San Antonio Writers Guild Meetings - SAWG

May 2 2024 Monthly Meeting

The May meeting will introduce officers elected in April: Doc Richter President, Aimee Keith Vice-President, Charles Tate Treasurer, and Cassy Slater Secretary.

The program will look at writing structure – Shoot The Cat!

A character meets an event that jars his world. Suffering fits, starts, defeats, missteps, s/he finally wins: world saved, lovers (re)united, villain defeated, cat eats tuna undisturbed. This structure rules most of our current writing: novels, movies, TV ads.

Let’s look at how and why it works, why we wander into it, if we might build other ways out of it, how we can write the truly unique and satisfying.

Come early to enjoy food & drink with fellow writers prior to the meeting – and to encourage Sea Island to still be willing to host us:
7-8:30 PM, Thu., May 2, 2024

Sea Island Shrimp House
10303 IH-10 West,
San Antonio, TX 78230

Beginning the May meeting is the introduction of the officers we elected in April, specifically, Doc Richter as president, Aimee Keith as vice-president, Charles Tate as Treasurer, and Cassy Slater as Secretary.

Program: Writing Structure

The classic system from Save the Cat! structures most of our current writing: novels, screenplays, TV ads, all. It presses people, pets, cars, events, weather, into patterns that satisfy readers and viewers, without realizing its march. Most authors write like this routinely from long habits of reading.

Also unsatisfying, some of us drift along piling up episodes that never get to anything final, until even our best-loved characters are numbed and yawning.

So let’s take a look at writing structure: how and why it works, why we wander into it, how we might build a way out of it, and how we can write the truly unique and satisfying.

Location:
Sea Island Shrimp House
10303 IH-10 West,
San Antonio, TX 78230