ATTENDEES
Eva H.
Dennis G.
Sajeda M.
Peta-Gaye N.
Howard P.
Rick P.
Richard S.
Sheila T.
Introduction
The WAG MEETING opened with the business consideration, the main thrust being an evaluation of the WAG Association thus far.
The consensus was that our goal of helping each other is succeeding and the sharing of information is proving to be very beneficial for everyone.
Participants are pleased that both technology and non-technology topics are being examined, though there is a distinct preference by many for directing their energy into creativity and writing rather than the learning of programs and software.
Numerous topics:
1. Critiquing meetings
A proposal was suggested to hold critiquing meetings where interested members could submit samples of work they would like assessed and appraised. The process would entail interested writers submitting 1000-2000 word samples of their work suitably prior to the meeting for others to read and critique. Feedback would then be discussed at a meeting.
Final logistics need to be worked out in regard to:
- Provision and access of material
- Moderator/manager to organize, navigate and coordinate the endeavours.
2. Library bookshelf revenue
Rick Pyves briefly explained about potential revenue from the Canada Council of the Arts to be made from books on library shelves. He recently was surprised with income relating to his books on library shelves. The topic definitely needs more explanation and expansion.
3. Technology: Scapple and Scrivener
SCAPPLE is a mind mapping application that replaces old-fashioned paper and pencil, easy to use and useful for its display of visual organization of a variety of things such as character lists, project and subprojects, work/staff teams, all with interconnecting lines. The app is simple to use and inexpensive, $15 approx.
SCRIVENER is a writer’s tool that might be conveniently described as MS WORD on steroids. Though the learning curve is quite steep, the payback is very beneficial to writers. Howard is the resident guru of the application while Peta-Gaye, Rick and Richard seem to the most interested new users.
In summary regarding technology, the WAG members are not averse to it, but each emphasizes that their interest is inverse to the learning curve the software may demand. We likely need to discuss specific software more and maybe consider organizing workshops to teach fundamentals in the use of software that is seen as useful and worth exploring.
Help is needed
As the areas of interest are growing and expanding, we need volunteers to take responsibility for organizing and management of a variety of tasks:
-
-
- Critiquing writer samples
- Scrivener workshop
- Scapple
- Central publishing and posting of information: Richard’s website will continue as information central for the time being as it is currently up and running.
-
CONCLUSION
Logistics, organization, moderator volunteers, and operations of the following need to be finalized:
- Critiquing writer samples
- Scrivener workshops
- Scapple wrap up
- Upcoming meetings list
Another business meeting vs postpone schedule?
Another business meeting may be necessary to refine and finalize the various topics which are being talked about here. Currently, we have topics scheduled for upcoming meetings, so the question may be to postpone these topics or to schedule an alternate date just for added discussion.
Your feedback
You are invited to write your feedback and comments regarding this report. There is much to digest and it is important that we hear from everyone and discuss further where more discussion is needed.
Please get back to me with your thoughts and reactions.
[ This entire missive was written in SCRIVENER. What I liked: it was very easy to keep sections up front and organized; rearrangement of paragraphs was very easy as you merely drag and drop blocks; easy editing without having one long WORD document as in days of old….very practical, very convenient and very easy. For new users, I suggest they start with a document with about a dozen paragraphs, manipulate it to learn about adding text files and rearranging and then compiling to a WORD .docx file. This will give you practice and develop basic skills easily. It really is a useful tool once you get a bit of a handle on how to work with it…much more practical and useful than MS WORD.]
Best,
Richard
zippyonego@gmail.com
