Wisconsin Regional Writers

Belonging to a writer's club is great. Creative people are so friendly that just being among them will inspire you. I recently attended a WRWA(Wisconsin Regional Writers' Association) Spring Conference. The speakers were very interesting and the Open Mic (microphone) always intrigues me. Anyone can sign up to speak during the Open Mic, with a time limit of four minutes. The benefits are twofold for the novice writer--listening to other writers read a portion of their work is not only inspiring but, if you read a portion of something you wrote, it will help to build confidence in yourself.

The conferences always have a number of very interesting speakers and they also acknowledge contest winners. One of the participants in the Open Mic was a woman who had a winning contest entry. For the Open Mic she read her winning story. The title was A Tight Squeeze. She said it was a true story about herself--and her car. The woman was in her 60's, maybe older--not that age had anything to do with it--but somehow, as she read, it seemed to enhance her story. Somehow she'd gotten her car parked in her garage so close to the wall that she couldn't move it in any direction. Her husband had already left for work, for which she was thankful--apparently this sort of thing had happened before--her husband, she explained wasn't the most understanding person in the world. We all laughed.

Not only was her story well written, but she read it well. After numerous attempts to get out of her predicament failed she called a tow truck. Voile' she was out. And by the end of the day, what had seemed so frustrating earlier now seemed extremely humorous to her and she decided to share it with her husband, which brings the story to it's conclusion. "Only then did I realize," she said, "that my husband, the old coot, didn't have a humorous bone in his body."

The captive audience was in stitches. She had drawn us in. She didn't just tell her story, but with the use of properly placed dialogue she allowed us to walk in her shoes and feel what she felt. It was wonderful.

The WRWA is a writer's club that anyone can belong to. Check it out on http://www.wrwa.net/ I like it because it doesn't take a lot of my time, there are no regular meetings, just two conferences a year and regular contests to take part in. I can be as involved as I want to or just lay back and read their club newsletter that comes out quarterly.