If you would like to attend the SWC Critique Group this Saturday from 10am-12pm, please send an email to shreveportwritersclub@gmail.com for the Zoom link.
Tag Archives: Critique
May Meeting
Shreveport Writers Club held their monthly meeting on May 4th at the Hamilton/South Caddo Branch of Shreve Memorial Libary.
Romance author, Liz Talley, was the special guest. Talley spoke about her beginnings as a writer, as well as how her writing career has progressed over the years. Talley held a lengthy Q and A session with attendees and signed copies of her books afterward.
Shreveport Writers Club thanks Liz Talley for her fun, informative visit!
If you would like to know more about Liz Talley and her books, visit her website:
LizTalleybooks.com
____________________________________________________________________________________________
The rest of the meeting concerned regular business, including the upcoming collaboration with Shreveport Art Club. Shreveport Writers Club President, Tiffany Pennywell, gave details on how the collaboration will work. She outlined how club members could participate and promised (and delivered) an email to follow up on the information provided at the meeting.
Pennywell reminded club members that the Writers Medley will take the place of the regular club meeting in June:
NOTE: Shreveport Writers Club Critique Group will meet Saturday, May 18th, 10 am to noon at the Broadmoor Library Reading Room. Bring a short piece of writing to share or simply come offer supportive suggestions for fellow writers. Everyone is invited.
Filed under Uncategorized
November Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club held their regular monthly meeting at 10 am on Saturday, November 3rd. This month the writers met at Retro 521 Cafe in Bossier City.
Club President, Tiffany Pennywell, welcomed visitors and members. The first order of business was presenting the “Making a Mark” awards. Members who submitted any piece of writing to any publication are given a commemorative writing pen as encouragement. Writers this month “making a mark” were M. L. Dumars and Loretta Casteen.
The group then moved on to the Flash Writing Exercise. The writers were asked to write on any of these topics:
- I didn’t know my daughter knew the queen…
- A baker, a ballerina, and the ultimate ninja…
- He looked me straight in the eye and said…
- The turkey was almost done, but…
- Open topic
After members shared their writing, the group moved on to other business.
December Meeting News : 
The December Holiday meeting location was discussed, but not decided upon. Those interested are encouraged to check back on this site or on the Facebook group once the meeting place for December is finalized.
The December Holiday meeting will include the yearly potluck meal, games, readings and fun. Special guest for the December meeting will be novelist, Maple Sudds, who will discuss self-publishing her memoir No Blood in the Turnip.
Next, club Vice-President Deondre Holmes announced the winner of the October short story contest.
For her short story, “Windows” Stephanie Bullard won a $25 gift card and spooky Halloween shot glasses.
Congratulations Stephanie!
The theme and deadline for the next contest will be announced at the December meeting.
The writers then participated in another writing activity. Each person was asked to write for ten minutes about their “perfect writing situation.” Afterwards, writers shared their work, if they wished to.
The Shreveport Writers Club Critique Group will be held at Retro 521 on Saturday, November 17th, from 10 am to 12 pm.
Vice-President, Deondre Holmes also invited anyone interested in evening meet-ups back to Retro 521 every Wednesday evening in November from 5 to 7 pm for critiques, sharing work and encouragement during NaNoWriMo.
The final activity was the Round Robin reading. Anyone who brought writing to share was encouraged to do so.
Filed under Uncategorized
October Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club held their regular monthly meeting on October 6th, 2018 at the Shreve Memorial Library Broadmoor Branch. President, Tiffany Pennywell welcomed visitors and members.
First on the agenda was the presentation of the Making the Mark Awards, given each month to members who have “taken the plunge” and submitted work for publication.
Next, the writers concentrated on the Flash Writing Exercise. Participants were asked to write for ten minutes about these writing prompts:
- Lancelot, plaid, outer space
- The Tragedy of the Ever-Smiling Clown
- An unusual house
- “Please shut the…”
- Open topic
After sharing their writing on the topics, the group heard from Vice-President Deondre Holmes. Deondre gave an update on the much-anticipated Shreveport Writers Club Anthology which will soon be available to order or to download from Amazon.com.
Deondre also announced the October Writing Contest.
