DATE & TIME   |  UPDATED Time, second time we are trying this:

• 12:00 pm, Networking
• 12:15 pm, Introductions & Incentives
• around 12:30-12:45 pm, Business meeting (we are not sure how long Intro & Incentives will take)
• 1:30 pm, Let your novel brainstorming begin!

LOCATION   |   Zoom and Community Room at the Burkhardt Library, 4704 Burkhardt Ave., Dayton, OH 45403.

TOPIC   |   Real-Time Brainstorming
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Real-Time Brainstorming Your Novel

This session

Come with your book ideas, and get ready to brainstorm in small-group sessions. Each person has a turn to share where they could use group help brainstorming anything. Are you stuck figuring out a beat in your romance arc? Trying to figure out your characters’ wound? Wondering what moment will drive our two lovers apart, and what will bring them together? Maybe trying to figure out something about their backstory, or situations to throw them into? Which tropes to use? Or maybe it’s the premise itself you’d like help on. What you talk about in your small group is up to you!

What’s said and done in brainstorming stays in brainstorming. This is a safe space to work yourself out of whatever plot hole has stalled you. Members have used these sessions to make great progress on their novels, some of which are currently published!

If you have ever joined us on one of the “Plotting Groups,” monthly sessions, this is the same concept. For those unfamiliar, read on.

To prepare your group to assist you:

• Be prepared to give us background on your premise and the place you’re blocked.
• Be prepared for us to ask additional questions to gain the context we might need to help you.

Bring what you need:

• Whatever you use, bring it with you:
  • Pen and paper?
  • Laptop?
  • Posterboard for mind-mapping?
  • Post-it Notes?
  • Notecards?
• An enquiring mind! Take the ideas in the spirit they are meant, to help unblock you.

Get to work!

Assuming we can break into groups of 4, each member will have approximately 15 minutes to work on the issue or issues they’d like to brainstorm.

Members who are on Zoom, you will be plotting in your own “room” that we will set up. If we have enough members, we will have more than one room. In person, we will break into small groups.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Brainstorming session is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings. For those members who cannot join us in person, join us via Zoom. The password will be posted in the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Google Group, and on the Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this real-time brainstorming via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.