More SJWG Storyteller Cards

We had such a great experience during our February meeting with Jason Tagmire and his Storyteller Cards (check it out here) we thought we would share more of our impromptu 25-word stories along with the cards that inspired them.





Here's Sarah Hawkins-Miduski's card and story from that night.

And here are two from Vince Sparks.

Jennifer M. Eaton posted her card and story to Instagram, you can see it here.

The Storyteller Cards were great writing prompt tools, and we highly recommend you check them out. Look what we did in just one session!

SJWG March Meeting: Grammar and Punctuation Issues

By Dawn Byrne

Do you know when to use italics instead of quotation marks when naming something in a manuscript? What about when to use 'whom' instead of 'who'? Or if a question mark should stand inside or outside quotation marks? Member Rich Voza answered these questions and more while addressing the SJWG's March meeting.

After graduating from William Paterson University, Voza taught English, language arts, and writing for over twenty years. He stepped down from education a few years ago to take his writing more seriously. This resulted in two publications: When the Mirror Breaks from Whiskey Creek Press, and Connecting Flight from Start Publishing.

Voza's title for his presentation for the evening was "Grammar and Punctuation Issues." These subjects can be dry while reading or listening to instruction on the nasty nuances of our written language. But Voza surprised us by used humor to wet his explanations, making them entertaining, and the information memorable. His honesty, in that even he makes errors in grammar and punctuation, was refreshing.

Beforehand Voza collected questions from SJWG members, which he addressed at the meeting. Members comfortably asked additional questions during Voza's descriptions of particularly pesky grammar and punctuation puzzles. Then he continued on through his list of twenty-one popular errors that people make in writing.

The number one boo-boo he sees, is using a comma with a conjunctive. Usually, we shouldn't place a comma before a conjunctive (and/but/or) if that conjunctive is followed by a phrase. Reading the sentence out loud can help one hear the natural pause. I'll use Voza's example: I used to drink a lot of beer, but now I'm into wine. Contrast that with: He used to drink a lot of beer but not much wine.

Some situations are stylistic. Voza doesn't use capital letters in informal writing situations. e.e. cummings, who did this in his professional work, comes to mind here. But don't break the rules unless it makes what you're doing better. Rules changed by the literary powers that be, are changed for a specific reason. For instance, when too many people have done something grammatically wrong for a long time, it can be accepted.

Voza also explained that punctuation outside quotes are a British thing. And I never knew that some British words were Americanized, like 'colour' to 'color,' simply to irritate the British.

Misconceptions abound, and I can't figure out why. Why, for instance, I thought using a parenthesis or semicolon in dialogue is never correct. Not true. In addition to the hand-out from Voza, I'll make sure to check english.stackexchange.com while editing my work. It's the site he referenced for further help.

The meeting ended before touching on each list item. Jennifer M. Eaton and Loretta Sisco commented that this fellow member should return to speak again on the topic. I agree. His fun savvy with his subjects made the presentation seem more of a stand-up performance than a lecture on grammar and punctuation. And his handling of audience interruptions didn't fluster Voza, but added to his repertoire of keeping the issues from getting confusing and musty.

About today's guest blogger:

Dawn Byrne, a grandmother, writes inspirational and fictional stories about families from her New Jersey home. She's a member of the South Jersey Writers' Group, facilitates the Juliette Writers' Group, and teaches Sunday School. Dawn strives to leave a small carbon footprint, reads classical literature, blogs here, and has stories featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Wives: 101 Daily Devotions to Comfort, Encourage, and Inspire You and Chicken Soup for the Soul: It's Christmas!: 101 Joyful Stories about the Love, Fun, and Wonder of the Holidays . Her website is www.dawnbyrne.yolasite.com.

Editing Tips for Writers Who Don’t Know How or Hate Editing

By Marie Gilbert

Our monthly meeting of the South Jersey Writers' Groupbegan with a cheery hello to new members and latest news from members on submission rejections and acceptance. Yes indeed, our group celebrates the good, the bad and the ugly because with each rejection, we are marching closer to being published. We began the meeting with our Vice-President Krista Magrowski announcing her plans on future monthly meetings and her plans to teach us how to brand ourselves as writers. No, not that kind of branding… but how to get the right kind of exposure as a writer.

Krista also told us about upcoming guest speakers for the months of May and June. In May, Jennifer R. Hubbard, a local Philadelphia writer will talk about the ups and downs of writing and publishing and at the June meeting, Robert Repici, a screenwriter and member of the group will talk about dialogue with screenwriter. July’s meeting will be set aside to work on query letters and synopsis.

