Fiction Writing Los Angeles
Join writing communities in Los Angeles and enhance your craft
Shut Up & Write!™ West LA - Mar Vista Public Library
Mon, Nov 9, 5:50 PMJoin us for an hour (or up to ninety minutes) of uninterrupted writing! Whatever you're working on - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, PR, script writing, anything! - join other like minded writers and scribble at **THE MAR VISTA BRANCH OF THE LA PUBLIC LIBRARY,** **12006 Venice Blvd., in the Mar Vista neighborhood of LA** LIBRARY INFO: We start at 10:00 when the library opens, meeting in the conference room immediately to your right when entering through the parking lot doors. We stop at 11, 11:15 or 11:30 (depending on attendees schedule), and then we invite everyone to share (if they want) a few sentences, without any intro or explanation. After that, we're open for any kind of writerly questions, discussions, sharing of struggles or successes. SCHEDULE: 10:00 - Timer starts: write for pre-determined amount of time Finish - Share some sentences if you want, chat, take off or, if you're on a roll, stay for a while and continue to write. LEAVING EARLY IS OKAY, no need to apologize or explain. We're a casual group and happy you'll be with us - also, **no need to RSVP thru MeetUp - just show up!** **The only time our MeetUp is cancelled is on ALL Monday holidays because the library is closed.** Parking is easy behind the library and there is also paid street parking. Cafe Laurent is moving out of the area and SUAW will miss them!
Shut Up & Write!™ West LA - Mar Vista Public Library
Mon, Nov 16, 5:50 PMJoin us for an hour (or up to ninety minutes) of uninterrupted writing! Whatever you're working on - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, PR, script writing, anything! - join other like minded writers and scribble at **THE MAR VISTA BRANCH OF THE LA PUBLIC LIBRARY,** **12006 Venice Blvd., in the Mar Vista neighborhood of LA** LIBRARY INFO: We start at 10:00 when the library opens, meeting in the conference room immediately to your right when entering through the parking lot doors. We stop at 11, 11:15 or 11:30 (depending on attendees schedule), and then we invite everyone to share (if they want) a few sentences, without any intro or explanation. After that, we're open for any kind of writerly questions, discussions, sharing of struggles or successes. SCHEDULE: 10:00 - Timer starts: write for pre-determined amount of time Finish - Share some sentences if you want, chat, take off or, if you're on a roll, stay for a while and continue to write. LEAVING EARLY IS OKAY, no need to apologize or explain. We're a casual group and happy you'll be with us - also, **no need to RSVP thru MeetUp - just show up!** **The only time our MeetUp is cancelled is on ALL Monday holidays because the library is closed.** Parking is easy behind the library and there is also paid street parking. Cafe Laurent is moving out of the area and SUAW will miss them!
LWS December Book Club: Theme 'WRITERS' Vote Now!!
Fri, Dec 11, 2:30 AMFor December our theme is an easy one, mostly because writers often will write what they know, and what do they know best? Writers, of course. So many books written about authors in all genres, it's impossible to choose just one, but you're going to have to! Please CAST YOUR VOTE for one of the seven nominees in the comments below. I'll announce the selection at our next meeting! I've added the Amazon links for further research. And the nominees are.... **1\. ORIANA by Anastasia Rubis \(Historical Fiction\)** Oriana Fallaci was born a rebel. She fought beside her father at age fourteen in Italy's Resistance against the Nazis and overcame poverty, the lack of a university education, and relentless sexism in the newsroom. By 1973 when she moved to New York, Oriana Fallaci was hailed by Newsweek as the greatest interviewer of her day. She became famous for her courageous and hard-hitting interviews with Kissinger, Arafat, Meir, Khomeini, and other world leaders—not to mention the most prominent celebrities and