Another Camp Night Success
New Small Groups Formed
By Al Karr, WIW Member
An exuberant crowd of nearly 100 people attended the second annual WIW
Small Groups Camp Night July 8 at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church
in Washington, D.C.—an increase of 15 participants from last year’s
Camp Night and evidence of the concept's enthusiastic support. The Small
Groups themes ranged from memoirs to short stories and from historical
fiction to nonfiction.
“The evening was notable for the instinctive motivation of the
crowd,” said Small Groups Committee Chairperson Janet Lowenbach.
Assistant Chairperson Cathy Kreyche emceed this year’s
Camp Night and kept the event moving along by answering questions from
the audience as the new Small Groups were formed.
WIW President Joe Barbato opened the Camp Night program,
noting a giant sculpture that had just gone up in north London, consisting
of a table and a chair the size of a house. The sculpture was a tribute
to the loneliness of writing. The steel and wood used in the sculpture “just
stood there—30 feet high on Hampstead Heath—looking lonely,” Barbato
said. “Without a doubt, writers do their work in isolation. But
sometimes they must come out and connect with others. It energizes us
for when we must return to our own tables and chairs.” Calling
the Small Groups program “the very heart of WIW,” Barbato
said “it is a great chance for writers to come out of their isolation,” to
share ideas, find sounding boards and offer mutual support. “Many
members have told me they could not have succeeded in their writing without
the encouragement of people in their Small Groups,” he said.
Creating new genre or location-oriented Small Groups was the night’s
biggest accomplishment; well over a dozen new ones were organized. Some
of the existing Small Groups were represented, such as the 20-year-old
Springfield (Va.) Writers Group, Free to Be Freelance and Corporate Writers
Group. New Small Groups formed on the spot included Living Alone, Working
Alone; Chevy Chasers; Online Forum; Northern Virginia; Creative Nonfiction;
Nonfiction; and Technical Writing.
About half of the Camp Night attendees were nonmembers. Fourteen attendees
joined WIW that evening. One member renewed.
A nonmember, Katherine Lewis, of Potomac, Md., won
the grand door prize—a one-year free membership. Lewis is a journalist,
but wanted to join a fiction Small Group to get help in that genre. “I
write for a living, but in the area of fiction, I’m a beginner,” she
said.
Other participants won books contributed by members: Boss Tweed by Kenneth
D. Ackerman, Forbidden Loves by Patricia
Daly-Lipe and The Last Domino by Adam Meyer.Emory
Hackman donated The Testament by John Grisham and Sharyn
Bowman Greberman contributed an Agatha Christie bundle, The
A. B. C. Murders (a Hercule Poirot novel) and The Mirror Crack’d.
Nancy Dunne, from Crystal City, Va., typified the spirit
of the evening. She said that as a former journalist, she is accustomed
to working with people around her. She attended Camp Night and joined
a new nonfiction Small Group. “I wanted to be in some groups, because
I feel very lonely at home,” she said.
Others were there to ask for help with getting their novels published. Sara
Tinlin, of Kensington, Md., has been in a Greenbelt, Md.,
group that wouldn’t criticize her manuscript, and said, “I
want a harder-hitting group.” But hopefully, she added, not like
the Writer’s Center, which “really tore into it.”
Adam Meyer said a Small Group provided the “Goldilocks
effect” while he was writing his novel The Last Domino—telling
him when his writing was “too dark” or “too nice” or “just
right.”
Ken Ackerman, who has written three nonfiction books,
said writing in isolation isn’t a good model. “Writing is
a form of communication." Good advice and questioning is needed
from outsiders in a Small Group, who won’t be overly “nice,” like
friends and family usually are, he said.
Susan Hodges, who leads the Corporate Writers Group,
spoke about the benefits of Small Groups to a writer. She said she had
a chance to bid on a book project. After joining a five-person writing
Small Group, all her questions were answered in one meeting. She found
out how to structure a bid, what to say and not say and she won the bid
18 months ago. She has written four books so far, pulling in $40,000.
Lowenbach, who founded the Free to Be Freelance Group, offered useful
tips to Small Groups leaders, encouraging Camp Night participants to “take
on that delicious role” of being a Small Groups leader. The role
was rewarding, she said, even though writers in Small Groups are difficult
to manage. “They want to get together, but they don’t want
to commit,” she said. She said that leaders should find out what
the Small Group wants, and then “add their mark on achieving the
goals strategically.” A Small Group’s leader has to keep
the Small Group on schedule, rein in excessive talkers, and allow new
members to join, because they “add new spirit and keep things moving
forward when less ambitious members begin to drop out,” she said.
Camp Night was planned and managed by the Small Groups Committee, whose
members include Lowenbach, Hodges, Hackman, Greberman, Meyer, Kreyche, David
Stewart, Harriet Dwinell,Larry Lesser,Laurie
Stahl, Mel Greberman,Linda Adams,Ellen
Faris,Frances Aubrey, Al Karr, Barbara Rosenblatt and Alice
Barrett Mack.
Kreyche received the 2005 WIW Small Groups Leadership Award for her
contributions as emcee, PR director and assistant chairperson.
Board members in attendance included President Barbato, Past-President John
Blair, Beth Duris and Meyer |