFG)

    By morning – can you give me a bit more direction? Morning could be difficult for the time difference between east coast and west coast. I can tell you I’m not getting up at 6 am on a Sunday to do an 8 am post for the East Coast. ;-)

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Baud:

    have Hillary’s book on procrastination.

    I haven’t read it yet.

    Braggart. I haven’t even gotten around to ordering it yet.

  8. 8.

    MomDoc

    Sunday morning is better for me as well. Saturday mornings are filled with errands for the children.

    I am looking forward to it.

  10. 10.

    Applejinx

    On the whole I can be pretty flexible as I’m self-employed and all (actually Patreon at this point: I’m top 7.5% of all Patreon, which isn’t nearly as impressive as it sounds)

    Looking forward to hearing what transpires, and I would volunteer an email if it can be done somewhat non-publically :) actually, if I’m not mistaken FPers might be able to see our emails, so I’m game for being contacted if ya like :)

  13. 13.

    WaterGirl

    @TaMara (HFG): How about sometime on Sunday that would be afternoon for all time zones?

    Or late morning on Sunday for some timezones and early afternoon for others?

  14. 14.

    CZanne

    Any time works for me, as long as I know what it is and can block it in advance. I am most emphatically not a morning person, so that’s not my hard preference, but it also does not hurt me and is in my overall best interest to schedule an actual morning thing. Just don’t demand webcam interaction at o’dark thirty (unless it’s an o’dark thirty I can reasonably stay up until, rather than get up for.) I can type before I’ve got sufficient levels of caffeine and alertness. Bathing, dressing, being presentable and producing intelligible speech are another story altogether.

    Also, a reminder that some of us are not on Eastern time. 9 eastern is 7 mountain and 6 pacific. I realize this place is Eastern Standard Tribe in the main, but it would be a kindness to us outside the Eastern tribe to not schedule for our ass crack of dawn.

  23. 23.

    ChrisGrrr

    Will do my best to “attend” Sunday am, later is better (most of my personal ‘netting is at night)…

  24. 24.

    JanieM

    I’m a lifelong night owl and usually don’t even stumble out of bed until 10:00 or so (Eastern time). That constrains me annoyingly in real life, although it might fit well for doing something with west coast early birds. ;-)

    I will try to fit in with whatever you come up with, and thanks to you west coast folks for making sure I don’t have to get up early to participate!

    *****

    In the longer run, or separately…it bemuses me to think that we even need — in an online forum — a specific time to “meet.” I am still getting used to the way B-J races along through several posts a day with comment threads that blossom, flame up, and die again, often before I even see them. I’m more used to the slower pace of Crooked Timber or Obsidian Wings, where posts happen much more rarely and comment threads can last for weeks. I can picture a writing group online that’s more ad hoc, and maybe something like that will grow out of this starting point. In fact, to whatever extent people end up having a chance to read each other’s writing, it seems like that part of it would almost have to work that way.

    Not trying to be a nuisance….but I would really like a few writing buddies, and at the same time I’m terrified of the possibility. Clearly I need to finish Hillary’s book!

    ETA: the first part, which I left out of a copy/paste.

  26. 26.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Sunday morning/early afternoon (PST) works for me since that day seems to be gaining consensus.

  28. 28.

    Travels with Charley

    Just to pile on, Sunday late morning/early afternoon works for me as well. I usually read threads after they have died, so it would be fun to be “in” a thread live, so to speak!?

  30. 30.

    Marina

    Anything after 10 a.m. PST is o.k. with me. My preference is early afternoon.

    I write in Word. I hope this won’t be a problem.

  32. 32.

    Mnemosyne

    The downside to Sunday is that that is when our Weekend Movie Club posts have been landing, and I would hate to have those get lost in the excitement.

  33. 33.

    Genine

    Weekend late afternoon or evening works for me, but I’ll work with whatever. I am on the West Cost.

  34. 34.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Mnemosyne: Sundays are usually begging for threads, so I don’t think that would be an issue. :-D

    Ok, it looks like Sundays around noon EST will be how we start. Starting date and format still to be determined.

  37. 37.

    Miss Bianca

    I like Sunday mornings/afternoons as well. Weeknights are mostly spent actually writing, this month particularly! Thanks for putting this together, gals!

    ETA: 4707 words on my NaNoWriMo project. I can already feel my inner editor meeping in my ear. Little fucker just won’t shut up. Am ignoring for now.

  38. 38.

    Johannes

    Sundays except the evenings are bad for me, I’m afraid. Weekday nights or Saturday mornings are best;

  39. 39.

    Mnemosyne

    @Miss Bianca:

    I start my NaNo writing in about 20 minutes (I’m on a schedule, because my brain seems to like it that way). I discovered today that I need an evil aunt, so I’ll probably be writing about her.

  41. 41.

    Miss Bianca

    @TaMara (HFG): but not this Sunday, cause I’m phone-banking. : )

    @Mnemosyne: So far I have a kind of dotty aunt, and another who I’m not sure is a real or honorary aunt. And a skeevy cousin. And a resurrected body. Who may or may not turn out to be a cyborg. It’s all a little weird right now.

  42. 42.

    EBT

    Instead of writing more for my IF I accidentally spent five hours feature adding. Almost the same!

  43. 43.

    leeleeFL

    I would like to be an interested observer for this forum. Always wanted to write and need advice and such!

  44. 44.

    tokyo expat

    Sunday noon will be Monday 2am my time. ): But if, as someone mentioned above, it’s open for people to comment like the threads are at ant time that’s convenient for them, I’ll be part of it. In any case, go with the majority, who happen to be mostly living in the US. Good luck!

  45. 45.

    maurinsky

    I regularly attend mass on Sunday morning (because they pay me a very nice per hour sum to sing there, I go to church more than most believers I know and I’m an atheist), so that’s not such a great time for me; I am on the East Coast, though, so 10a.m. Western time would be delightfully perfect for me.

  47. 47.

    John M. Burt

    I’m good with Sundays at 1000 Pacific Time, 1300 Eastern, except that my face to face writers’ group meets twice a month on Sundays at 1100. Still, if Open Threads and the like are anything to judge by, the thread won’t really get rolling until a couple of hours into it, so by the time I get home at 1330 Pacific time I should be able to catch up on the posts and comments and have something to say within a few minutes.

    Here is my first contribution, an original composition by me:

    Q: What are small, purple and resentful of the occupying troops?
    A: Conquered grapes.

  49. 49.

    stinger

    Weekend morning is best for me, especially Sunday — although that’s also my best uninterrupted writing time. Weekend evenings would also work.

  50. 50.

    Neil W

    I am interested although 1. I comment on Balloon Juice about once a year; 2. Timezones and lack of time in general. Although I am NaNoWriMo-ing and also recently quietly self-published a book on the Amazon Kindle store, so obviously I’m not too busy to take part.

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