Did you know a wealth of wisdom is posted on the MWSA website? Recordings of writer education webinars and presentations made by specialists willing to share their knowledge, all with information on how to draft your story in various genres—from memoirs to short stories to screenplays—provide plenty of food for thought. Let’s review where you can find these nuggets and how you can learn about upcoming virtual events sponsored by our organization.
First, recordings of previous events can be accessed on the MWSA website, usually within one day of the live event. On your computer or smartphone, navigate to https://www.mwsadispatches.com/writers-education, where all is revealed. A link to this URL is also posted on the Facebook MWSA Public Page and in all announcements or invitations.
Currently, on the MWSA website, you can find five presentations by Greg Elliot, screenwriter/author/editor, that address story structure, emotion, and writing for big and small screens. Next is a four-part series by Dawn Brotherton, where she outlines the steps we all should take before drafting a book that we intend to submit to an agent, a publisher, or even to our reviewers. Dawn covers character traits, backstory, point of view, and punctuation (just in case you were not paying attention in High School English). Next, Ruth Crocker addresses Navigating Nonfiction, Jim Tritten has a presentation on Writing Short Stories, and Wendy Meyerhoff walks us through making websites winners.
Clicking the above link will take you to the library of past presentations. What about where to see the next live presentation? If you are a member of MWSA or follow the Facebook MWSA Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/MWSA.MembersPublic/, you should get an eBlast via the email we have in our database, or you should receive a Facebook Notification or invitation to the event. Here is an example of a Facebook posting for our next Writer Education event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1852762208497164/, on Saturday, June 15th, which is also Valdemarsdag—Danish Flag Day. Events are also posted on the MWSA website. Here is a link to the next event: https://www.mwsadispatches.com/events/2024/4/writing-for-screens-big-and-small-part-3
To attend a live event, click on the URL in any announcement or invitation. Right now, that URL is always https://us06web.zoom.us/j/2245629439?pwd=Sk92UXVZNzBpK1Z3NWd1TWtPcUM3UT09, but please check the most current notification to make sure it did not change. Once you click the link, your participation will be like any Zoom meeting. The moderator will mute everyone while the speaker is making the presentation. Questions or comments are best handled by putting them in chat, and they will be dealt with at the end of the presentation by the speaker or the moderator. Once the live event is completed, a link to watch it will be posted to the library, as explained above. Generally, all the slides or other materials used in the presentation are also posted.
Please take advantage of these informative events put on by your organization. Writers Education is a great resource. If you have any suggestions about additional speakers (including yourself) or new topics, contact anyone on the board or, if you like, directly to me at jtritten121@comcast.net.