Klaus Dannenberg
The Robson Ranch library in Denton hosted an afternoon discussion of “Getting Started as an Author,” led by members of the local Writers’ Guild. On May 9, Jan Marx, Mary Jo Belding, Carl Smothers and Jackie Moore, four of Denton’s published fiction authors, shared their very individual approaches to getting started and making progress with an audience of about 25 interested potential authors residing at Robson. The group meets regularly to share progress on their manuscripts and to critique and encourage one another. Despite many differences, they have many key commonalities in their approaches such as writing as a daily habit, outlining and structuring key concepts, proofing and reproofing regularly and reading the text out loud. Each author revealed some personal tricks to overcome writer’s block, a very real phenomenon. Dependent on continuing the level of interest shown for this initial session, the library plans to host similar events in the future. The Denton Campus of Robson is home to at least another ten local authors. And that’s not counting the multitude of hidden gems to be unveiled once the audience gets started!