BW Visitors are invited to submit writings on the prompt. To do so, click on the title above and scroll down to the comment box. Don't forget to fill in the security image code and click on "post" when you finish. The prompt for the January 26, 2007 Beanery Writers Group Meeting is: In England, a large number of Britons would be prepared to give up sex if it meant they would live to be 100, according to a survey released today. What would you give up if it meant you would live to be 100, and why? Or What would you give up sex to obtain? Explain. The January 12th meeting of the Beanery Writers Group was attended by eight persons. We began the meeting with a prompt everyone considered challenging: Writers need to have a story worth telling, whether it’s memoir, fiction or any other genre. But ordinary lives aren’t compelling, to readers or publishers.
Choose an event from your life and consider why anyone would care to read about it.
Say to yourself, “I’m going to make this so memorable, so great to read, that even though I’m no one, a stranger would be interested in what I have to say.” I’m going to see this event “out of the box” through another’s eyes, or perhaps from another viewpoint.
After sharing the results I introduced a guest who’s contributed items to the blog, Kathy. In February we need to start paying $5 for the use of the room we’ve been meeting in at the Coffee Beanery. Members decided to have a container on the table for donations, and to “pass the hat” (literally---they took the hat off my head!) to start donations at this meeting. A total of $5 was collected today, counted by Joan. There was a discussion on publicity of our group. Joe posted a sign on our group at the Second Chapter bookstore in Ligonier. He suggested it also be posted on the bulletin board by the coffee shop on the Ligonier diamond. He will check into this. I noted that we are listed on the Ligonier Valley Writers web site and in their publications. I WILL contact the local newspapers about listing us regularly in their publications as well as the possibility of their doing a story on us (sorry, didn’t do it over the holidays!). I agreed to speak to George, the author of 18 Seconds, about speaking to our group. No research has been done on doing a booklet. Joe sent me article, Freelance Writing as a Second Income, to use as a basis for a future group discussion. I said we will do later. The blog is doing well. It averaged 61 hits a day all fall. This month it’s averaged 92 hits a day, with one day only below 90 (40) and one at 231 (Wednesday night between midnight and five am there were 193 hits). We are slowly catching up with the two blogs (not writing ones) ahead of us. We may be second---or first---in terms of hits by the end of March. We had numerous guest postings. Rock Foster, a member of the defunct Foothills Writers Group, allowed us to use a piece he wrote (first published in the Foothills publication), Laurel Mountain Ordinary 1795. It was posted in four parts. Jane, from Arkansas, submitted a ten part romance story, being posted one a week each Wednesday. Sal is submitting two pieces. One was published in the Foothills booklet. I’ve been using pieces from my files, which is encouraging me to “shape them up.” Also, I posted the first item on my novel writings last night. I’ll continue posting them regularly (encouraging me and making me accountable to write them). However, the actual NOVEL will not be posted, only discussion on it. I’ll also continue posting items on a holocaust survivor. My deadline for that article is Feb. 10, but items won’t be posted on the blog by then. I appreciate those of you who are submitting items. A daily submission is challenging, but I believe it’s part of what’s making the blog successful. I passed out a folder of elementary school student’s poetry I had helped judged in 2001. Some were very good, but we cannot post any on the children’s category on the blog because we have no idea who wrote them and we have no rights to them. They will be burned after today. The lesson part of the meeting was on character development. We ended writing and sharing the following (difficult) prompt: Using the same event as you used in the first prompt, embellish the “event” using fictional details and characters.
The next meeting will be set aside for critiquing. Members are asked to bring ten copies of item to be critiqued. There will also be a prompt. Carolyn | 
