Last night we celebrated Word Pirates’ slightly belated birthday with a delicious fruit-ladened cheesecake provided by Marcia. Happy one year birthday Word Pirates!

At last night’s meeting we covered a lot. We covered so much that Marcia and I forgot to have people read their work at the beginning of the meeting. First, we talked about our writing goals. It was a productive discussion where each of us said what we want to ultimately do with writing, what we are working on, and our current roadblocks as writers. I plan to e-mail the WPs a list of everyone’s goals once I hear from a few people who weren’t able to make it to last night’s meeting so we’re all up-to-date on this subject.

Secondly, we discussed entering a contest as a group. Joy and Marcia would find an essay contest with a deadline of, say, two months down the road. We would use a prompt to write for the contest, then another meeting to critique each other’s work, and then (hopefully) all submit to the contest by the deadline. The idea is that we will all work together to get our writing out there, and if a WP wins, they get a treat or something!

Everyone liked this idea so there will be more information at the May 17th meeting. Morgan shared some of his experience with submitting to contests and Joy told everyone about the Glamour’s Annual Essay Contest, which has a $10,000 prize and is free to enter. The deadline is July 16 for any interested WPs. Guidelines:

Is there a personal story that defines you, that tells the world about how you became the person you are today? Was it a relationship that surprised you? A journey that inspired you? An obstacle you overcame? We’d love to read about it! Enter it in our nonfiction contest by sending us a typed, double-spaced manuscript of 2,500 to 4,000 words.

After we covered all this, we talked about getting at least one new member for Word Pirates. Since we have had one or two members leave, we are interested in finding a new candidate to join the group. The person must be talented and serious about writing, so if you know anyone who might like to join, let us know.

Finally, the prompt: Write an essay for the Modern Love column of The New York Times. This column takes essays (1,500-2,000 words) about love and family relationships that have an unusual twist or have a connection with what’s going on in culture right now. Some past essays were about a groom being a Groomzilla, a woman being addicted to love and going into treatment for it, and–the one Marcia read aloud–a woman who read her nanny’s blog and started making creepy assumptions about who the girl is based on that. I might be editorializing a bit there. I can’t stand the woman who wrote this essay, but it is honest and interesting. Give it a look and then try your own Modern Love column.

Next meeting is May 17. See you there.

~ Joy