Tag: COFW Program

Aurthor Shari Heinrich

Date: January 17, 2026
Time:

  • 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, Program

LOCATION  |  Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Vandalia branch of the Dayton Metro Library. 330 S Dixie Dr, Vandalia Ohio 45377

FACILITATOR  |  Shari Heinrich

TOPIC  | Our Favorite Writing Craft Books

Cover of the book *Wired for Story* by Lisa Cron. A plethora of marked pages.
Shari Heinrich’s copy of Wired for Story, one of her candidates for bringing in for this session.

The January program will be by our own members. If you have a favorite craft book, and you have a physical copy, bring it with you to the library. You can talk about your e-books, too. If you bring a physical copy, put your name inside it (Post-it Notes work great) or maybe you’ve taken notes in the margins, so you’ll be able to tell it from someone else who loved the same book.

Each person who has a favorite book will get microphone time to talk about it.

Also, if you’re willing, pass it around the room. Apologies to the folks who will zoom in, as they’ll miss that part.

Some ideas of what you could talk about, but really, anything you want to cover is great:

  • Title, author
  • Is it still available? Or maybe you know it’s no longer in paperback, but e=book still exists.
  • Why you recommend this book.
  • Got a favorite passage? Share it.
  • If you think it’s better for someone in the beginning of their writing career, later, or anytime, share that, too.
  • If you’ve got several favorites, bring them. Depending on how many bring books, we may have time to do a “second” round. If we still have time and members are eager to keep hearing about books.

At the end of the meeting, make sure you have the books you started with!

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Meeting 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 presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com before end of day the Thursday before the meeting. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social half hour through the business meeting and this program.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

 

About our Facilitator

Shari Heinrich is our 2025 and 2026 President. She writes young adult fantasy populated by characters full of sass and heart. She’s querying Queen of Wands, where teen thief Angela makes the unforgivable mistake of falling for her mark and activating the family’s curse to the ancient Egyptian goddess of retribution. If she can’t break the curse, she’ll never know if she really loves him, or if it’s the curse.

Shari is an award-winning author. She has been published in Conclave Magazine. She has placed first in several writing contests. Her best award is placing 18th of 4,650 participants in the 2019 New York City Midnight Short Story Challenge. Most recently, she placed first in the WriterCon Unpublished young adult division with her campfire tale, “Want a S’more?”

Contact Shari: www.ShariHeinrich.com

DATE  |  August 16th, 2025

TIME  |

  • 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, Speaker (Zoom)

LOCATION  |  Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Room 2A at the Hilliard Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, Ohio.

SPEAKER  | Nat Connors

TOPIC  | Book Marketing as Storytelling: Finding your Neighborhood.

Getting your story to readers starts with the cover and blurb—but authors often struggle to communicate their story elements to their audience. In this session, you’ll learn simple techniques for aligning your story, cover, and blurb, ensuring that readers clearly understand what you’re offering. We’ll use a series of examples from romance, mystery and fantasy, and this material is applicable across all genres.

Key Points:

– Align Your Story with Market Expectations: Learn how to create a cover and blurb that resonate with your target audience while highlighting what makes your book stand out.

– Market Awareness Tools: Discover a set of free resources that will help you stay attuned to trends and shifts in your genre and ‘neighborhood’ of the market.

– Ongoing Market Strategy: Understand how to evolve with your genre and adapt your marketing approach to suit your style and career stage.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation 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 presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.

About Our Speaker

Nat is a small-town romantic comedy writer, (former) medical scientist and (mostly-former) dance teacher, and also makes the Kindletrends newsletter for genre fiction authors. Kindletrends started when Nat got fed up with trying to make sense of the Kindle Store, and wanted a no-nonsense summary of the most important information. He shared it with other authors, and now a bunch of people are getting value from it. Nat works at writing every day, and uses this information to help outline, write and publish – so it has to be focused, relevant and actionable.

DATE  |  November 16th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 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, Speaker


LOCATION   |   Meeting will be Hybrid via Zoom and Community Room at the Burkhardt Library, 4704 Burkhardt Ave., Dayton, OH 45403. This is in the Dayton Metro Library System. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Beth Morrow & Self-Care for the Creative Soul: How to Create a Mindfulness Practice to Support Your Writer Self. Presenting in person, so long as weather permits travel, otherwise, via Zoom.

Self-Care for the Creative Soul:

How to Create a Mindfulness Practice to Support Your Writer Self

If you’ve ever dreaded facing the page, struggled with critical self-talk, writer’s block, or procrastination, you know there’s more to the writing process than getting words on the page. Learning to tune into the rhythms, flow, and habits of our unique process through mindful practices can help us avoid burnout and navigate the emotional challenges of embodying our creative self.

Bring your journal and join me for this interactive workshop where we will cultivate an awareness and appreciation of what fuels our creative souls through:

  • journaling,
  • meditation, and
  • mindful breathwork.

