Writer's Group...Strongly Encouraged!

   Today was the monthly meeting for my writer's group, Oklahoma City Writer's Inc. If you are a new writer and haven't looked up and joined a writer's group in your a area, I would strongly suggest that you do so! It is such a good way to network with other writers AND learn things associated with your craft.
   My group likes to host workshops for the meetings in the summer months. This month author Carolyn Wall spoke on 'how to create suspense in fiction' and it was fabulous! She sent us all home with an assignment asking us to take her formula for creating suspense and overlay it on an outline for something we are working on. When told by her editor that it was time for her to write the BIG ONE, she immediately pulled all the books off her shelf that were fabulous and whose authors were still remembered and asked herself...what do they all have that has made them the BIG ONE for their author. The answer was simple: suspense.
   She listed several books that were good for their suspense including To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and The Help by Kathryn Stockett. She also suggested a movie we should all see, Reign Over Me.
   I always feel as though I know so much more about writing after attending my group's meetings! I hope you will get on the computer and google your local writing groups also! DO NOT SIT IN THE BACK ALONE! Introduce yourself to the other members. You never know who you could meet that will play an instrumental role in making you a best selling author!!!