After a few months, I finally went to my Redwood Writers meeting. I sure miss them.
First, last weeks clichés:
A Ballpark Figure- An educated guess or a roughly accurate estimate. This expression comes from baseball and it rests in turn on in the ballpark, which means within certain limits. Both of these terms are usually applied to numerical estimates, neither has anything to do with baseball scores.
Fat City- Prosperous circumstances. This is an American slang which originated about the middle of the 20th Century.
To Be On the Go- To be very busy and active. Used to mean a variety of conditions, among them intoxication and imminent catastrophe. Acquired its present meaning in the first half of the 19th Century. Thomas B. Aldrich used it in Prudence Palfrey 1874).
Time Will Tell- Wait and see. This was used in print in 1539 in R. Taverner’s translation of Erasmus. It was a cliché by the time E. H. Porter used it in Pollyanna (1913).
I’m not letting the cat out of the bag, but writing groups are a must for a writer. They offer so much benefit by having contests, workshops, and speakers; not to mention the camaraderie and networking.
Let me put all the cards on the table and say that I belong to a minimum of three writing groups, besides critique groups. I’ve learned so much from belonging to not only the Redwood Writers Branch of the California Writers Club, but Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America. I don’t make it to meetings for the latter two, but Redwood Writers has been so inspirational. I get to rub elbows with fellow writers and learn from them. If it had not been for them, I would have never published my first book and about to do so with the second one.
Writing groups can be very helpful and when I attend a meeting, I come home and feel like writing and writing and writing. I’ve made so many good contacts, learned so much, and have improved my craft that, suffice it to say, I highly recommend joining a writing group.
Do some research, find one near you or one on-line that is close to your genre, and join. Even if you can’t attend the meetings, you will probably still get a newsletter and find contacts that will help you in the future with your writing.
Until next time, keep writing,
Julie
