From the mailing list:

Sorry guys, I dropped the ball with all the baby stuff going on.

Anyway, for those who haven’t heard, Lori and I had our little boy Mason two months early so we’ve been spending all our free time at the NICU. And four days before that James and Dana had their little girl Summer.

So who is next?

As far as the meeting goes, I haven’t prepared anything and can’t attend due to being at the NICU to make sure Mason is bottle fed. So with all that going on and with school starting up and the heat still bearing down on us all, I’m going to call the August meeting cancelled. We’ll make sure to have a big blowout meeting in September, babies optional.

This writing prompt comes from Dianna:

Take (or find) a picture you find interesting. The picture can be a place, a thing, an object, or something abstract. Do not use a picture of a human. With that picture in mind, write a story based on the images and feelings that are conjured in your mind when you look at it.

Submission rules are different for this writing prompt. Submit the story to the mailing list, but do not include the picture. At the next meeting, bring a printed copy of the picture (or send it to me so I can print it) and we’ll try to match up the stories with the pictures. It should be quite entertaining!

Last month we set out to write a collaborative piece of fiction. We split up into three groups, and each group had a piece of the puzzle. The goal was to write a unified story without knowing what the other parts were doing. The result… well, it was very cool!

Here’s the story in all its glory

From James Edward Gray II:

I’ve been reading a book of writing exercises called “What If“. Tim asked me to pick a favorite exercise and send it into the list as this month’s writing prompt. Here is the abridged version of my favorite challenge in the book so far.

The Morning After

A man, getting ready to drive to a friend’s house with his baby daughter, puts the car seat with the baby in it on top of the car while he packs some things in the trunk. He gets into the car and drives off, forgetting the baby on top of the car. The car seat flies off the roof, does a somersault, and lands on the street, upside down. The baby is unhurt.

Write the scene that takes place between the man and his wife at breakfast the next morning: how they behave toward each other, what they say to each other. The reason this scene takes place on the morning after is to let the characters “sleep on it,” instead of starting to shout at each other or cry. They will have examined their life together before they start breakfast. The critical decision you’re asked to make is to how their lives together before yesterday’s incident will affect what they are going through now. Remember that what is not said is often more effective than what is said.

I’m being more pro-active than usual for sending out meeting reminders. If you want to go to any Geek Writers meeting, you’ll want to come this month! It’s going to be quite the departure from our usual format, so come with an open mind, something to write with (preferably a laptop or whatever suits your writing fancy), and a desire to have some fun! I can’t give away too much just yet but it will be a lot more interactive than usual meetings. Bring friends along who might be interested!

The meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 23rd at 6:30pm at the awesome OKC Coworking Collaborative.

Due to some real-life conflicts this month we are going to cancel the May Geek Writers meeting that would be held tonight. Instead we will go ahead with the regularly-scheduled meeting next month, June 23rd. The next meeting is going to be a lot of fun so please try to attend, and encourage your friends to come as well. You won’t regret it! It’s going to be a lot more interactive than our previous meetings as we’re going to do something unheard of for a writer’s group: we’re going to actually write!

I apologize for the short cancelation notice, but things have been very hectic this month with everything going on.

We have a meeting tomorrow night, April 28th 2010 at the OKC CoCo, 6:30pm. Please come out and enjoy the discussion! We’ll have a short presentation over humor in your writing, followed by covering writing prompts and open discussion.

Our March meeting will be THIS WEDNESDAY, 3/24/2010, at 6:30pm. It’s at the usual place, the OKC Coworking Collaborative on 7th and Hudson in beautiful Midtown OKC. We’re talking about using humor in your writing, talking more about Script Frenzy, reading writing prompt submissions, and more! Be prepared to be interactive and have lots of fun!

Our February meeting will be THIS WEDNESDAY, 2/24/2010, at 6:30pm. It’s at the usual place, the OKC Coworking Collaborative on 7th and Hudson in beautiful Midtown OKC. We have an awesome guest speaker lined up, Steve Lackmeyer, writer for The Oklahoman and OKC Central fame. Lori will also be discussing the upcoming Script Frenzy event that will be starting at the beginning of April. It should be our best meeting yet!

From James:

Dana set the writing prompt last night as, “Select a tabloid headline and write a piece assuming it’s totally real.”

The tabloids are pretty much all star gossip these days, which is certainly fine to use if you find something inspiring in that. If you prefer though, there are several ways to go back in time to the more bizarre headlines.

First, you can do a Google Images search for “tabloid headlines:”

http://images.google.com/images?q=tabloid%20headlines

There are also some sites out there that collect some of the classic
headlines:

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/anniversary/35th/n_8568/

http://www.rockthelist.com/2008/10/02/the-35-most-bizarre-tabloid-headlines-ever/

http://www.manofest.com/Content/the-40-funniest-tabloid-headlines-of-all-time.html

Finally, there are tabloid headline generators:

http://tabloidheadlinegenerator.com/

http://thesurrealist.co.uk/standard.php

Just thought I would share the gems I found in my search for the
perfect headline.

James Edward Gray II