Tuesday,
March
9
Professional
Skills that Make Writer’s Block
Go Away
The writer’s block
demon lurks in every scrivener’s
keyboard. You know the guy: he’s
the fiend who paralyzes your fingers
and injects Halcion into your brain
just as you start what you had hoped
would be a glorious piece of writing.
But fear not, you aren’t doomed
to life in a mental black hole every
time you begin a new project. Our
March speaker, Robert Knight, promises
to banish the demon once and for
all. Knight, who is a freelance writer,
journalist, and writing guru, will
provide proven tools to jump-start
our projects and keep our words flowing.
Knight says that deadline dread often
obscures the benefits of writing
it right from the get-go, so we waste
time by banging out a draft that
will need major revision. His tips
will help us work more efficiently
and get better initial results.
In
his earlier career Knight was an
editor at the late, lamented City
New Bureau of Chicago. He has freelanced
for more than 40 publications and
news services, and he has been a
frequent contributor to The
Chicago Tribune, The Christian
Science Monitor, Reuters, and The
Washington Post. Add to that
stints at teaching journalism, first
at Northwestern and later at Gettysburg
College in Pennsylvania. His book, The
Journalistic Writer: Building the
Skill, Honing the Craft is due
in May from Marion Street Press.
Before
he decamped to Pennsylvania, Knight
was a longstanding member of IWOC,
so he knows where we’re
coming from. Beat the winter blahs
and come on down on March 9 to
get your writing revved up and
welcome back an old friend — or
meet a new one — in the bargain.
The
meeting will be held in Room 5008
at National-Louis University, 122
S. Michigan Avenue (across from the
Art Institute) in Chicago. Networking
with snacks and beverages begins
at 5 p.m., followed by the business
meeting and the program at 6 p.m.
The meeting is free for all IWOC
members. Nonmembers pay $15. Plan
to stay for a buy-your-own dinner
at a nearby restaurant afterwards,
where we'll continue our networking
over dinner.
Tuesday,
April 13
Want your Writing Business
to Stand Out? Put
a Brand on It!
What’s
your brand? No, not the clothes that
you wear or the beer that you drink,
perish the thought. What’s
your writing
business brand? Haven’t
thought about that? Well, you should.
In today’s
crowded freelance marketplace, branding
is key to setting yourself apart
from other writers. Developing
your own brand is a terrific start,
but the next step is crucial too:
Get it out there for everyone to
see. Here’s
where IWOC’s April program
comes in. Jay Rodriguez, an IWOC
member who specializes in using social
media as marketing tools, will demonstrate
how to develop a Facebook fan page
that will trumpet your brand to potential
clients. The demonstration will include
how to use Facebook as a top-of-the-mind
awareness tool that will turn your
Facebook presence into leads and
revenue. Rodriguez will also touch
on the Facebook page that he is developing
for IWOC itself.
The
meeting will be held in Room 5008
at National-Louis University, 122
S. Michigan Avenue (across from
the Art Institute) in Chicago.
Networking with snacks and beverages
begins at 5 p.m., followed by the
program at 6 p.m. The meeting is
free for all IWOC members. Nonmembers
pay $15. Plan to stay for a buy-your-own
dinner at a nearby restaurant afterwards,
where we'll continue our networking
over dinner.
January
Meeting Reprise
 IWOCers
and guests kicked off the new year
with an amusing and entertaining
January program. At the meeting,
University of Chicago whiz kids
Alexander Asiman
(left) and Emmett Rensin
(right) launched the U.S.
book tour for their contemporary
take on classic literature — and
a few not-so-classic ringers — whittled
down to 20-tweet size. We refer,
of course, to Twitterature:
The World’ s Greatest Books
in Twenty Tweets or Fewer,
a book that has already caused
alternate horror and delight
in England, a range that probably
roughly equates to the British
national sense of humor. Now Penguin
has released Twitterature in
this country and we were the first
to experience Homer’s Odyssey at
warp speed. Reading alternate tweets,
Asiman and Rensin dispatched Odysseus’ ten-year
journey in two pages and less than
five minutes. Sample: “Circe
a nut job. Time to go, but the
boat is broken. Can’t afford
a AAA tow. I’ll push it.
Circe turned my men into pigs.
PIGS. Had a laugh.” And so
it went. Not even Helen Keller
escapes parody in Twit,
though we aren’t
going to risk stoning by quoting
any of the tweets. Between readings,
the authors told how they wrote
the book, got an agent, and then
secured a publisher. So we learned
a bit about how the book was launched
as well as having a good time.
LOL.
Holiday
Party Reprise
IWocers
and guests braved swirling snow and
icy winds to reach Café Iberica
for our annual winter holiday soiree.
The festivities — and the food — were
well worth a mite of frostbite. Not
one, but two, Santas showered revelers
with useful gifts. The repast was more
than ample (and delicious); the wine
flowed; and stories abounded. Plus,
everyone got a new-used book to savor.
But the pictures tell it all.
November
Meeting Reprise
Members
and guests filled the seats at the
November meeting as they eagerly awaited
SEO expert Jim Grosspietsch’s
presentation on Search Engine Optimization.
And he more than lived up to expectations.
In a lively, humorous, and fast-paced
discourse, Grosspietsch covered all
the bases, starting with one’s
company name. Yes, that matters. Google
will boost Fiona Flyingfingers Freelance
Writer above The Hotshot Company because
the latter doesn't mention the nature
of the business in the name. But if
you’ve already named your company
for your pet cat, there are plenty
of other opportunities for SEO on your
website, and Grosspietsch touched on
them all. Briefly, you can — and
should — work keywords related
to your work into almost everything
on your website. One of the most helpful
features of the presentation was the
large-screen site depiction, which
Grosspietsch used to show us where
everything should be placed. As the
audience filed out, we heard comments
like, “This is the first time
I’ve really understood SEO” and “This
was one of the best meetings ever.” We
all left vowing to use what we learned
to climb ever higher on the Google
ladder.