artists of her day. That same year, 1973, she did what no journalist is supposed to do: she fell in love with one of her subjects, Alexander Panagoulis, the Greek poet and hero. Oriana had finally found what she longed for: a full life. But can a woman ever have it all, or does life always exact a price? **[Amazon Link](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Studios-Brilliance-Oriana-Fallaci/dp/B0DJRMDB9K/ref=sr_1_3?crid=2X953P4MGSY8F&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.mhv2NsZGpdqinchuTMPH_8XHiW_BMj-NvkhYOEor1ldTcGz3CTLu7S0jZ2Jc-GYaMgr9YtLF8Ehn7PqFg9Ge86UIeYfrRP34CltmJB3nq7k-CmAXkfAhXViJLcD48wvnzTx_XbP-vXi61NgMA6cdV015okMdsyKKwMMYo1wvytWgCW7d9gcJnq8mqLcIu61m4swGW32tz621bdghCSd3zWBPnlMb6TptuwcqbxVtMSXXb4VpxkRoYHr51NjI8p46D0gFRD1VcqdecPc1r-FH_Bmt30o18W4Zk5YmkNP4Bls.a8-RB22SaUUTitiwJv69dav4RjUkipYD_CyAG57JJcQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=oriana&qid=1793395635&sprefix=oriana%2Caps%2C278&sr=8-3)** **2\. Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus \(Fiction\)** It’s 1982, New York City. Crime is on the rise, muggings are in the streets, and Batter Gray, recent college graduate with a skill that no one wants—an “ear” for poetry—is worried about his future. While all of his friends have real jobs, he’s folding T-shirts at the Gap. As for love? No. Not unless you count Sallie Mae, the student loan tyrant. He hears from Sallie all the time. But when Batter gets a dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, his life moves into the literary fast lane. Soon Batter is knee-deep in the secret war between the two Editors-in-Chief, the famous Peck brothers—twins and enemies—as well as being privy to the private affairs of their thirty-nine editors, whose professed mission is the same: Find originality. Reward creativity. Burn the rest. And by burn, they mean incinerate. Because at Peck & Peck, “good” isn’t good enough, “interesting” doesn’t cut it, plagiarists aren’t tolerated, and parolees run the mailroom. Still want to submit your poem? Go with God.[ ](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Peck-A-Novel/dp/B0GNM1B6BW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W3TH5LVKC1BX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Pe1khXFP5Yxw1GM7BeGhzBuwNJOSkeAnHgP1hQmXIwjrN_9hmSn0XjLkX4BgphHiUsfjjXlArrLnJ4AzFZ5zRpfd3c6lxOG4jSY53JGM17xNEzamCIFwvkq4nzxwezYKZ_xbqP3S_Niw4klLtyusN3f-jXHNOlruXLKC_WetSQpRGdVpjBaRV5c0wGp2_RZMaMNPPoeYHYp9I6wnwJZvSNEF4ZOVXofHUlsnZnJUdJk.KF6rh7mtzmLcxKaEjaGyh5vnexcY393vs33mc8HCCLQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=peck+and+peck&qid=1793395839&s=audible&sprefix=peck+and+peck%2Caudible%2C220&sr=1-1)**[Amazon Link](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Peck-A-Novel/dp/B0GNM1B6BW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2W3TH5LVKC1BX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Pe1khXFP5Yxw1GM7BeGhzBuwNJOSkeAnHgP1hQmXIwjrN_9hmSn0XjLkX4BgphHiUsfjjXlArrLnJ4AzFZ5zRpfd3c6lxOG4jSY53JGM17xNEzamCIFwvkq4nzxwezYKZ_xbqP3S_Niw4klLtyusN3f-jXHNOlruXLKC_WetSQpRGdVpjBaRV5c0wGp2_RZMaMNPPoeYHYp9I6wnwJZvSNEF4ZOVXofHUlsnZnJUdJk.KF6rh7mtzmLcxKaEjaGyh5vnexcY393vs33mc8HCCLQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=peck+and+peck&qid=1793395839&s=audible&sprefix=peck+and+peck%2Caudible%2C220&sr=1-1)** **3\. Fruit Fly by Josh Silver \(Fiction/Thriller\)** A washed-up author will stop at nothing to claw her way back to relevancy—even if it means appropriating a young gay man's tragic story. Mallory Maddox is buried under seven years of writer's block. With her status as a literary sensation fizzling, she'll do anything she can to resurrect her career. Inspiration needs to strike—and fast. Enter Leo. He's a struggling addict sleeping under bridges and trading sex for survival. He's vulnerable. He's enigmatic. He's exactly what Mallory has been looking for. Mallory needs Leo if she wants another bestseller. The world needs Leo's story right now, and Mallory believes she deserves to tell it. Really, it's her story—she's the one who wrote it, after all. But as