We’ll use exercises and prompts designed to discover and clarify what your creativity needs most for a sense of peace, connection, and ease. You’ll return to your writing refreshed and restored, with a list of strategies and resources to support you in bringing your most authentic self to the page.

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

Presentation is free for members and prospective members who have not yet visited for two complimentary meetings.

We encourage you to be in person if you can! This speaker will be at the library, ready to help us develop a practice to keep  us healthy and creative as we write.

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 presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com.

Dayton Public Libraries do allow food and drinks.

 

About Our SpeakerBeth Morrow is a white woman with brown hair. She's wearing a purple top with white sleeves, and clasping her hands in namaste.

Beth Morrow, M.Ed., is a teacher and author who loves to explore the intersection of meditation and an embodied creative life. Her journey to mindfulness teaching began with learning yoga through videos then joining a studio for deeper study. Introduced to Zen meditation through a workshop, the profound spiritual and emotional healing she experienced lingered for over a decade and led her to earning a yoga teaching certification. Longing to return to meditation for healing after her husband’s death, the lack of meditation opportunities around her prompted her to leave the middle school classroom and become a meditation teacher herself. 

She has since studied yoga nidra, Taiji, (Tai Chi), and reiki, and is completing work for her 500-hour meditation certification from the Radiance Sutras School of Meditation.

Beth currently teaches meditation and restorative and yin yoga in venues in Columbus, Ohio. Creating safe, comfortable spaces that invite students to slow down and relax into the innate wisdom of the self through the breath is what she loves most. 

Contact Jules: You can find her

 


The October 19, 2024 program is by romance writer Siera London. Find all the details at cofwevents.org

DATE  | October 19th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 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, Speaker

LOCATION   |    Zoom and a room on the first floor of Hilliard Branch, pass the coffee stand, turn left, first hall on the right, one of the rooms on the left, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions. Speaker will be via zoom.
TOPIC   | Siera London: Scenes & Sequels

Scenes & Sequels

This Session

Goal, motivation, and conflict aren’t enough. Great storytelling includes characters who battle and triumph—a dynamic mix of internal and external conflicts to reach their ultimate goal.

But unputdownable fiction is more than a GMC chart. How your character reacts to each challenge creates a three-dimensional persona whose fictional journey communicates a message of our human existence that resonates through a wide cross-section of readers.

Join USA Today Bestselling Author Siera London as she explores scene and sequel structure in popular fiction.  

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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 members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social half hour through the business meeting and this program.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

 

About Our Speaker

Siera London, USA Today best-selling author, is a black woman with curly black hair. She is wearing a white sweater and wearing a pendant.

Siera London writes about Sassy, Sensual heroines and the Alpha Males that love them, flaws and all. She is the author of twenty-two contemporary fiction novels and novellas. She is a native Floridian who served 22 years in the United States Navy as a registered pediatric nurse practitioner and nursing clinical instructor before deciding to focus on her writing career. Her debut novel, Chasing Ava, was an Amazon Best Seller in the contemporary romance and women’s fiction category.

Siera currently lives in the northern Virginia with her husband and their color patch tabby kitten named Frie. Her love of coastal towns and bustling cities shines through in her sassy and sexy storytelling.

She is a pet lover at heart. She would gladly welcome more furry friends into the household; however, she had to guilt her husband into the tabby.

When she’s not writing she loves to get lost between the pages of a great book and travel.

Learn more about Siera at her website.

Jen Devon is a white woman with brown hair, tied up towards the top of her head. She wears glasses as wide as her face, and a white blouse with blue flowers.

DATE & TIME: September 14th 2024

  • 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, Speaker

LOCATION   |   Zoom and Community Room at Vandalia Branch of the Dayton Metropolitan Library.

Dayton Metropolitan Library, Vandalia Branch
     Location Address: 330 South Dixie Drive.
     Room: Community Room

SPEAKER   | Jen Devon, via Zoom
TOPIC   |   Voice in Dual POV Romance 

Voice in Dual POV Romance

This session

In this workshop, Jen will talk about the ways she:

  • Enhances characterization via POV techniques
  • Differentiates character voice and internal monologue between multiple narrators / main characters
  • Tailors the narrative to a particular POV
  • Determines which character’s POV a chapter should be
  • Deepens POV

Get ready for a program that feels more like a casual conversation. Jen will talk about her own strategies and techniques. No dry lecture, no mandate from on high “this is how you do it”. She’ll settle in, talking about things that work for her, while encouraging us to be mindful of our own writing identity, so that we can adapt it to our own vibe, needs, and aptitudes. 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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 members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social and introductions through the business meeting and this program.

Dayton Public Library System allows food and drinks.

About Our Speaker

Jen Devon is a white woman with long brown hair. She wears glasses as wide as her face, and is wearing an off-white sweater.

