Monday Nighters

Every Monday night I have my writing workshop at AllWriters Workplace and Workshop. Now, most people would wonder why anyone would take a class on a Monday night. Monday's are typically the hardest day of the week to get through and to tack on a two hour class at the end of it would seem like a form of torture. (And because it's a writing class, it would probably be a special kind of torture for some people.)

But it's actually the best part of my Mondays.

I'm in with a great group of people, and we've built quite a rapport between us. We've even developed a nickname of the Mighty Monday Nighters. Part of what makes our group so cool is the unique style, subject and genres of everyone in the group. Listening to their stories from week to week is great fun. In some ways we get to know their story characters as much as we get to know the writer writing them. The group is made up of: (using Aliases)

• Alice -  is currently writing a story about a woman who gets lost in the rain and ends up at the cottage of a suspicious, kind of creepy guy. Alice's first book is finished and is very good, but like I did with Dirty Shirt, she is taking a break from it. She sent it to its room. 
• Diane - is jumping between two projects. Her first project involved writing a cookbook and now she is working on a memoir about her dad who was a cop. She frequently brings food to class, as she's a foodie at heart. She also keeps things light with her humorous interjections.
• Bill - is writing a fascinatingly complex science fiction book about time travel and espionage. He actually left the group for a session to try an online class, but came back because he missed the interaction and feedback of real human beings. His book will grace the shelves of bookstores one day, of that I am sure. 
• Karly - has finished and is marketing a wonderful children's book about a magic tree. I cannot even think in the dimensions she is writing in and her writing is tight and easy to follow. She's just started her second book that involves parallel stories about a tragic event.
• Zoe -  is working on a couple of projects as well. One is a clinical blog dealing with heroine abuse and how to prevent it. The other is a fictional novel that is developing nicely. I love the way she catches her own errors during her reading and laughs at them - as do we. All good writers can laugh at their own mistakes. I know I do!
• Phillip - is working on a couple of love stories gone bad. Its funny because we recognize his character Lydia as being a whacko, but the main character Robert is too, so it makes for a great story. It is great watching his writing get better with every week.
• Jane - recently celebrated her first couple of publications since joining AllWriters. She is writing a variety of things ranging from memoir about her college days to a fictional piece she started after getting inspired by a hunchbacked woman she sees every day at the same time on the street. It's cool to see what inspires different people within the group. 
• Erin - is working on a memoir book from a unique point of view. She has also played around with a story of a boy with cancer that has some interesting twists to it. She has a great "voice" to her writing and even works on poetry here and there. 
• Vickie - is new to the group, but has started a memoir piece about coming over to the US from Italy on a boat as a small girl. Shy at first, we encouraged her to read, and her work was quite good. Can't wait to hear more of her story.
• Danielle - is in near the end of her psychological thriller about a stolen art network.
• Miquel - teaches the course and I can't say enough about his critiques and feedback from week to week. He runs a good class, lets the students critique, corrects when needed, and builds writers up when they need it. 

We are an imperfect bunch, but we're working toward perfection - one comma and point of view slip at a time. We get to laughing so hard sometimes that it's hard to contain. These people tell me what I'm doing wrong, what is good, and what to work on. I'm glad we're together, and on any given week when one of us is not there, the whole group suffers a little. 

They're good people working on becoming great writers. 

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