Going Forward

This post is going to be a bit of a mess. There's much to cover, and I have some questions for you. Bear with me, I'll get through this as quick as I can. And future posts will be much less cluttered.

We have a web-home. That's right. You can visit Boise's Novel Orchard at it's own little home on the web. We're still on Facebook, Twitter, and will remain here, we just have a place for ourselves now too. Check back often - we'll be implementing some tools and toys for writers slowly. Eventually, we'll even have a fully integrated system for critiquing online.

We're getting ourselves onto a schedule. In the future, plans for the next month will appear here on the 20th of the current month. That is to say, we'll announce February plans on 20 January, March on 20 February, etc. You can count on a post appearing on the 20th of every month with this announcement.

Each month, on the first meeting (the 2nd Wednesday of each month), we focus on the act of writing. Something about craft will be mentioned. Often times we'll use real live books as examples. Sometimes we might even have handouts. The day after the meeting (the 2nd Thursday of each month), we'll have a blog post up about the meeting from the night before, including the full writing exercise we did. Handouts will be available digitally as copyright permits. Our plan for January? Tandem writing. With pictures. You'll need your favorite old-fashioned writing utensils - computers won't work so well for this (though, of course, you're more than welcome to try).

On the second meeting (the 4th Wednesday of the month), we focus on critiquing each others' work. Critiquing is an essential part of writing. Writing, after all, is about more than putting words on a page. It's about editing, polishing, creating something a reader would enjoy. Critiquing others' work make sit easier for you to critique your own. And, you'll get opinions on your work from readers. If you have nothing to share for critiques, that's okay. Come anyway! We'll have a practice critique for you to go through. Or, you can sit in with a group that's critiquing. Check out our guidelines for more information on critiquing.

It's the new year, and a great time to start working out some good habits. Join us for The 500. It's simple - write 500 words a day, every day. If you're blogging about your 500, tell us. Whether you're blogging about your writing experience, or actually posting your 500, tell us about it. We'll feature a new blogger once a month. Contact me for more information.

We'll also have more regular blog posts. We'll start with...ummm...Thursdays. Yeah, why not Thursdays? Writing prompts and woes and concerns and hopefully some stuff from you.

Me you ask? Yes! You! We want do know: what do you think about all of this? Do you have an aspect of craft you'd like to discuss? Something you'd like to share with the group? Something you just want to learn about? Let us know! Comment here, send us an email, comment on Facebook, Twitter us. The more we know about you and what you want, the more likely we can give it to you. Whether you're an active participant, or hang out on the sidelines, we want to make sure you're getting what you want and need.

I'll leave you with a quick prompt. First, find a picture. For this exercise, pictures with quite a lot going on (perhaps a scene at a carnival) work best, as do pictures of strangers. Snoop around on Flikr for a bit, find something that speaks to you. Write about the picture. You can easily spend 500 words writing a description. Or, pick a person in the picture, and make some assumptions about the person - thoughts, opinions, conversations. What does that person want to do next? What did he just do? I'll wager that you can spend an entire week getting your 500 from one picture, focusing on something different in the picture; some different aspect of craft.

Now go write!

Megan