Have you ever gone to your book club and thought “I could do better than that.” But wait. You should give it a try! You’ve Got a Book in You, published in 2013 by Elizabeth Sims is an amazing tool for you. If you want a good instructor, her book is excellent. Many books are available for your writing, but I’m sharing two of my favorites as samples.
Writing is a tranquillizer for many people. You want to write, but it seems overwhelming. Writers or authors use tools like a subscription for the Writer’s Digest and Ms. Sim’s book. When my subscription arrives (quarterly), I always find something new, or maybe something forgotten. If you want to write with a desire to publish or improve your writing skills, I urge you to subscribe for the magazine the Writer’s Digest as it helps with excellent information to assist you if you are a new OR experienced author.
Writers need tools. Ms. Sims fits for me. The book has tools for us. A sample for two of the chapters: “Relationships: The Key to Writing Compelling People,” or “How to Write a Chapter.” My copy has been underlined about a million times. I continue to use it as a resource.
Here is Elizabeth’s website.
Another quote from AI tells us clearly that, “Elizabeth is an internationally recognized authority on writing. She’s written scores of feature articles on the craft of writing for Writer’s Digest magazine where she’s a contributing editor.”
Writers Groups
Writers Groups are fun. I’ve belonged to several.
Once, a few years ago, I organized a group to meet at the library near me. It was a small library, and I loved being on the library board. Our group had an eclectic membership roster. We probably had a dozen different personalities with attendance once a month at the library. Each of us brought something we wrote to read for feedback. A few dropped out. Others participated and several wrote books. Some have written several books.
We had a Writers’ Book Fest. We invited other authors in the area to pay a small fee while the library furnished the tables and chairs for the community event. It took time and effort but offered a service to the public and the library. We became known in the small community and recruited new members.
Another book fair opportunity was a community fair for local stores to show their products. I remember a couple of kids had a table with parents flocking to see the children’s books. We had book fairs at several churches. And we cared for each other. We helped each other, laughed and we enjoyed the ever-changing group.
When I moved to Katy, TX, the community already had a leader in an excellent location with a variety of writers. We advertised our meetings through the community website and regular notices. Our leader wrote one large book that you paid the company for, and you were sent “starters” for the writer to put together her story. Check out Storyworth for more insight. That method captures your history to sell or give to adult children for posterity. There is a cost for it, but many like it.
We had several different companies for publishing our books. For example, we had a reputable physician who wrote a huge book about his work and then wrote several about cancer, including his. He had a publisher.
During my time with the group we had maybe six authors in the group over the five-year period who published their books. However, the rest of the group wrote something they wanted to share, plus we had those who came to listen to the short stories. When people dropped out of the group, we encouraged our community to send email to entice membership.
When our membership was down, we wrote reasons for attending and posted flyers in the club house. During our monthly meeting, we discussed what we wanted. The last I knew, we voted on a topic and each of us wrote a short story about that topic. It was wonderful to listen to snippets or five minutes of fame about “Flowers,” with no feedback but an awareness of personalities and what they know about flowers in our lives. I looked forward to each meeting.
Recently, I moved and heard about the local book club and writers’ group. Now it’s time for me to participate again with new faces and personalities. The Writers Group wants to grow. We will be building new methods to stay in touch for the love and peace we can garner from writing.
If you think it might be fun, gather your friends together to hear and decide on what each member will contribute. Use Ms. Sim’s You’ve Got a Book in You. Don’t hesitate to try new rules and former ways. Writing is an amazing way to stay healthy!