Saturday, September 15, 2018

A Wonderful Afternoon with the WhipCity Wordsmiths

It's amazing how one's author/writer/creativity battery can be fully recharged by attending a gathering of local authors/writers.  It's an indescribable (you'd think as an author and wordsmith that I'd have all sorts of adjectives to string together here) feeling to sit among ones peers and just absorb their energy and enthusiasm.

The WhipCity Wordsmiths, the authors/writers social & support group that Kelly and I founded in June 2017 that officially launched in September 2017, met today after a two month summer break. Ten members attended with others sending regrets and hopes to be in attendance in October. Three of today's group were new members attending for the first time who were warmly welcomed and jumped right in with both feet, participating in discussions, offering advice and making suggestions.

Artworks of Westfield President Bill Westerlind, a member since the group's founding, was in attendance today. He spoke about his experience as a book reviewer on goodreads. He also talked about the upcoming PumpkinFest in Westfield on October 13th, how Artworks was offering display and sales space to authors and artists along Elm Street during the event. Rhonda and I will be there. Kelly, Sandy, Connie, Sonia, and I did PumpkinFest last year and had a blast! Bill also briefly mentioned the annual Artworks hosted Articulture event which makes space available for authors. A number of Wordsmiths have participated in that event. This past April all 10 authors who signed up were WhipCity Wordsmiths (Susan, Kelly, Melissa, Lindsay, Kate, Carol, Judith, Sandy, Rhonda, and Ayden). We have a talented pool of authors in the group, and some talented up and coming authors as well.

Two hours flew by this afternoon. It would have been easy to pass another hour with these people, but some had traveled a distance to attend and had to get home as the dinner hour drew near.

I can come feeling energized and ready to write. I have been feeling discouraged because the novel I've been trying to write has had numerous false starts. I really need to write an outline as there are subtle layers to the story and they have to be laid just so. That's what's been disappointing and frustrating me. I feel able to attack that chore now.

The battery is charged! Ready, set, write!!!

(I wasn't very enthusiastic about starting a writer's group when asked to do so...but once I decided I didn't want an ordinary write to prompts and gently critique one another's writing type of group, I wanted something more dynamic where all members could participate or take over the entire meeting if they wanted to, I felt better about it. It took several months to feel comfortable with one another, but by November of 2017 the group got rolling in the right direction and it has taken on a force of its own. Today, I can say that I'm happy and satisfied with the direction this group is going in...and I hope it continues with each new member who joins us.)

No comments:

Post a Comment