By S. Arthur Yates
Resplendent, they appear.
Strangers, unwelcome.
Polite, always polite.
Strangers, unwelcome.
Details few, words hollow.
Strangers, unwelcome.
Notification – complete.
Strangers, unwelcome.
The drape arrives later.
Strangers, unwelcome.
Blue star to gold.
Strangers unwelcome
Do you know what a window star signifies? A blue star is placed in the window when a loved one goes to war. If they are missing in action, the star is changed to silver. If they die, it is changed to gold.
Sue Spitulnik described the process for creating the LCRWriters website using WordPress.com. An account can be opened for free or for a $92/year premium, where you can use your domain name.com instead of WordPress.com. Sue used her own website as an example, which had the Baskerville Theme and simple menu items: Home, About me, Publications and Contact Page. She walked us through the different WordPress menu options, such as themes, identity, color and background, font, photo, contact information, category of books, edit your material and how a reader can subscribe to the website. Sue’s talk was informative and easy to understand. Additionally, there are helpful tutorials and videos on WordPress to guide the user.
by Sally Valentine
Rochester lives for lilac time
when Spring finally gives Winter the boot and
Highland Park develops from black and white
into frames of color.
She’s been silently preparing for weeks
for her yearly Open House,
the biggest splash of the New York festival season.
Dressed not just in purple,
but also white, pink and blue with
pansy accents and rhododendron accessories,
she’s ready to dazzle.
Admirers come from miles around and
Suitors parade back and forth
simply to pay homage to her beauty,
hoping to be favored with a smile
she has reserved for them alone.
But heed this hard earned warning:
Just one whiff of her perfume can be intoxicating,
filling one’s head with ideas of
picnics and poems,
castles and creampuffs,
fables and ferries.
Draw close at your own risk.
It’s a rare man who can resist her charms.
Point of View: Vanquish Head Hopping and Identify Your Narrator
By Kim Gore
We’ve all done it. Written a story from our character’s vantage point. Added details to make it feel authentic. Described our character with amazing acuity. And then an editor or critique partner takes a look at our incredible work and asks, “Okay, but who is the main character?”
It’s like getting splashed with a bucket of cold water. Because, duh, isn’t it obvious? But no. It isn’t always. In this hands-on presentation, Kim Gore will demonstrate how to make your main character obvious to the reader, and how to recognize when you’re doing that horrid “head-hopping” writers grumble about.
We’ll be pulling out our acting skills for this one, so be prepared to be in the spotlight. You won’t want to miss your fellow writers getting their thespian on.
This is the presentation topic for the May meeting. Come visit us to gain more information.
Natural disasters
Fires, floods, mudslides
Hurricanes, tornados
Droughts, blackouts
Crop loss, job loss,
Homes lost,
Lives lost
In some places
Too much snow,
Too much water
Then,
Spring’s miraculous recovery
Arrives bringing
The Daffodil
The yellow Daffodil always endures
As do we
On Saturday, April 22, 2023, the presentation starting at about 10:15 AM, will be an introduction to WordPress given by Sue Spitulnik.
Sue has a blog at suespitulnik.com, which is a WordPress-hosted site, and she recently designed, with input from the members, and built the new site for Lilac City Rochester Writers using WordPress. If you are on the site and look around, it looks like an easy project. But Sue will tell you she did everything multiple times to learn how to make the site easy to traverse, attractive, and user-friendly for anyone that doesn’t know how to write computer code. On Saturday, she will show the group some of the things she learned so they can build their own free sites.
It might be an idea to bring your laptop so you can follow along as Sue shows you what the tool buttons do, how to add pages, how to add a post, and use the chat feature.
Most writing groups or books on writing will explain, to become a better writer, write often or daily. So what should you write about? If you are a new writer, and not working on a specific project, or you have been working on the same project for a time and want a break, find a prompt and write a poem or short scene following the prompts instructions.
There are many websites where you can find a prompt, so you will only find one prompt a month on the LCRW website. There will be a short essay about “something” and then the instruction to write about something mentioned in the essay. No, this is not a unique idea. It’s borrowed from other sites.
The following prompt was s written by Joe Mele, LCRW’s Vice President.: I’ve found that prompts from other writers have opened previously hidden doors, and engendered different perspectives on events.
As an example, here’s a light-hearted prompt: If you are too young to know these TV character sets, you could research them and then write, or pick two sets of like characters and answer the question. There is no word count attached to this prompt. Try explaining your thoughts succinctly but thoroughly. You can post your answer in the comments section to get a conversation with other writers started. Have fun.
Of the following sets of TV characters, who would win in a battle of muscle or wits – and why?
