5:15 pm (PDT) Critique Group Round Table

6:30 pm (PDT) General Meeting Presentation

In person or Zoom

11245 Los Osos Valley Rd San Luis Obispo, CA 93405

Speaker - Patricia Alexander

• "The Power of the Rewrite: Let's Share Tips!"

  How do you know what needs rewriting?

  Come join Patricia Alexander as she leads us with an editor’s eye in an open forum on all the ways you can improve your first draft. Why an open forum? Because Patricia loves the collaborative element of people sharing their wisdom and experience.

  She’ll lead you with categories and examples that will stimulate the conversation and help you make your next rewrite more powerful as you consider important elements, such as:

• • Structure
  • Emotional Honesty
  • Pacing
  • Rhythm
  • Redundancy: Words & Information
  • Word Choice
  • Cutting For Clarity & Elegance
  • Mixed Metaphors
  • Logic Flow
  • Continuity
  • Dialogue: Structure & Authenticity
  • Over-Complicated Sentences
  • Tenses

Patricia Alexander Biography - Award-winning author, columnist, journalist, editor, teacher, inspirational speaker, humorist and freelance writer Patricia Alexander calls her 48-year career “highly eclectic” and fulfilling.

Now living in Paso Robles, Patricia was born and raised in Los Angeles. That’s where she had the classic Cinderella beginning when she stumbled into her first writing job in 1976 working for Rona Barrett when Rona was the Entertainment Reporter on Good Morning, America.

Patricia went on from there to work in animation, advertising, public relations and marketing, while freelancing dozens of articles to magazines and newspapers, including an editorial in the first edition of the Los Angeles Weekly. Eventually she became a stringer and a personal perspective columnist for a small newspaper, and later, for the Ventura County Reporter. A cover story she wrote for the Reporter in early 2000 was picked up by the TV news show 48 Hours, which bought her notes and gave her on-screen credit.

Patricia says she “finally” even wrote a book: The Book of Comforts: Simple, Powerful Ways to Comfort the Spirit, Body & Soul, with her late husband, Michael Burgos. The hard-cover, four-color inspirational book went on to win the Benjamin Franklin Silver Finalist Award for Best Spiritual Book. Patricia is also a trained speaker and workshop leader, with a background in acting and improv.

Along the way, she has started up Writing Support Groups wherever she lives, fulfilling her passion to help other writers work on and complete their projects, guiding them through writing, rewriting, publishing and marketing.

Semi-retired, she currently leads her Writing Supporting Group on Zoom and often edits the books that come out of it.

She says her significant other, Robert, would dispute the semi-retired part – but, hey! Does a writer ever really retire? Nah!

 Round Tables Critique Sessions begin at 5:15 

Terry Sanville and  Mark Arnold will be here to critique your work

Please keep your submission to two pages, typed, 12-point font, double spaced. This is a great—and safe—way to see what the critiquing process is all about, get valuable feedback from two fantastic writers, and practice reading your work to a small audience. 

This is an opportunity to get feedback on your work in progress and practice your constructive critiquing skills. It is also a great way to get to know other writers in our group. You do not have to bring along work to participate. Please keep submissions to double-spaced, 12 font, two pages.

Please email your submissions to Terry and Mark by the Saturday before the session:

Terry: tsanville@sbcglobal.net

Mark: markarnoldphd@gmail.com