Writer’s Ink

Attending: Virginia, Donna, Alex, Stephanie, Brittany, Jamie, Erin, and Judy
 
Next Year’s Themed Collection: The theme vote is scheduled for the next meeting (9/23). If you will be at PPC that day, you have to be present to vote. If you aren’t a PPCer or are on vacation, e-votes will have to be submitted before the 9/23 meeting to count. If you have theme nominations, email them to Erin by 9/16.
 
The vote will be done using the new method discussed at a meeting a few months ago. The new method should help make sure that the people who actually contribute to the collection are most instrumental in choosing the theme for next year. The basic rules are:

• If you voted for the 2008 theme and didn’t write a story, you can’t vote this year.
• If you wrote a story for 2008 and made all your deadlines (submitting to the group for crit, submitting to Virginia for typesetting), you get 2 votes.
• If you wrote a story for 2008 but missed your deadlines, you get 1 vote.
• If you’re new to the group and plan on participating in the collection, you get 1 vote.
• If you do not plan on writing a story/essay/poem/etc. for our 2009 themed collection, please do not vote.

We don’t want to be rule nazis about this, but the theme votes are often really close. It’s not fair if the deciding vote is one from someone who isn’t going to contribute to the collection.
 
NaNo 2008: Around seven tentatively thinking about participating this year. If you weren’t at the meeting and think you’ll try National Novel Writing Month this November, email Erin and let her know. Erin and Stephanie are planning activities for the meetings in October — dubbed NaNo planning month. If you have suggestions for planning activities, send them to Erin or Stephanie.
 
We’re tossing about the idea of the NaNo buy-in contest again (everyone buys in at an agreed upon amount, and everyone who reaches 50K splits the pot, probably as a gift card to somewhere). We’ll decide for sure in October.
 
Everyone at the meeting was interested in having a WI kick off party again (with NaNo Balderdash). Details to be finalized during October.
 
If you’re not interested in trying NaNo, but would still like to challenge yourself during November, what about a slightly less massive contest, such a writing a story every week with a word count of 3 to 4K? If you’re interested, email Erin and we can work out the details.
 
Prompts: Since no one won in August, we have an extra gift card. The group decided that we’re going to hold onto it and give it out as a half-way NaNo prize — the first person to reach 25K.
 
Donna volunteered to coordinate the October prompts contest, so look for exciting prompts from her on 10/1/08.
 
World Building Exercise: Virginia is excited at how well the world is coming along! There is still land available, so if you’d like to join us in this endeavor, just email Virginia and she’ll get you started claiming land.
 
Goals: Kudos to Erin and Jamie who met their goals from last time!

• Jamie — write “a couple of” prompts
• Brittany — come up with an activity for the next meeting
• Stephanie — write 2 more short stories based on 3-Day-Novel outlines
• Alex — write a new story and 2 prompts
• Donna — finish prompt-in-progress, write 1 more prompt
• Judy — revise poem and submit to EDP
• Erin — write 3 prompts

Upcoming Events:

• 9/20 — Saturday write-in, 2 to 4 p.m., Erin’s house (email if you need directions).
• 9/23 — Lunch meeting, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., Blue (12) — activity by Brittany, 2009 collection theme vote.

Mood: busy
Word Count: Big work deadline met... whew!

Category : General