Next HSW Meeting 

Saturday April 16th at 10 am

Live at Scheels at Sparks Legends
& online via Google Meet 

Meeting is upstairs in the meeting rooms to the left of the restrooms. The employee door is unlocked during the day and the meeting rooms are on the left as you walk in.

April’s Meeting Agenda
Announcements
Shameless Self-Promotion
Critique Groups Information and Match Ups with Linda Enos
First Pages

Need a Critique Group? 

One of the benefits of being a High Sierra Writers member is using the critique group options and the finish groups. If you’re working on a book, it’s a great way to get feedback from your peers, chapter by chapter. Or maybe you only want feedback on one chapter or a short story. We have options for that also. No matter what you write, Linda will try to find a few partners for you.

Linda Enos is our critique group wrangler and her job is to match writers with a compatible group. At the meeting, Linda is going to talk about the groups, what to expect, and how to work with a critique team.

If you’re working on a book, now is a good time to find or form a group, so come to the meeting, either live or on Google Meet. 

Join Information:
Saturday, April 16 · 9:30am – 1:30pm
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/rdp-eaqc-bqp
Or dial: ‪(US) +1 314-833-7213‬ PIN: ‪674 727 735‬#
More phone numbers: https://tel.meet/rdp-eaqc-bqp?pin=9051709270750

From the President:

KILLING YOUR BABIES

My Jump Start Group is in full swing knocking off a finished manuscript each month. An interesting issue came up at our last meeting.

In one of our member’s stories, a very sympathetic, essential character in the plot is badly injured. In the last chapter we find that he will fully recover.

I suggested that the ending would be more powerful if that character died. It wouldn’t change the rest of the book, but it would raise the stakes at the very end and provide a plot twist that readers would not expect. I came to this idea because several other main characters had lost something somewhere along the way, but the main character had come through virtually unscathed. He needed to experience a loss, pay a price, for the things he had gained.

It’s up to the writer to now decide that choice. I haven’t heard the outcome yet.

A problem we all face is we slowly fall in love with our characters over the course of months – sometimes years – as we write a book. Without realizing it, we start insulating them from the really horrible. Yes, a bruised ego or a broken bone may be something they pay, but we avoid the earth-shattering price of a loss that may be impossible to recover from.

Such losses test a character. They provide drama and internal conflict. They change a character, either positively or negatively. They make a character more resilient, or hopeless, or vengeful. They provide the opportunity for a character to consider giving up a quest, or running away. Or digging deep and fighting like the hounds of hell.

Kind of like you feel in the middle of writing a novel. “I think I’ll delete the whole damn file.” Or, “Maybe my critique group has an idea around the corner I’ve painted myself into.”

Happy Spring,
Matt

Events coming up in April & May

April 5 to May 10 – How to Write a Novel from Start to Finish with Jacci Turner – Jacci will be working through the whole process from plot to finish in this free six week course for 55+ people. (Younger might sneak in.) It will be at the Northwest Library in Reno. To sign up, email Jacciturnerauthor@gmail.com

April  7, 14, & 21 – Self-Publishing Class at TMCC with Rene Averett teaching. Sign up at TMCC to attend these three Thursdays at 7 pm.  

May 7th – Divas Day Out – May 7th at Grand Sierra Hotel in the Ballroom. Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster and at the hotel. Advance tickets are $15 each until May 6th and $25 at the door. For more information, go to DDO’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/277234614597115/

May 21st – Fantasy/Sci-Fi Reading and Book Signing at Grassroots Book Store. Six authors will be participating with short readings from their books and all books will be on sale at Grassroots. Stop by and support your fellow writers. More Information at: https://www.facebook.com/events/724488875597183