July Meeting - Writing the Short Story

It's time to quit sleeping on it and get it done.

In order to test the waters of self-publishing, a short story challenge was thrown down in front of the membership.

Many authors are putting their short stories up on Kindle and Smashwords in order to get their name out there. Several have put up more than one and then combine several for an anthology.

Short story.

Sounds easy, but isn't. You still need a beginning, a middle and an end. But you don't need a subplot to lengthen the story.

In the 1940's and 50's, there were hundreds of magazines that purchased short stories, and due to a distribution problem, the vast majority of them vanished, leaving a void for readers.

With the advent of self-publishing, readers can now get their short story fix.

Ergo, the challenge.

Bring your short story to the meeting, or whatever you have. The challenge will continue through the next few months with formatting, book covers, and uploading to the different edistributors.

That's not counting the edits, proofreading, writing a blurb, writing a bio, etc. All steps that must be taken before that final upload.

Then after that, it's the excitement of seeing something you wrote out there in the world, striving for attention. Buy me, buy me, buy me...

There is your first review from someone you don't know...validation that yes you are a writer!

Exciting times are in store for the members who decide to try this 'short' challenge!

Meeting Date and Time Changed

The Chapter changed it's meeting day to the first Thursday of each month. At the last meeting, it was voted upon to have the business part of the meeting start at 10:30 AM.

The Program will still start at 11:00 AM.

May's meeting will be very interesting. RWA sent out a survey to each member concerning self-publishing the past week.

Is it for you? Self-publishing, the pros and the cons will be presented at our May meeting.

NaNoWriMo is Coming!

NaNoWriMo is coming in November!

It means that National Novel Write Month is upon us. You have thirty days to write a fifty thousand word novel. It most likely won't be a 'finished' product, but will be a decent first draft.

At our meeting this Saturday, we'll be going over preliminary plotting sheets.

Plot? Plot! Who needs a plot?

We all need a plot, so bring a pen as you'll be busy filling in the blanks of your story.

Hope to see you Saturday, October 9th at 10AM for the business meeting and at 11AM for the Plotting Workshop.

March 13th Meeting - Finishing Your Manuscript

Ah! Finishing your manuscript. Many people desire to write a book, they think it's easy. Just write the words and when you get to a certain stage, you type 'The End.'
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It's not that simple. It's been reported that Dean Koontz does forty passes through a manuscript before he's happy with it.
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At Coeur's next meeting, we'll be discussing how to finish your manuscript in four passes.
It should take you only a month...
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Be there, you don't want to miss this great opportunity, there will be handouts. Presentation will be at 11:00AM.
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Coeur's Christmas Party

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It's that time of the year again, Coeur de Louisiane's Christmas Party.

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Warning: There will be a ridiculous hat worn to this party. It's never been worn out in public, and will certainly garner some stares from the other patrons at The Cottage on December 5th, 11:00 AM.

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Bring a magnificently wrapped gift that cost not less than five dollars, as we are a high-class group, for the gift stealing, er., exchange.

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It should be good times, good food (well, it's always good food at The Cottage), good companionship.

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What else can you ask for at this time of year?

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Hope to see you there.

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Next Meeting October 10th

Due to a wedding, the meeting has been moved back a week.

One of the topics of discussion will be Query Letters.

Members are also asked to bring in One Page, Two Page and Three Page Synopsis of their current manuscript. Please bring enough copies for everyone attending.

Hope to see you there...

Synopsis or Sucknopsis

We've heard it called both.

But we're going to tackle the first definition at our September Meeting.

Writing a synopsis can be a difficult chore, especially when some editors want a one page, two pages, three pages, and more pages.

What do you put down on the page for the different lengths?

How detailed do you get?

How do you make your synopsis stick out from the rest?

Attend the meeting Saturday and find out.

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