Shreveport Writers Club members in good standing are encouraged to submit prose, poetry or creative non-fiction on one or more of the following themes:
- I’ve Never Been So Scared
- The Spirit of Halloween
- Ghouls, Goblins and Ghosts! Oh, my!
There is no fee to enter. There is no word limit on entries. Entries should be the original work of the author. All publishing rights remain with the author.
Entries will be judged blind. Each entry should have a cover page stating the author’s name, contact information, the title of the work and which theme their work references. The cover page will be removed from each entry before judging. No other identifying information should be included on the rest of the submission.
You may enter as many times as you like and may submit work on any or each topic, but each submission should be emailed separately.
Deadline for submissions is October 20th, 2018. Each submission and cover letter should be attached as a word document or an rtf file. If the work is short (under 1,000 words) you may also paste the submission in the body of the email, below your “cover sheet” information.
Entries should be emailed to shreveportwritersclub@gmail.com
If you are interested in becoming a member of Shreveport Writers Club, a PayPal option to pay your yearly membership fee is available. Click the PayPal button to the right to get started.
The writers then went on to play the game “Guilty Pleasures” where each person was asked to write down their favorite author or genre on a piece of paper. Players placed their paper slips together and Tiffany pulled them one by one. Members then tried to guess which person had written which “guilty pleasure” slip. Once the player was identified, each person talked about why that particular genre or writer was his or her favorite.
The Round Robin portion of the meeting followed. With writers sharing some of their most recent work and works-in progress.
Reminder: Critique Group will be held at the Shreve Memorial Library-Broadmoor Branch on Saturday, October 20, 2018.
Filed under Uncategorized
Shreveport Writers Club September Meeting
The Shreveport Writers Club met for their September meeting on Saturday, September 8 at Shreve Memorial Library’s Broadmoor Branch.
After greeting visitors, the monthly “Making a Mark” awards were handed out to members who submitted or had work accepted for publication. Receiving a “Making a Mark” award this month were Rob Hudgens, Tiffany Pennywell and John Brizzi. Rob received the award for having his first piece of fiction accepted for publication. Tiffany earned her pen by self-publishing her second book of poetry and John for starting a new blog. Congratulations to everyone.
The group then moved on to the Flash Writing Exercise. Members and guests were invited to write for ten minutes on several provided prompts or to write on any topic they chose. Several of the group shared their writing afterward.
Ken Shively shares on the topic he chose “I Shouldn’t Have Opened My Mouth” after the Flash Writing Exercise.
After a brief business discussion, President Tiffany Pennywell introduced the Guest Speaker, Caddo Parish Poet Laureate Ashley Havird.
Havird is an award-winning novelist and poet. She spoke to the group about her writing process and the discovery of “self” within her poetry and longer fiction writing endeavors.
Havird shared several new poems with the group. She then opened up the floor for an informative and lively question/answer and discussion session.
Members discuss writing and the writing process with havird.
In the Round Robin portion of the meeting, several group members shared examples of their recent works or works-in-progress.
For the latest news and information about the club, please like and follow this page. Find us on Facebook at Shreveport Writers Club public group, on Instagram at shreveportwritersclub and on Twitter@shrevewriters
Members and guests pose with Havird
The next Shreveport Writers Club Critique group will be at Shreve Memorial Library Broadmoor Branch on Saturday, September 22 from 10am to 12 pm.
Filed under Uncategorized
June Critique Group
A reminder that there is a Critique Group tomorrow at Broadmoor Library. It will be held from 10am-12pm.
Come and bring work that you have been working on and/or come and listen to others and give your critique.
Helping each other creatively will help boost productivity and our eagerness to work.
Filed under Uncategorized
November Meeting Reminder
A reminder that the Shreveport Writer’s Club will be meeting this Saturday at the Broadmoor Branch Library from 10am-12pm.
Jade Alex will be hosting our Writer’s spotlight.
Come out to support and network.
Visitors are always welcomed.
“Write on!”
Filed under Uncategorized
October Writers Medley
A thank you to those who shared at the Writers Medley today. All of the works were awesome and showed the great creativity of our members.
Be on the look out for more activities in the future.