Ponch and John vs. Starsky and Hutch
Matlock vs. Barnaby Jones
Jeannie vs. Samantha
Columbo vs. Monk
Baretta vs. Magnum
This is a great time to get a manuscript of up to 2500 words looked at
ALL manuscripts must be emailed to the moderator, Steve Yates at writingsbysay@yahoo.com by MIDNIGHT on Wednesday, March 15th. (Note, this is ten days before the critique session.) Any submissions received after that will be handled as time permits, at the end of the critique session.
Please include your email address at the top of the page. Non-members are welcome to have one piece critiqued, without joining the group.
Critiques will be discussed in the order they are received.
You will be receiving a manuscript from each participant and are expected to print it out and have your critique of their work at the meeting.
Your manuscript must be formatted using: Times Roman, Courier, Tahoma, or Verdana font at 12 points. Margins should be to one inch. Double space.
Be sure to number your pages (Insert / Page Number). Also, it makes critiquing easier if you insert line numbers (Open the Page Layout ribbon / Click Line Numbers in the Page Setup section / Select your options from the popup menu.)
Save your document in: .doc, .docx, or .rtf formant. (All major word processing programs have this capability.) All manuscripts will be converted to .pdf by the facilitator, with line numbers inserted if you have not already done so.
Please limit your submission to about 2500 words. (You may send as many words as you like. The person critiquing may stop at any time after 2500 words.)
Starting time is 9:00 AM Saturday, July 24th. Please be ready to start then.
Please do not submit first drafts. Spend some time editing before you send it out. Also, it is requested you don’t send a modified copy of your manuscript after the original has been dispersed to the group.
· Everyone who submits a manuscript will be expected to critique all other entries and ensure they receive a copy of your comments. (You are not required to send your critique to the recipient before the critique, but it is useful.) In addition, we always have people who wish to share their knowledge of writing, yet not submit. Those wishing to only critique are always welcome.
The following information should be on the first page, before your story begins. (You may wish to copy/paste this to your manuscript and answer them.)
· Genre: (Fantasy, Romance, etc.)
· Demographic (target audience):
· How long is the final piece (short story, novel):
· Is there back story we need to know to understand what is going on:
· Where does this fit in your manuscript (i.e.: two-thirds of the way through):
· What questions do you want answered:
When critiquing, consider:
· Are the characters developed. (You may not get to this in a limited piece)
· Is there a strong sense of the setting/time.
· Is it original (Not a requirement. Some of the best stories are a retelling.)
Colleen Chesebro, author, poet, and prose metrist, from East Lansing, Michigan, presented a class on syllabic poetry during our February meeting. The syllabic verse is determined by the number of syllables per line, rather than the number of stresses. She highlighted Crapsey cinquain poetry, the style designed by Adelaide Crapsey, a 20th-century poet born in Brooklyn and raised in Rochester.
Cinquains are five-line poems that are usually about nature or a natural phenomenon. American cinquains have a 2-4-6-8-2 syllable count and do not need to rhyme. Words that create drama are built into the fourth line. The turn occurs on line five, which is the most important line. This is where you change your focus away from the drama in some interesting way. She had us write our own poems and gave examples of different types of cinquains. Poetry can be helpful with a visual impression of scenes or characters and can assist with dramatic chapter endings.
When writing and composing syllabic poetry, it’s best to use a syllable counter to check your accuracy, e.g., https://www.traveldailylife.com/syllables/ and the ProWritingAide extension (it’s free).
Cinquain Samples Written During Presentation
Poppet by Kathy Plum
Pretty
Poppet, plucky
Poppet, so sweet and so
Innocent is my playful pup
Chewer!
I Visit by Mary Lou Heilman
Grief stone
Holds down my joy
Imprisons my thinking
Endures forever that stone
Inert
In the School Hallway by Kim Gore
Chatter
Bitter review
Envy wrapped in comment
Opened in a heat-filled moment
Tatter
Sunset by S. Arthur Yates
Sunset
Steals light from life
Returns it, but not all
Some is lost, never to be seen
Old age
1978 Baseball Fans by Sue Spitulnik
Red Sox
Hate Bucky Dent
Cost them the World Series
Next Year
Welcome to the LCRW blog page. Each week we will share something new with you. It may be the summary of our last presentation, a writing prompt, a blurb about an upcoming presentation and who will be sharing their knowledge, a writing tip, or some news about one of the authors who belong to Lilac City Rochester Writers.
We hope you will be able to easily find your way around the site. Our authors’ page has short bio’s from our members with links to their own sites that might not be complete when the site is launched, so keep checking back. And, of course, we have a contact page so you can get in touch with whatever might be on your mind.
I don’t think I need to explain; click on the menu titles to go to other pages. We hope you’ll come to check out one of our meetings and become a member.
Lilac City Rochester Writers 