Minutes! 5-28-13

Hey everyone. Wanted to post these last night, but the internet in my apartment decided to stop working. Here's what you missed:

• Gena came back to us! And there was much rejoicing.
• We read Tanise's latest scene from Barhopping. Discussion ensued.
• We discussed Tanise's attempt at prose. (Way to break boundaries!) Discussion ensued.
• We read Becky's attempt at a poem. Discussion ensued.
• We read Becky's draft of a story. Discussion ensued.
• We read Dan's draft of his entry for the City Lit Art of Adaptation theater festival. Discussion ensued.
• Gena would like us each to send her six words, so she can write a sestina. So do that!
• If you want to enter the City Lit Art of Adaptation Festival, move fast--entries must be postmarked no later than Friday, May 31st!
• If you're ever looking for writing contests to enter, check out Poets & Writers' website--they have an excellent directory.
• Printers Row Lit Fest is coming up soon, June 8-9! Who wants to go? It's always a wonderful time.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, June 11th. See you then!

Minutes! 4-9-13

Hey kids. Here's what you missed (aside from delicious beer and chips & salsa and bagel chips & hummus and oatmeal cream pies--quite the spread):

• Upcoming literary event #1: Pop Up Book Fair at The Empty Bottle this Sunday, April 14th at 2 p.m. Click on the link for the facebook info--there's a link on their page that will let you get in for free! (But it's only $5 otherwise, so I wouldn't worry too much about it.)
• Upcoming literary event #2: Dollhouse Reading Series on Saturday, April 20th. Get your dose of poetry during National Poetry Month. 
• Upcoming literary event #3: C2E2, the Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo, April 26-28. Lots of interesting panels related to writing, mostly for comics and TV, but they can be applied to other things. Lots of other nerdy goodness. Literary guests include Audrey Niffenegger and R.L. Stine! (My 8-year-old self is freaking out.)
• Upcoming literary event #4: Tuesday Funk. This is a neat little reading series that Becky and Meg discovered, which takes place the first Tuesday of every month at Hop Leaf. Good beer, good fiction. The next one is May 7th. 
• We read a scene from Tanise's screenplay. Discussion ensued.
• Raphael read us a short story in the works. Discussion ensued. (We also discussed how fairy tales have different phrases besides "once upon a time" and "and they lived happily ever after" in other languages!)
• Becky mentioned a website called Duolingo where you can get Rosetta-Stone-style language lessons online FOR FREE! Sounds too good to be true, but it is REAL.
• Becky read a few newer stories from her blog. Discussion ensued. 
• The four of us that were here gave each other an exercise, due at the next meeting, where we will write a short piece based on a famous painting. We've all assigned each other paintings, but if you weren't here and want to participate, contact Becky and she will assign you one. 

Our next meeting will be Tuesday, April 23rd at 7:30 p.m. Becky's place. The usual. See you then!

Minutes! 12-13-11

Overall, our most recent meeting ended up being more like a brainstorming session, which was kind of fun. It's neat that we change things up so often. Here's what happened:

• We were missing David due to illness (get better soon!) and Beckah due to exhaustion (get some sleep, you!), but Leta, founder of the original Drivel & Wit, virtually joined in via Google +. We made good use of the virtual mustache function now offered by Google + Hangouts. The future is now.
• Leta described the basic premise of her upcoming paranormal teen romance series, and she went into detail about some of the characters. The rest of the group came up with some ideas to help her flesh out the plot.
• Becky described the basic premise of her upcoming novel, and read the introduction of it to the group. The group asked many questions, which helped her to think about how she needs to approach things.
• Becky read a portion of the first chapter of Glenn's upcoming novel, "The Impossible (Walter) Heap." Glenn explained the premise of the novel, and many questions and constructive criticisms followed.
• Meg read Felipe's story. A conversation about mother-daughter relationships and some constructive criticism ensued.
• Raphael asked the group's opinion about an idea he had for a screenplay or play or graphic novel that largely takes place in the mind of someone who's unconscious. Discussion of various angles followed. Raphael also did an excellent impression of Jimmy Stewart explaining nihilism, for which he should be congratulated. 
• We decided that we want to use the Drivel & Wit Google Group more often to comment on each other's stories between meetings. That way people who can't make it every week can still participate, and it might make critiquing some of the longer stories easier. 
• We decided that the 27th would be a bad day to meet, since so many people are out of town for Christmas. But because we couldn't bear the horror of going three weeks without meeting, our next meeting will be Tuesday, December 20th at Becky's apartment.
• We decided that the next meeting will start with a writing exercise of some kind, presented by Meg. Bring paper and a pen!

And I do believe that's all. In other news, I added some more resources to this website. There are poetry, songwriting, and screenwriting-specific sites now. Check it out! I'll see you Tuesday.