#shreveportwritersclub #swc #writingclub #writing #writers #club #network #support #writingcommunity #shreveport #louisiana #shrevememoriallibrary #library #writersofinstagram #creativewriting #writingcommunity #louisiana #shreveportevent #louisianaevent #downtownshreveport #awesome #creative #activity #writersmedley #photograph #photography #photographersofinstagram #read
Filed under Uncategorized
July Shreveport Writer’s Club Meeting
I must admit, that July’s Meeting went very well. We had a good amount in attendance along with visitors.
The meeting was kicked off with a Writers Spotlight by our member JoAnn Horton. She is a playwright and also writes fiction/mystery. JoAnn spoke to us about the importance of dialog in a story. She explained that it is used to advance the plot in your writing. Dialog is also used to give your story and characters life. It also helps to paint a picture. JoAnn also gave advice to make your characters dialog as real as possible by learning about their environment. This will help them to develop a more believable voice.
We also talked about the club’s Anthology which is being edited and put together. Right now we are working on the club’s biography. Our activities director also suggested ways that we can sell and promote the anthology. He also gave ideas as to how we as a club, could also promote our own works together.
Our activity of the day was led by our President. He wanted us to get a better feel and idea for plotting. John explained that there is a beginning, middle and end and that there is no hard or fast rule in creating one. Everyone has their own way of creating one.
John explained that plot is driven by action. He started a chain plot by introducing a character and the action that he was doing. Each member around the table added their own action. At the end we had a very interesting plot that would have made a great story. The members enjoyed this activity so much that we ended up doing it a second time by request.
At the end of the meeting we held our Round Robin Reading. This is where we share short works and/or excerpts of our own work. We were able to hear a poetry and excerpts from stories and novels. Hearing members share their creative work helps to motivate of members and lets the writers showcase their work.
This Saturday, the 5th, we will be meeting at the Broadmoor Branch Library from 10am-12pm. We will have a Writer’s Spotlight by Jim Freeman. Come and join us. Visitors are always welcomed and we’re always happy to see returning faces.
And remember to “Write on!”.
Filed under Uncategorized
March Meeting and Writer’s Medley
March saw a busy month for the Shreveport Writer’s Club. We started the month off with a meeting at the Shreve Memorial Broadmoor Branch Library.
We were pleased to welcome two visitors to the group and two members were able to receive the Making the Mark Awards for submitting their work. We award these pens to members who submit their work to publications, online sites, journals and various means that gets their work out to the public. We encourage our members to celebrate their creative work by sharing it with others.
The group had lots of fun with out Flash Writing Exercise. The topics were, “Wrap it up!”, “The Season of…”, “Thanks for…”, “I don’t know about that…” and of course “Topic of choice”. All topics were tackled by the club members and we appreciate those who shared what they wrote in that short ten minute challenge.
In new business, Jade Alexander has been named the Club Photographer. We congratulate her and look forward to the photos she will capture for us.
The Shreveport Writer’s Club wants to give a big thank you to Joanna Ballard. She gave an awesome speech at the meeting about story-telling, using different mediums and the importance of finding readers who will give you feedback.
During Joanna’s presentation, she had each members come up with a different word. Each member then wrote a short story using each word and shared afterwards. Nine members shared their story and we were able to notice how they were all different when brought together. Each person had their own unique spin and influences on the words presented. Thank you Joanna for challenging us with this writing exercise.
At the end of the meeting we were able to allow members to share the work they brought. Members shared poetry, short stories and excerpts from stories. Thank you for sharing your work.
On March 18th the Shreveport Writer’s Club we held our Writer’s Medley at the Shreve Memorial Broadmoor Branch Library. Our President, John Brizzi, did a great job at hosting the event. We want to thank everyone who participated and all those who came out to support the readers. A lot of great creative work was shared. The preparation and hard work behind each piece was shown.
After the Writing Medley, members met at Rollin in the Dough to socialize and wind down.
We look forward to seeing even more writer’s participate at the next Writer’s Medley later this year.
Tomorrow is our next meeting at Shreve Memorial Broadmoor Branch in Shreveport, Louisiana. It is from 10am-12pm. We look forward to seeing you there. Visitors are always welcomed. Come to network and support other writers in the area. Being around other writers also gives a sense of comradery. Let’s grow the writing community in the Shreveport/Bossier and surrounding area together.
“Write on!”
Filed under Uncategorized
Shreveport Writers Club 