I’m Jen. I’m a former ecology academic turned professional photographer turned software support pro moonlighting as an author. I’m a lifelong lover of scary movies and romance novels, both of which I was probably first exposed to far too young. But the pre-teen heart wants what it wants, and my angsty little Xennial heart wanted terror and lusty pining. I think Ripley and Hicks should have kissed, Ben Solo deserved better, and Disney should’ve given Elsa a girlfriend.

I love: campfires, Hot Tamales, sour cream as a French fry condiment, the smell of used bookstores, World of Warcraft, single-origin coffee, my 85mm f/1.8G camera lens, public radio, Hefeweizen, slipper socks, boardgames, marching bands, hiking, traveling with my family, fun hats, and people who don’t take themselves too seriously.

I’m married to a hot nerd who I met on the Internet, and now twenty years later we’re raising three bright, feminist, kick-ass kids. We also have two ill-mannered rescue mutts – I’d have a whole pack of them (dogs, not kids) if I could, but there’s only so much room on the bed, you know?

I’m an adult-diagnosed ADHD’er, an outgoing introvert and occasional foulmouth (apologies to my mom, my dad, my kids’ teachers, and the hosts of any panels or podcasts I’m a guest on), a Gandalf stan, thrift store enthusiast, nonsense repudiator, kindness evangelist, and unapologetic dirt-lover. I think the world would be a better place if everyone read romance novels.

Learn more about Jen at her website.

 

Join COFW 8/17/24 for "How to Attract Book Clubs to You and Your Book," by DiAnn Mills.

DATE  | August 17th, 2024

TIME  |
  • 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, Speaker

LOCATION   |    Zoom and Hilliard Room of Hilliard Branch, Columbus Metropolitan Library, 4500 Hickory Chase Way, Hilliard, OH 43026. See below for further instructions. Speaker will be via zoom.
TOPIC   | DiAnn Mills: How to Attract Book Clubs to You and Your Book

Book Clubs and Your Book

This Session

Writers love to have their books featured by book clubs. We’re excited for, passionate about, and longing for readers to enjoy a new adventure. We might think that should be enough for book clubs to jump onboard our book, but we can thrill them even more by offering ways to enjoy the book within a book club.

In our time together, we will dive into the following topics to make sure each writer is professional and organized:

  • Rule #1: Write a Good Book.
  • What is a Book Club?
  • What Do Readers Look for in a Book?
  • How Do Writers Select the Best Book Club Fit for Their Book?
  • Where do you find Book Clubs?
  • The Mechanics of Getting Organized.
  • How to Create a Book Club Kit – Step by Step.
  • Resources to Make the Writer’s Job Fun and Easy.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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 members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social half hour through the business meeting and this program.

Per library policy, “Prepared food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed in meeting rooms.”

 

About Our Speaker

DiAnn Mills is a white woman with short-cropped reddish brown hair. She's wearing a green long-sleeved top and sitting on a bench.

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels with threads of romance. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone’s story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?
Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards, Golden Scroll, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests.
DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, an active member of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, and International Thriller Writers. DiAnn continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.
DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is active online and loves to connect with readers on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, BookBub, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

Learn more about DiAnn at her website.

This graphic contains the same details for the meeting as on this page. The photographs are, left to right, Sheila Redling and Tobi Doyle. Sheila is a white woman with blond hair gently curling towards her face. She's wearing a blude denim shirt. Tobi is a white woman with long curly black hair. She's wearing glasses, and a dark blouse.

DATE & TIME: July 13th 2024

  • 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, Speaker

LOCATION   |   Zoom Community Room at Huber Heights Library. 6243 Brandt Pike, Huber Heights, OH 45424.
SPEAKER   | Tobi Doyle & Sheila Redling, in person!
TOPIC   |   Build a mystery using the Intensive Genre Workshop Story Magic Cards. 

Build a Mystery – IGW Story Magic Cards

This session

Join Sheila Redling and Tobi Doyle of Intensive Genre Workshop (IGW) for a workshop on building a mystery story. We’ll be using our Story Magic cards to help you create and understand what makes a mystery a mystery, how to create a story, and much more. Open to all, from curious writer to seasoned pro who just wants to brush up on their writing craft skills.

Unlock and Unblock Your Creativity

Story cards are more than writing prompts, they help strengthen your writing craft skills. Mix and match the twelve categories to practice your writing skills, build better characters, and even create a story! Unlimited ways to use these cards and categories. Great for writing groups and writing solo. We have a primary pack ($50) and a romance expansion pack ($10).

You can practice breaking open tired stereotypes, deepening your vocabulary for setting and emotion, even for plotting a whole story. 

Read even more about our Story Cards at our website, or watch the video we recorded of us in action, brainstorming after we’ve drawn our story cards.

