Archive: Around Town

Writing is a solitary endeavor, so many writers form groups at which they can share works in progress and get feedback.  Next Wednesday a group of Lansing writers will celebrate their group's first anniversary with a reading, 'Lansing Writers Read.'  The reading promises a variety of pieces and genres from a mix of area writers.  The reading will feature fiction and non-fiction with a sprinkling of limericks, all made better by input by fellow writers.

"I feel the group has done a really good job of providing level, constructive criticism," says Vickey Beaver, who founded the group a year ago next Thursday.  "We are honest about what we like and don't like.  Doug (Baird) and I often find ourselves on opposite sides.  The exchange of opinions is professional and everybody is mindful that we are still human beings.  We don't try to rip each other apart."

Beaver originally solicited members with the help of the Lansing Community Library staff.  Today a core of a half dozen writers meet at the library every week with others attending occasionally.  Beaver says all local writers are welcome to join.  

"It is good experience," says Ben Muggeo.  "I enjoy this.  I don't think I've missed one meeting.  I'm not sure I like all the critiques, but I was told I could shuffle some off and pay attention to others.  The hard part is finishing a story and getting the details right."

That is a theme shared by many of the writers in the group.  They say that discipline and good writing habits are easier to develop when they know they need something to share every Wednesday evening.  And the criticism gives them a chance not only to correct grammar, and find new ideas, but to get a preview of how readers will respond to the work.  Beaver says that it is up to the individual to parse the criticism, to decide what what best serves the pieces.  But even conflicting comments can help a writer improve.

While there is a mix of genres, the writers say they get a lot from the weekly comments.  Muggeo primarily writes non-fiction.  Beaver and Randy Suwara write fantasy, while Kathryn Mapes is a screen writer.  Jake Ferris has been sampling a variety of genres from science fiction to pornography to brochure writing to fiction based on her family's real life stories.  Artist Doug Baird is focusing on poetry, especially limericks.

"I enjoy doing something different, something verbal rather than non-verbal," Baird says.  "It cleanses my palate.  As long as I come every week I feel I need to produce something, so it makes me work on pieces and helps me turn writing into a habit.  When I work on my art I am entirely alone, so it's nice to come out and have things to show and talk about.  Even when I have art in exhibitions I rarely get to talk to people about it, and that's something I enjoy a lot."


The mix of genres doesn't present a problem, but it underlines the distinctly different markets these writers are pursuing.  Beaver notes that she and Baird frequently have opposite opinions about the works, and Muggeo says he doesn't much enjoy fantasy tales.  The writers all say that the feedback they get is helpful.  Sometimes it is simply a matter of grammar.  Other times members contribute facts that may lend depth and richness to a scene.  Or a consensus of reactions, positive or negative, confirm that a writer is on the right or wrong track with a piece.

"When I first read about the group I thought it might be a problem that the genres were different," Mapes says.  "I had been in a screen writing group.  We had gone to screen writing classes together and had a certain way of looking at things.  I've found it's more interesting to mix the genres and have found it doesn't matter too much that we write in different genres."

The experience of sharing their work also seems to make group members introspective about the process of writing.  That can mean everything from the simple act of writing on a regular basis to character and plot development.

"Often the characters don't do what you thought they were going to," Ferris says.  "I started a story where one guy falls totally and hopelessly in love with another guy whose affections are engaged elsewhere.  As I was writing it I realized the second guy was looking back at the first guy and liking very much what he saw.  Ninety pages later I was in way over my head."

Muggeo, a retired design engineer, says he prefers 'truthful writing' to fiction.  Among the genres he is sampling he is trying his hand at travel writing, and says that the intention to write about his experiences has colored his experience of them.

"When I am trying to write about it it seems that I enjoy a trip more," he says.  "I see the trip altogether differently.  And I've gained more respect for writers."

Beaver is a freelance writer with a focus on the role playing game industry.  She writes poetry and prose, and her book Caladon Falls was published last year.  She has a deal to cowrite an upcoming novel with writer Steve Dean, with whom she has collaborated in the past.  The rest of the group is a mix of writers who have been published, and who aspire to.

"I'd like to some day, but I think that's a ways off," Suwara says.  "I've got to work at my craft more and spend more time with it."

'Lansing Writers Read' will be presented at the Lansing Community Library at 7pm Wednesday, January 19th.  Potential titles include Rano Park, The Girl Who Loved Frogs, MySelf (yes, with a capital "s"), Snow Song, Flat Rock, and Procuration (a novel excerpt).

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