BALDWINSVILLE — Baldwinsville Public Library supports local writers through their group, Wordsmiths Writing, the Annual Author Meet and Greet and requesting writing for our COVID Memories Project.
Wordsmiths Writing was activated in December of 2020, at the height of the pandemic when our writing sustained us and the group supported us. Members are diverse: old and young, just starting and experienced (and in between), various genres and vastly varying styles. Each of these differences has become a strength for the group, providing much needed grounding and reality checks.
Wordsmiths Writing meetings consist of news and updates on projects, a discussion about particular aspects of writing and usually a quick writing activity. We’ve participated in various projects like our character-driven Freeform Universal Role-Playing Mission, contributed to our theme-based audio blog and encouraged submissions to contests. We have discussed a variety of topics such as improving dialogue between more than two characters, giving our characters their unique voices and how much description is too much.
Our quick writing activities give us a chance to write, just write, and then read them aloud, without editing. Examples of activities include writing a dialogue between two objects like the moon and sun or a variety of writing prompts such as starting from a random sentence, a Wikipedia entry or obscure words. The activities are usually at the end of the meeting for those who are not yet comfortable with people reading their work.
Wordsmiths Writing meets every Tuesday on Zoom at 7 p.m. If you can’t come to the meetings, you can receive the meeting minutes weekly.
We also support our own creative process by joining the Zoom Weekly Writing Sprints from 7 to 9 p.m. Monday nights. Here we meet online but write the majority of the time on our own work. Having other writers nearby encourages and keeps everyone on task. Writers are the biggest procrastinators!
Writers can also submit work to the 25+1 Anniversary COVID Memories Project. Celebrate our resilience by writing about your experiences during this historic time. You can also submit artwork, crafts or anything that was a part of your COVID experience. All submissions will be displayed during the month of October in the library and on the library’s website.
BPL supports local writers at their Annual Author Meet and Greet on Saturday, Oct. 16. Authors will be in person (pandemic depending) and on Zoom between noon and 3 p.m. Tables will display each author’s work for purchase with the author present. There will also be a six-author panel for discussion and questions.
If you are an author wanting to submit writing, attend the Author Meet and Greet, or want to join Wordsmiths Writing, contact Jacquie Owens at the library at [email protected] or call 315-635-5631.