Krista brought up the topic of round tables and asked the members who had participated in a round table discussion if the round tables were helpful to the group. The final verdict will decide on if we keep the round tables as part of the monthly meeting. March’s round table subjects were on Twitter offered by Glenn Walker, dialogue offered by Laura J. Kaighn, and use of headers, footers and formatting in Word basics by Amy Hollinger.

March’s Topic

I was trying to think of a great title for the wonderfully informative workshop that Krista gave to the group this past Thursday. Editing your work can be a real pain in the… buttress of your writing process, but in the end; might save you lots of unnecessary revisions. The problem is lots of writers aren’t sure just how to edit, and in fact, would rather have their teeth pulled sans anesthesia, but this is where Krista’s presentation really helped everyone at the meeting.

Krista concentrated on the four types of editing: developmental, substantive, copyediting and proofreading. Developmental editing focuses on thorough analysis of characterization, setting, plot, conflict, dialogue, style which includes structure of plot, motives, subplots and pace.

Substantive editing focuses on order of events, chapters, plotlines and climax and if the story flows smoothly from one chapter to the next.

Copyediting focuses on the mechanics of writing where you’re checking every sentence and phrase and fixing misspellings, grammatical errors and punctuations.

Proofreading focuses on factual and arithmetical errors, inconsistencies in style and language, and just about everything else you missed the first few times reading through.

This brings us to Editors and the magic they use to make our stories better? Editors, like surgeons, look at our work and skillfully remove the tumors that keep our stories from working properly, but remember that different editors handle different types of editing.

An editor’s primary goal is to sharpen the story, eliminate uneven scenes, dialogue, faulty logic and imprecise writing. What does this mean for the writer? In the end, an editor’s work saves you time and money and helps get your story ready for the world of publishing. Sure, hiring an editor can be costly, but your editor can provide valuable insight and on the way help you learn the editing process, which you can incorporate into all your stories.

Krista also shared some helpful self-editing tips for writers to use during each phase of their budding novel, poem, shopping list, etc., but the gist of this presentation was to remind us that although we feel our book is the next best seller with a movie deal down the road, it won’t make it past the starting gate if it’s full of errors.

Below are some links that Krista shared to help us with editing:

The Editing Checklist at Fiction Writers' Mentor

Darcy Pattison's 12 Writing Fiction Checklists at Fiction Notes

An Editor's Checklist at The Editor's Blog

Krista has also suggested some useful readings:

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers – Renni Browne and Dave King

Revision and Self-Editing for Publication: Techniques for Transforming your First Draft into a Novel that Sells – James Scott Bell

The Elements of Style – Strunk and White

The Artful Edit – Susan Bell

What I wanted to add to this post is the importance of writers belonging to a group like the South Jersey Writers' Group. If you’re a writer, the last thing you want to do is isolate yourself from other writers. Luckily, with our group, our members are offered a wealth of information through Workshops, Write-Ins, Blogfests or with the source links posted on the SJWG Meetup page. And our monthly meetings are your chance to hobnob with other writers of all stages of writing and… we serve great coffee.

What Inspires You?

By Glenn Walker

This has been a busy week for the South Jersey Writers' Group, and Kathryn Craft as well. She can't seem to get rid of us! Thursday she spoke at our regular meeting, and Sunday she was the Philadelphia Liars Club representative at this month's Writers Coffeehouse. She moderated a terrific session on inspiration and motivation.

Kathryn's prelude to the meeting came via the Writers Coffeehouse Yahoo! Group where she posted before the meeting:

Since I'm getting the impression we've all about had it with winter, let's think inspiration and renewal—and tap into our inner child by having show and tell! Bring one or two quotes or small items along to share that you keep in your writing space for inspiration. We know you have them. If propriety suggests this item not be brought (no booze or pets, please!), then you can just tell us about it. BECAUSE WE NEED ALL THE INSPIRATION WE CAN GET!!

Sure enough, come Sunday afternoon, all of the writers in attendance brought something from their workspace, whether an actual object or a description of same to share with the group. It was like a mad, creative game of show and tell. I have to say, it was wonderful and inspiring just hearing about all the things that inspire other writers, full of unique items, motivational quotes, pictures, and even Legos.