Library rules prevent any sales from occurring on site, so if you’d like to acquire a set, please email AskIGW@gmail.com for how to pay in advance. Tobi and Sheila would hand off to you at the library.

About Our Speakers

Take a best-selling author and pantser, Sheila Redling, and a die-hard plotter, Tobi Doyle, who created content for the Romance Writers of America “Guide to Writing Romance” Pen to Paper program, add some wine, some audacity, some feminine power and you’ve got Intensive Genre Workshops—a place where genre writers, whether plotters or pantsers or anyone in between—will find resources that they can apply TODAY! Reality check: it’s loosely curated chaos, but the takeaways are fabulous. Today they’re happy to share their Build-A-Mystery workshop.

Sheila Redling, writing as SG Redling, is the author of nine novels of pure mayhem, including the bestselling thrillers FLOWERTOWN and the Dani Britton series. She is the co-founder of Intensive Genre Workshops and was the recipient of the 2022 WVLA literary merit award.    

Tobi Doyle, A hybrid romance author, has published over a dozen romance books. She writes HEAs with heat and humor, romantic suspense, and cozy mysteries. She is the recipient of the 2022 Romance Writer of America PRO Mentor of the Year, and a Service Award for her work on RWA’s Pen to Paper, a guide to romance writing.

Join IGW for their conference, August 17-18, 2024, details available at their website

Join COFW June 15 for Instagram Business Account Basics

DATE & TIME:

  • 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, Speaker

LOCATION   |   Zoom and Whitehall Library, 4445 E Broad St., Columbus, OH 43213. We will be in Room 3. Directions from Dayton: I-70 to I-670 E in Columbus; I-670 E to 5th Avenue exit; turn right on 5th Avenue to Yearling Road; turn right on Yearling Road to Broad Street; turn left on Broad Street. Library will be on the right (south),
SPEAKER   |   Marisa Dillon via zoom.
TOPIC   |   Instagram Business Account Basics

Instagram Business Account Basics

This session

Would you like to earn more than hearts from your Instagram account? Learn what to include on your business account profile, including how to direct your followers to your books, website and more in this presentation by Marisa Dillon.

Instagram is constantly evolving, and you have to evolve with it. In this presentation, marketing professional Marisa Dillon will help you learn how to earn more than hearts from your Instagram followers.

In this virtual workshop, Marisa will explain:

  • What your Instagram business account profile should include.
  • How you should determine what type of content to share.
  • What Insta stories you should highlight.
  • The top five reel topics for authors.

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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 members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social and introductions through the business meeting and this program.

It is unknown if the library permits food and drinks. You might google the library and find out, before bringing food and drink in.

 

About Our SpeakerMarisa Dillon is a white woman with long brown hair. She is holding a book about Celts, and is seated with what looks like a castle door behind her.

Marisa Dillon’s fascination with historical places started at an early age. Add in a love of all things romantic, a passion for writing, and a fully charged laptop, and you’ll find her creating adventures not for the faint of heart.

Marisa is the author of The Ladies of Lore, a three-book Tudor romance series distributed by Soul Mate Publishing. And she will have a new Regency Era release this Spring called The Duchess Heist.

Learn more about Marisa at her website.

Building a Following as a Writer Means Thinking Like a Business Owner, the April 13, 2024 program, for COFW by Gery Deer

DATE  | April 13th, 2024

TIME:
  • 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, Speaker

LOCATION   |    Zoom and  Meeting Room of Urbana Public Library, 1060 Scioto St, Urbana, OH 43708-2228. Room is just to the right as you enter the library. See below for further instructions.
TOPIC   | Gery Deer: Building a Following as a Writer Means Thinking Like a Business Owner

Building a Following

If you want to build your reader base, join us!

Expert Gery Deer will provide tips for building your brand and answer questions about promoting yourself and your work.

 

Attending Our Hybrid Meeting

This program 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 members-only Central Ohio Fiction Writers Facebook page.

If you are not a COFW member and wish to attend this presentation via Zoom, email cofwpresident@gmail.com. Please note, the link spans from the moment we open the room to the social and introductions through the business meeting and this program.

It us unknown if the library permits food and drinks. 

 

About Our Speaker

Gery Deer is a white man with blond hair, wearing glasses

As Gery says, “I can’t give you my biography, I’m not done with it yet.” So our webmistress had to hunt for information. Here’s what she’s found. Gery Deer is the CEO and PR Director of GLD Communications. He has been a freelance journalist since 1987. He’s been nominated for multiple journalism awards, including a 2010 Pulitzer Prize nomination.

Gery is a writer, an entrepreneur, a speaker, a bullwhip artist, a coach, a cyclist, and more.

Learn more about Gery and his PR firm at his website.

Join COFW March 16 for Real-Time Brainstorming, where you work on your novel in small-group sessions

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
.

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.