[stylist] Christmas writing exercise

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Chris,

I meet your challenge, and I will take the initiative and say that by
next Sunday, December 11, anyone participating in this exercise post
material they wrote using Christmas as a theme. Ready, set, go!

I, too, have posted exercises in the past only to have 1 or 2 people do
it, or more often than not, no one at all. It makes sense for a
listserve about writing to host writing exercises, but...

Here's a thought, any prose or poem posted for this exercise will be
considered for the winter issue of Slate & Style, which will publish in
February. Does that raise the stakes at all?

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 14
Date: Mon, 5 Dec 2011 16:44:48 -0500
From: "Chris Kuell" <ckuell at comcast.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [stylist] posting, critiquing and editing
Message-ID: <B2D5375869D244679776CF0017C2FE71 at ChrisPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=response

Barbara (and others)

One of the best ways to improve your self-editing and writing skills is
to 
critique others work. And don't take critique to mean harsh comments,
but 
rather, how might I make that better? I'm not a poet, and don't feel in
the 
least qualified to critique poetry, but I do enjoy poetry, and I know I 
prefer shorter poems that are subtle, use symbolism and leave me
wondering. 
I love a strong image that is expressed in a way that has never occurred
to 
me.

I'm more comfortable critiquing prose. I think I have fairly good
editing 
skills in that area, in part because I've been studying others work for 
years. I know most of the rules, yes, but I also recognize things that
don't 
work, or when a writer overuses a certain word or phrase, or has a POV 
shift, or has flat, cookie-cutter characters, etc... It's much easier to

spot in others work, but it also helps me to see it in my own.

One idea on sparking life into this group is to post and do writing 
exercises. An example would be to write something--poem, short story, 
memoir, whatever--about Christmas. Set a deadline and everybody post 
something, and comment/critique others posts. I believe it would help us
all 
to grow as writers, but when I tried this a few years ago it went over
about 
as well aspickle flavored ice cream.

chris