Writingtowne discussion

As mayor of Writingtowne, I try to improve this town whenever I can, but I am not always able to provide what you as a citizen want! If you feel like I am lacking in an area or have ideas for discussion topics, polls, or anything else, post your comment here and I will try to incorporate it in this group!

I'm not sure if you did this already yet, but perhaps you could host a monthly writing challenge ! A simple prompt, with guidelines but give the writer enough freedom to create their own story. :) BTW love the idea of this group!

Ahh yes I was planning on doing that when there are more members. I actually have a folder for that but haven't put anything in it yet.
Thanks for the compliment!

What if we did something similar to role play , but more story-like. Someone would start a chapter with a few sentences , and other members could add on . There would be a short plot, but it would be up to the writers to decide the ending . They could have total freedom , and add characters whenever they would want . As long as they were working towards a conclusion, it would be considered a story.
One of the good things is that they would be able to 'take possession' of other writer's characters . Not meant for character development , although it could be used in that sense . It would be more like a loose, no-stress , do whatever you want writing exercise .


Woah. That was long. I understand I'm a MOD but I would still like to talk with mayor before doing anything :)

Mayor approves! I might make a chat specifically for moderators as well.

Hello,

I got your message asking for suggestions for authors to discuss. I'm not sure if it's what you're looking but Kurt Vonnegut writes some pretty accessible material. Maybe we can read Cat's Cradle? It's a pretty easy read and I think you guys might like it.

Another book that I really liked that we might be able to talk about is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, I'm just not familiar with anything else by Hinton

I just read your email about suggestions for books to read and I think Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a great book to discuss. The book does include difficult topics though such as suicide and bullying so just a heads up.

There are many amazing authors out there, but perhaps we should start with someone simple and that most people know:
Dr. Seuss.
I would hope you know/remember who he was! The childhood memories... oh my goodness. Nostalgia!
Dr. Seuss is a great example of an author who pushed the writing boundaries by creating fun, sometimes crazy, books for children to read. I would think that he is one of the most well-known authors ever, even if he only wrote children's books.
His children's books also, sometimes, teach life lessons that reflect what was happening in the world at that time. For example, his book: The Butter Battle Book. It was about respecting other people despite differences, and reflected the Cold War, happening at that time.
I hope I haven't bored you to death! It's totally alright if you choose not to do Dr. Seuss too :)

Good ideas! How about we start with some pretty obvious ones and then work our way outwards. I'm assuming this group will be up for awhile, so if we do a different one every month, we will have time for everyone's ideas.

Do we want to create a poll to see what the members of the group want to read first, or which author they want to discuss?

And I totally suggest The Goose Girl byShannon Hale. It is an amazing ready, and it is beautifully written. Actually, in my experience, anything by Shannon is a good read.

Other good read--it's a series, and I don't know if we want to do series--are the Ranger's Apprentice books by John Flanagan.

And yet another good read is Airman by Eoin Colfer

Yeah, I definitely think we should do a poll.
An author that I've started reading (because I never got to as a child) is Raoul Dahl. (Wow, I spelt that right!)
I've read The BFG, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and James and The Giant Peach, all of which I really liked.
I will read whichever book gets the most votes and I will try to have an open mind, (as I am sometimes picky with my books).

@Laura
Yes! I absolutely love his books (I'm not even going to try to spell his first name). Dahl has got the most compelling story telling , and the most compelling stories!
Matilda was made into a musical, and the BFG has now got a movie remake (I believe). Charlie and The Chocolate Factory was made into a movie , though I liked the book better.
The Twits (I believe) was one of my favorites , oh, the nostalgia ! Dahl is/was an amazing author .

I actually saw the Matilda musical!!!!!!!
It was soooooooo good!!!! My favorite character was the Trunchbull.
I went all the way to London to see it and when I get back I hear they're coming to my city! UGH!

I'm going to London tomorrow ... And I've always wanted to see a musical (my goodness, I've never seen one before and I feel ashamed). I wanted to see them all, Matilda, Wicked, especially Hamilton.... Unfortunately, I haven't had the time nor financial expenses to do it !

Tomorrow I'm finally going to London , but only to visit relatives . Perhaps we will find something to do there .

Cool. I love London because the people there are so friendly! The weather, though, is not.
I definitely definitely definitely recommend the "London Dungeon" if you get a chance to check it out.

I will definitely check that out, and it (the London Dungeons) does sound pretty cool!

I loved it so much, the London Dungeon. It was the highlight of my trip.
It's basically a bunch of actors telling you about the history of London, like the fire. My favorite part was with Jack the Ripper!! There were a bunch of other girls who were screaming their heads off!

It sounds lovely . And Jack the Ripper, yes . One of history 's most famous serial killers.... (If I am not mistaken , he is the one who had the brutal murders ...) .

Alright, I have read all of the suggestions and I think they all sound reasonable. I think we should focus more generally on things rather than specific books so it doesn't make any added stress for going out to buy books. Thanks everyone!

What do you mean by things?

Things like genre, voice, characterization etc.?

Yeah, I'm a little confused, too...

I don't know if it's what you were thinking but maybe just set a theme and have everyone read what they want and compare books. We could do it weekly, have certain key points to go over, maybe even comparing your own book with someone else's?

Sorry for all the confusion! My plan was to pick an author that has written a lot of books that most people already have. From there, people could reread/read any of the books that author wrote, and then we would talk about writing style and anything else that would affect the popularity of the book. After that, I figure we could do a sort of review on the author and then just have that knowledge we learned from reading, to apply to writing.
Let me know if there are more questions; I will definitely try to answer them the best I can.

Hey I have an idea.
What if we have a topic where we can write all the silly and ridiculous short stories that we come up with? I don't know about you guys, but when I'm tired or straining to keep writing seriously, I tend to write silly little things just to get it out of my system.

Good idea! I'll add it :)