Vice President Barbara Darnall opened the meeting. President Ginny Greene is visiting the Northwest. Barbara reminded us of our theme for the year: Indescribable Scribes of the Abilene Writers Guild. The following guests were welcomed: Linda Sikes, a retired teacher, now a dog trainer who writes poetry; Lisa Haeger from Tange, Germany, visiting with the Ellison family; Tate Ellison (new member) who is interested in writing screenplays; Sheila Barrow, from Clyde; Joan Lee, a published writer and friend of Nancy Masters.

Brags and Sags.

• Lynn Davidson – Sent an article to Cowboy Magazine. He received a complimentary sketch which illustrates his story, and he is now working with an agent.
• Karen Witemeyer – Reported that she won first place in the "Hearts Through History entry in the Romance Writers of America Historical Romance contest. No money, but this will look great on her resume.
• Brandon Davis – Sent a poem to a DJ at Rock 108 radio, and it is published online in his MySpace section. He also reported that he has not received payment for his ARN column since April.
• Nancy Masters – Introduced her friend, Joan Lee, who is a published writer. She also reported that her book, "Blue Jeans, goes to press the first week of August. Because of that book, she has been asked to do two more books, one about airplanes and one about salt. These books help children understand things they use and see. Nancy hopes to have these two manuscripts ready by August 8.

Minutes are posted on the website and were accepted as posted.

Treasurer, Gail McMillan, reported that we have $2,227.63, 52 paid members to date, with one new member joining tonight.

Barbara Darnall expressed thanks to John Matthews, and Sue and Brandon Davis for providing refreshments this evening.

New Business –

Nancy Masters encouraged us to enlist more new members. Our rent at CCA will be going up this year and we pay our speakers as well as our contest judges and speaker.

Nancy also reminded us that the deadline for our October workshop entries is July 31. So far, only 5 entries have been received from Guild members, but there have been entries from all over the US. (Some people did bring their entries to the meeting.) We have workshop bookmarks available for us to pass out at church, the car wash, and other places around town to encourage people to attend the annual workshop.

Barbara Rollins husband had an emergency appendectomy last Sunday evening and just got out of the hospital, so Barbara stayed home with him this evening. We wish him a speedy recovery.

Nancy invited everyone to Elmdale Baptist Church on Sunday, July 29, at 6:30 to hear the Triple S Trio (Sharon Ellison, Shanda Tijerina, & Sandy Sharp) in mini-concert with supper afterward.

One of our newest members wanted to let us know that while searching for the AWG website, she found three, two of which seem to be old ones. She felt it might be confusing to those looking for contest rules. We will ask Barbara Rollins to check into this matter as soon as it is convenient.

Nancy Masters began the program by showing us a sales sheet and explaining its importance to us. For information purposes, she mentioned books usually take up to a year before being published. Short stores, articles and other items usually don’t take that long, but they can also take a year or more after acceptance before being published. She also told us that the National Curriculum Standards tell you what is being taught in schools, whether we agree or disagree, and if anyone is interested in writing books for students, they should check out the Standards.

Members and guests once again became part of the "program for the evening. Nancy passed out three pages of information which she put together in May 2002 from the judges comments for our 2001 Annual Contest. Highlights of the discussion were:

1. Use active voice in writing, not passive.
2. Avoid "to be verbs, was, are, is. Use present tense only.
3. Don’t narrate; keep on character’s viewpoint in focus at a time.
4. Show, don’t tell.
5. Parts of a character’s body cannot act alone, e.g., hands must be lifted; a gaze should roam around a room --- eyes do not roam.
6. Always list a cause before you show the effect; action then reaction
7. Write the way people have conversations. They don’t always use names. Make sure your dialog is clear enough to make the reader know exactly who is saying what without overuse of names.
8. Make sure you write what you mean. Write it, read it, then read it again, out loud, if necessary. Don’t write: He leaned his massive frame against the door. Do write: He leaned against the door.
9. Keep actions separate, otherwise you risk having the character do something physically impossible. "And can cause problems and make it look like a character is doing two things at once. Perhaps a character IS able to do two things at once, but probably not.
10. Use ellipsis sparingly. Punctuate it like … this. Or at the end of a sentence, like this. . . . Likewise, use an emdash sparingly --- like this --- to interrupt a thought.
11. Protagonists are the ones who have the most to win or lose in a story. They are not perfect, but they are admirable. (Even Persian rugs have what is called the Persian flaw --- one weaved strand that is not like all the rest. The reason: only God is perfect. Don’t make your characters too perfect.
12. Respect your characters – even villains. Give everyone at least one redeeming quality and make the character strong.
13. Show readers where a scene is taking place, where the characters are and what they are doing. Do it in the character’s "tone of voice.
14. Specific, concrete details immerse a reader. Use the senses – sound, taste, feel, smell --- to indicate the mood of each character.
15. Write cinematically to give readers distinct and vivid pictures to convey emotional mood.
16. In intense situations, characters don’t think deeply. They think in short spurts. In fragments. Readers read faster, imparting a sense of urgency, hence intensity.
17. Today’s trend is third person, multiple viewpoint. That is, a single viewpoint which at specific intervals transitions to a different character. Some experts recommend one viewpoint per scene to avoid losing intensity. Hint: use the character with the most to lose as your viewpoint character.

The meeting was adjourned after this discussion of good writing ideas. A special Board Meeting was held afterward.

Respectfully submitted,



Sharon Ellison, Secretary