Date of July Meetup?

Thursday night, one minute before midnight, is the deadline for sending next month's news to Einblatt (the Mnstf newsletter.) I expect to send what's on the calendar some time tomorrow afternoon, and would like to be able to include the Meetup date.

Not to mention that I would like to know for my own use.

I believe Hilary was looking at July 19th, but wasn't able to catch the scheduler yet to confirm that the room is available that day.

I was looking at July 19th, but alas, it was already taken. So it is going to be July 26, and August will be August 23.

Meeting topics anyone?

Hmm

Possible topics of discussion:

• Themes in writing - In Stephen King's "On Writing" he mentions theme as something you should look for as you write and/or embellish after the fact, but he advises not to start with the theme and base the writing around it. I'd be interested to know what people think of this.
  
• Audience Entitlement (Based off Hilary's previous post pointing to the topic by Neil Gaiman. I've also expanded on this topic here.)
  
• Story Structure or Formula - I recently saw a book titled "20 Master Plots and How to Build Them" What are the advantages/disadvantages of boiling stories down to their core structure like this? It is an aid to writing or a crutch? How many people use structure or formula when writing, and how many just chase the muse?
  
• Non-Fiction all authors should read - The last discussion was about fiction authors we like/dislike, so how about a similar discussion on books on the craft that are useful to writers like books on plot, editing, grammar, etc...
  

-Z

To add to Conrad's list:

• What are the benefits/pitfalls of outlining a story before writing? What are the benefits/pitfalls of "organic" writing (no outlines)?
  
• Methods and goals in self-editing.
  
• What is the role of a critique group? What sort of critiques are valuable and when does a critiquer "cross the line"?
  

Tiffany

"I was looking at July 19th, but alas, it was already taken. So it is going to be July 26, and August will be August 23."

Thanks.

"Meeting topics anyone?"

Been a while since we've had members reading their stories.

Also: Building your third person narrator.

How to get the future right -- or at least, not have your story become outdated before it's published. (Think of the writers who thought they would always be able to sell novels about the USSR invading the US!)

This week's new subgenres.

Fantasy with spaceships, science fiction with magic.

Dan --

You're right. It has been a while since we have had a "Members Read!" Meetup. All right, that is July.

Everyone else, great topic ideas. I will definitely be pulling from these ideas in months to come. One idea that I am playing with is "Blurb This!" A Meetup where we will be trying to come up with jacket copy for each other stories, in order to get practice with boiling stories down for cover letters.

Michael Merriam, if you are reading this, would you be willing to come in August and talk about writing blurbs and summaries? I seem to remember that you do that as a side business.

Hmm

Fabulous!

I volunteer to read my recently completed very short story "Pinky The Invisible Flying Pony Who Saves The World." It's 2500 words. Should be a quick read.

-Conrad

Michael Merriam, if you are reading this, would you be willing to come in August and talk about writing blurbs and summaries? I seem to remember that you do that as a side business.

Hmm

Sure.