The Stories Behind The Stories - Jennie

Every Wednesday evening, the Lithia girls pour out coffee, tea, or just plain hot water (depending on current tastes/needs/cleanses), as we pour over each other’s weekly writing.

Munching chocolate almond bark, chocolate espresso beans, or chocolate peanut butter Girl Scout cookies, we consider character, conclusion, sequence.

Each girl has her “thing.”

Flanked by high schoolers all day, Julie can’t be tricked. You know when you aren’t sure what to write, so you slap down something, and just keep going? Well, Julie finds that thing, and calls you on it. She gently says, “…I don’t know…” And you’re found out. She’s always right.

Kerry brings inspiration. Self-published, she proves that It can happen!

Marcia puts together a list, a paragraph, a chapter on something as common as a bird, that brings the rest of us to our knees. She’ll give you the one word you’re stuck on: not shuffle, not slide, but – ah! – slip!

Christy is the experienced one, with the agent, the vision, the tools. A master of dialogue, she is also a wealth of information regarding… everything. Christy is our Reason.

It’s a well-balanced group. And not just regarding the writing.

What’s really amazing are the stories behind the stories: the quirky things our kids said that week; our jobs; our lack of jobs; our students, parents, and inability to control the laundry; maybe just a little about the men we love (shhh…). Nothing is sacred: not enemas, rectums, or fears.

There’s a lot of laughing, and often, some tears.

Sure, we’re different. Our pieces span genre and audience. Some of us hand write, while others swear by lap tops. We don’t write the same way, the same length, or even in the same places: Julie can write anywhere but at home, and I can’t write anywhere but home.

There’s “How about putting in…” or “How about taking out…”

There are one-word paragraphs, and five-line sentences.

But there’s also a huge amount of like-mindedness. It’s not uncommon for two or more of us to show up with similar themes, including a pock-marked pursuer, bees, Bo-peep, Picasso, Snow White, emaciation, and llamas.

We meet to see what else we can add to that list, or to see what each other’s characters are doing, or to get our writing cleaned up and flushed out.

That’s what we tell everyone. And it’s mostly true.

But we go for the drinks and the chocolate, too… and to hear what Christy’s son, Hank, said this time.