Hello, Protagonists! In this post, you’ll find:
❓Readalong for One Year Ago in Spain - Would you be interested?
🎥 The video replay of our July Book Club meeting
📖 August Book Club Invitation: Date and Time
📚 Our August Book Pick + Discussion Questions: BIG MAGIC
❓Readalong for One Year Ago in Spain
Would you be interested in behind-the-scenes of my writing of the book?
Readalong = buddy-reading with the author
In September, we would read 100 or so pages per week. (I would publish a readalong schedule, and this would replace our September Book Club).
You can submit questions to me while reading, and at the end of each week, I’ll do a video where I answer those questions.
Let me know what you think in this poll, in the Comments, or reply to the email. I’ll do it if there’s enough interest, but no worries if you’d just rather read on your own. 🥰
🎥 The video replay of our July Book Club meeting
If you missed our book club meeting, you can watch the replay now.
We had such a fantastic discussion of Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson and talked about:
breaking the fourth wall and use of foreshadowing - love it or hate it?
different ways to structure plot and to introduce characters
keeping the reader on their toes with multiple subplots driven by unanswered questions
was this an actual mystery novel? Or a parody of the mystery genre?
In the writer hangout portion, we chatted about:
How to read to study for writing craft
e.g., what do all those color-coded tabs in my books mean?
Our favorite books on plot structure
Writing retreats
Types of retreats: structured vs. casual
My personal, quirky kind of retreat: Silent, Deep Work retreats (and how they work)
What kind of writing retreat is right for you?
»To keep our members’ conversations private from the general internet, the book club replay is behind a paywall.
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📖 Our Book Club for Writers and Curious Readers
Your August Invitation!
WHO: Writers who love reading and want to examine stories more closely, and Readers who are curious about why they feel the way they do about a book.
WHAT:
Book Discussion (30 minutes)—What makes this book tick? We’ll talk about things like whether the plot worked and if not, why not? Where was the pacing great and where did the tension dip, and why? And why do some people love Character A but others hate him, while Character B is universally adored?
Bonus Writers’ Chat (30 minutes): After the book discussion, we’ll have an optional hangout to share what we’re working on, ask each other for advice on writer’s block, finding a literary agent, doing book publicity, etc.
WHEN: Sunday, August, 25, 2024 @ 12pm PDT / 3pm EDT
WHERE: Zoom (feel free to come with your video off, introverts!)
To prevent Zoom-bombing from not-nice people, the Zoom link will be sent to paid subscribers 2-3 days before the meeting.
WHY: Because it will be so much fun to look at published books through a writer’s lens!
HOW: Bring your smart insights and your “dumb” questions, and always lead with kindness, generosity, and a spirit for learning. (Because most of us are writers, too, and we know how much hard work goes into creating the books. And those of us who aren’t writers love books so much, we come from a place of admiration for the authors).
August Book Club Pick:
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
This month’s book pick is a little different, because it’s non-fiction. However, I think there are lots of great inspirational nuggets in there that will benefit you no matter what kind of creativity you’re looking for in your life—be it writing, drawing, or just letting your mind open more to possibilities.
We will also examine why this book resonates with so many, from a more technical craft perspective:
How does the author utilize storytelling to make the non-fiction parts more compelling?
How is the book structured, and why is that effective?
Is this self-help/improvement? Memoir? Something else altogether?
And of course, we’ll chat about
which parts inspired you?
which parts made you pause and re-examine your own practice?
which parts didn’t ring true for you?
I’m very much looking forward to this discussion!
How I Choose our Book Picks
Based on my many years of running another book club for writers, I’ve come up with some guidelines for our Book Picks:
We never read our members’ books — this was a hard and fast rule from my last book club, because even though we discuss our book picks with kindness and curiosity, it’s still virtually impossible for a writer to listen to other people critique their work, especially if it’s already published and there is nothing they can do to change things. (And sometimes, hearing analysis from their friends is the hardest thing!) So if I ever accidentally choose one of your books (or one of a dear friend whom you’d rather not hear analyzed), please let me know and I’ll pick something else. We are a supportive community and want everyone to feel buoyed by what we do!
Paperbacks, not new releases — For the most part, I will pick books that have been out for a while and already in paperback, because this makes them more affordable to buy and/or accessible via libraries (because new releases tend to have longer wait lists). There may be occasional exceptions if you all are hankering to read a specific new release, though.
Varying genres — We have writers and readers of all different genres in our wonderful community, so I’m going to try to reflect that. I find that even when a novel might not initially be what I’m normally inclined to read, I am often the most surprised and delighted by those very books. Plus, there is always something interesting to study and learn, no matter what the genre.
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