October
Meeting Reprise
Dr.
Edward Gordon, an internationally
recognized speaker on U.S. and
global workforce trends, told
a packed house at the October
meeting that while print journalism
is on the decline, future jobs
will be there for those who are
technologically savvy. Gordon
suggested that companies—both
U.S. and foreign—will shift
from outsourcing to in-country
workers, depending on where the
talent pool lies. He expressed
concern that poor schools and
lack of concern in the U.S. will
leave future generations of American
workers at a distinct disadvantage,
and he urged the audience to
become involved in community
groups to work toward solving
the literacy problems in their
areas. Although we had expected
to learn about how writers
could find jobs in the global
marketplace, Gordon made a compelling
case for the urgency of improving
our school systems, and the audience
responded to his message.
September
Meeting Reprise
These
days the buzz is all
about social networking,
and IWOCers and guests
were eager to hear what
speaker Barbara Rozgonyi
had to say about how
to use twitter, LinkedIn,
Facebook, and the like
to build our brands and
strengthen client relationships.
Rozgonyi has parlayed
writing, consultancy
skills, and expertise
in social networking
into a very successful
career, and she had plenty
of advice for fellow
IWOCers and guests. She
covered an amazing amount
of territory in her rapid-fire
presentation. Pencils
flew as people noted
helpful website addresses
and pithy tips. Several
premises stood out: getting
involved on the web — joining
groups, blogging, and putting
comments on others’ blogs — gets
you noticed, and if you do
it right, it can drive traffic
to your website. Another
key point that Rozgonyi emphasized
was that you need to decide
on the persona you want to
project on social media if
you're going to use them
for business purposes. Don't
just join these sites, develop
a coordinated plan.
IWOCFest Reprise
It was a glorious evening and a glorious party. A large crowd of IWOCers and guests gathered on the rooftop of Pegasus restaurant for our annual summer celebration. Everyone was at his or her   convivial best as we munched on Greek delicacies and sipped wine that IWOC generously provided. President Roger Rueff took some marvelous pictures, and we’ll let them tell the rest of the story. Here are just a few of our photogenic party goers. Click here to see the entire photo gallery.
July Meeting Reprise
There wasn't an empty seat in the room as past president Jim Kepler told a rapt audience how we could tak e
material we might have already
written, put it together in book
form, publish it, and then use
the book to promote ourselves for
other jobs. He had a solution for
those who don’t have enough related clips too. It started with "Take a box..." (or a virtual box, i.e., a computer folder). From there he gave us step-by-step instructions on how to compile materials on our topic of interest, how to define our chapters and our focus, and so on. Kepler also had a myriad of tips for shameless promotion using our newly minted book. Hint: if you’ve
never written a press release,
now would be a good time to start.
He advised starting small by sending
press releases to local civic and
social organizations and offering
to be a speaker. From there, you
can parlay the little fish into
bigger fish. To find out more about
this excellent presentation, you
can download or read the detailed
handout on the members-only landing
page.
IWOC
Workshops/Seminars
IWOC
periodically offers workshops and seminars to help writers advance
their skills and/or to introduce them to new fields of writing.
These professional development events are open to the public as well
as to IWOC members. Nonmembers can get a reduced member rate if they
join IWOC on or before the date of the workshop. Watch this space
for upcoming offerings.
IWOC
welcomes nonmembers at these
informal gatherings. Come and
network with fellow writers in
your community. It's best to get
in touch with the contact person
first, though, in case of a time
or venue change.First
Thursday of every month: IWORP
Monthly Breakfast (Independent
Writers of Rogers Park). The
Rogers Park and North Side IWOCers
meet at 9:00 a.m. at the A&T
Grill, 7036N. Clark St., Chicago. For more information,
call Esther Manewith at 773/274-6215.Fourth Thursday
of every month: IWOOP
Monthly Lunch (Independent Writers of Oak Park).
Join near western suburbanites at noon at Poor Phil's, 139
Marion Street, Oak Park. For more information, call Barbara
Dillard at 312/642-3065 or e-mail her at bdbusiness@sbcglobal.net
The
Far North Group and the Streeterville Group are currently
inactive. If you're interested in reviving them — or starting another group — check
out your directory and find others who live in your area.
It's easy to do via e-mail, and the get-togethers are a great
way to get to know other IWOCers better. If you get a group
going, notify webmaster@iwoc.org so we can
post notices of your meetings.
Notices
of Events of Other Organizations
Illinois
Women's Press Association (IWPA)
Next
event TBA.
email iwpa@comcast.net.
International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
Next
event TBA.
Chicago
Women in Publishing (CWIP)
Next event TBA.
Publicity Club of Chicago (PCC)
Next
event TBA.
Online Payments: PCC
accepts credit card payments online
via PayPal. When you click the link
above, you will be taken to a registration
page. Select the type of ticket and
quantity, then click "Check out with PayPal." You
do NOT need to be a PayPal account
holder to use this system.
Chicago Headline Club
Next event TBA.
Midwest
Writers Association
Next
event TBA.
American
Medical Writers Association
No
current information on scheduled events.
Midwest
Society of Professional Consultants (MSPC)
Phone:312-654-2550
(for
directions only)
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