It's worth mentioning that the Writers Coffeehouse is always in itself an inspiring and motivational experience, just hearing what other writers are doing and going through, and meeting and networking with folks you already now or only know online - in person. I got the chance to finally meet in real life Uriah Young, who I've known only online for some time. He's a terrific young writer who has a bright future ahead of him, you should all check out his blog and Follow him on Twitter.

When it came around to me to talk about what inspires me, I blathered on about making music playlists, and how I had some action figures and Legos on my desk, but it wasn't until after the meeting that I realized what really inspired me. As fellow South Jersey Writers Patti O'Brien, Dawn Byrne, Robert Repici, Tom Minder, and I sat around talking writing at Panera Bread, it came to me. I'm inspired by the presence, encouragement, and support of fellow writers. I think we all are. As much as writing seems like a solitary sport, it's really a group effort. That's why get-togethers like the Writers Coffeehouse are so important.

Now, what inspires you?

Kathryn Craft Tunes Our Storytelling Engines

By Glenn Walker

This past Thursday at the regular monthly meeting of the South Jersey Writers' Group, we had a very special guest. Author, editor, blogger, and member of the Philadelphia Liars Club, Kathryn Craft came to speak with our group. Her topic - Tune Your Storytelling Engine.

Kathryn's talk took us through a basic understanding of story structure, but more importantly how it works, why it works, and how to fix it when it doesn't work. Along with her presentation she provided an excellent handout outlining the process. For over an hour she dazzled us with her talent and experience, answering questions and discussing obstacles and solutions with the group. I could tell you what we talked about, but I don't want to spill all of Kathryn's secrets here. You can check out her work in that area at writing-partner.com and at The Blood-Red Pencil.

At the end of her presentation, Kathryn Craft read an enticing and emotional excerpt from her debut novel, The Art of Falling. Much of her presentation came from her experiences writing this and her upcoming second novel, so it only cemented a very subtle sales pitch for the book. I bought mine for Nook on my iPhone while she talked earlier in the evening. I'm reading it now, and it's excellent. The only downside is I couldn't get Kathryn to sign my new ebook copy.

We at the South Jersey Writers' group thank Kathryn Craft for her time and spending a wonderful evening with us. She was entertaining, educational, inspirational, and one very cool lady as well. She rocks. If you'd like to get in touch with Ms. Craft, you can go to her website, and you can buy her novel The Art of Falling here.

Kristin Battestella and Her Bag of Tricks

By Marie Gilbert

The January meeting of the South Jersey Writers' Group turned out to be very interesting indeed. One of our members Kristin Battestella, author of the Fate and Fang series, published by Muse It Up Publishing, offered to do a workshop for the group called "Inside the Toy Box."

Kristin’s goal was to help us see life through our characters' eyes. Write what you know by using everyday objects to determine how these objects would be used by one of your characters. How would this method help a writer? Well, it would help a writer create more depth and dimension in their character’s everyday life; for example if your character fights with a sword, is the character right or left handed? What time period is your character from and how would they use certain items? Kristin then took a large shopping bag and placed it on the table and had one person at each table take an item from the bag. What was in the bag?

Our group really had fun with this activity. Mark pulled out a witch’s hat and Barbara Godshalk pulled out a top hat. Would a top hat be worn by a female character? Would a witch’s hat be worn by a male character? Yes, if it helped to identify your character’s strengths, beliefs and sometimes their gender role; think outside the box! If you’re writing a Steampunk story, then yes, your female character would be quite at home in a top hat and the same for a male character if he were a wizard. Kristin asked us to think what a feather boa would bring to mind today, or maybe forty years ago. What was considered risqué in the past is most likely accepted in today’s society. Corsets were a necessary part of a well-groomed woman’s outfit… but today… we think of sexy lingerie… striptease joints… Playboy magazine.

Kristin had us think about our character’s mental and physical status. How would the character get around with a disability? A lantern that was pulled from Kristin’s bag of tricks could bring up memories of days gone by and of camping trips done today, but would you think of a lantern representing a character set in a futuristic scene? What if civilization as we know it ceased to function? That lantern might be the only means of light in a world that no longer had clean running water, electricity, food, medicine… you get the gist… the zombie apocalypse.

Kristin suggested that we build our own bag of tricks to use for our characters and I’ve already started mine. Thank you, Kristin, for helping us put a little enchantment into our writing.

Kristin Battestella can be found at her blog, Goodreads, and Facebook.

Hope to see everyone at next month’s meeting on February 20th.