Hungry for an information-fueled gab with other writers? Looking for some helpful suggestions as you scratch your head about what to write next? Writing, Rants, and Rambling sessions, such as the one I attended via Zoom on Jan. 9, could be your answer.
The recent WR&R session was brimming with interesting topics and discussion. Our moderator, Susan Rocan, provided her expert guidance to lead us through the land acknowledgement reading, attendee introductions, and into some popular WR&R topics that naturally meandered into a variety of questions and responses. We were also fortunate to have Critique Circle moderator Bobbi-Jo Grant, who was able to offer some insightful information about the CC process.
This session had six attendees, some new to the Guild and eager to learn more about our programs. To get the conversation started, Susan inquired about what process each person uses while writing. This elicited quite a variety of responses. It seemed that almost everyone used some form of outline or plan as part of their writing process. One person mentioned they used Scrivener, a popular tool designed to assist writers which you can read about here . Another person mentioned that they use index cards to file ideas and snippets of text they might utilize in the future, while another attendee found they required a structured timeline to keep the various parts of their storyline in proper sequence.
This led to a question about what time of day folks did most of their writing. The most popular answer was early morning, with some folks even rising early to steal a few minutes ahead of their family awakening or the start of work. Two attendees indicated their best time was during midday when their children were off at school, and one preferred to do their writing in the evenings. The one indisputable common thread in all of this was that there was never enough time that they could commit to writing without interruptions from life’s hustle and bustle.
One attendee asked if anyone else had moments of self-doubt regarding their writing and how much time they spent reviewing and editing. It was pretty unanimous that we all have such moments and that it is important to put those issues aside and keep moving forward with the story. It was acknowledged that editing is critical but that once you get the main story down there is plenty of time to critique the weak spots and fill in the gaps.
This led to a conversation about having others able to review your work. The Guild’s Critique Circles provide attendees 10 minutes to present a written piece, followed by five minutes of comments and suggestions from moderators and attendees. The Guild currently offers four Critique Circles each month, two for multi-genre prose on the second Tuesday and the third Wednesday, one exclusively for poetry on the last Tuesday and one that is strictly for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) members on the last Thursday of each month. Bobbi-Jo provided some background on the Critique Circles, including some insight into her experiences as a moderator and reminding the group that members can also join a CC as simply an observer if they are interested in learning more about them without having to present material. A specific question arose regarding whether the CC attendees comment solely on the content of the material presented or if they also discussed syntax and technique, to which everyone agreed that most CC discussions covered all aspects of their writing.
And as is always the case with the Rants and Ramblings sessions, there was healthy serving of friendly banter between the attendees unrelated to writing as we simply enjoyed getting to know each other. There was an intriguing exchange about our respective professions, daily routines, and the fact that a number of the folks had “husky-type” dogs, which apparently is a pretty common thing here in Manitoba, making this reporter feel good that he was not the only person managing and loving an orphaned Northern dog.