secrets threaten to unravel more than just her career, Mallory must decide how far she will go to pen the perfect story. **[Amazon Link.](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Fruit-Fly/dp/B0GTMWCGRW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S7HXM6SZWC87&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ilgTMIugM5aBn24Txyq3bQ.0_vMcMdWKHwxRSV_qxYAMtn92XJyN-Sjhqcs_q0Py5I&dib_tag=se&keywords=fruit+fly+josh+silver&qid=1793395940&s=audible&sprefix=fruit+fly%2Caudible%2C224&sr=1-1)** **4\. I See You've Called in Dead by John Kenney \(Fiction\)** Obituary writer Bud Stanley isn’t really living his best life. He’s fallen into a funk after a divorce. (She left him for another man, who, in fairness, was far more interesting.) He’s not doing his job well. He’s given up on dating. And he’s about to be fired for accidentally publishing his own obituary one mildly drunken night (though technically the company can’t legally fire a dead person). As Bud awaits his fate at work, he does the only logical thing: He goes to the wakes and funerals of total strangers to learn how to live again. **[Amazon Link](https://www.amazon.com/See-Youve-Called-Dead-Novel/dp/B0DC7V6RMG/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AsBZXT3w8DpcG7OCvy3lWvShF12CEwXf6hgS6Ixmsd8.5sLxrQt2eREruZ1Ef9YiHUVduG6ZFsfh7hc_HNJhZXk&qid=1793396057&sr=1-1)**[ ](https://www.amazon.com/See-Youve-Called-Dead-Novel/dp/B0DC7V6RMG/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.AsBZXT3w8DpcG7OCvy3lWvShF12CEwXf6hgS6Ixmsd8.5sLxrQt2eREruZ1Ef9YiHUVduG6ZFsfh7hc_HNJhZXk&qid=1793396057&sr=1-1) **5\. Ghost Town by Tom Perrotta \(Fiction\)** Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey, a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy finds himself lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family, drifting instead into troubling friendships with two older teenagers: one a notorious local burnout with a fast car, an endless supply of weed, and a shaky grasp of reality; the other a smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board, which may just offer the only salve to their grief. As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is torn between the occult beyond and the cold realities of the place he has called home. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Ghost Town is an “emotional wallop [that] nails the restless ennui of adolescence” (People), revealing how the past haunts the present and the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we’ve left them behind. **[Amazon Link](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Ghost-Town-A-Novel/dp/B0FCYTSWCC/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QW17IW6OLM15&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.uPjPz_97nwi8ftHo8jcJ1ioSVTUQFyBBGRr3ZB4VFx2iQM8f-IHehUKNtWLikKAJ5Vkj6HCBUN3YnE37vgi4iiFRMEEeLzCn9V7ZL3Hu_Yd9M-k3Qivwk76xdDBu0hHN74Oja01TgDzR_-vCQ1-DOM8x0CJkr81tu--Siqks6ft9rIzU9s2Y4QkIxRO8og89IYTXaQ6TWWocb3tBidI9t6Pqm5ySdY42fR_Xq65q-QE.kdSIWA7gFnJaaufQYXl7QQKEB-jjobAdXegnhYLzync&dib_tag=se&keywords=ghost+town+tom+perrotta&qid=1793396222&sprefix=ghost+town+tom%2Caps%2C260&sr=8-1)** **6\. Starry and Restless by Julia Cooke \(non\-fiction\)** The riveting story of three women reporters and the way they changed the world, work, and journalism. She hid on a Red Cross boat to reach Omaha Beach on D-Day. She walked the abandoned streets of Hong Kong to take food to her daughter’s father, a prisoner of war. She fought off the advances of overzealous Yugoslavian diplomats, found overlooked details of world history in a dentist’s kitchen in Sarajevo. She married Hemingway. She married a Chinese poet-playboy-publisher, then married a British war hero. She fell in love with H. G. Wells. She wrote a play. She wrote a memoir. She wrote a genre-breaking travel narrative. She wrote and wrote and wrote. She changed the very way we think about writing and the way journalists craft stories—which sources are viable, which details are important—and the way women move and work in the world. She was Martha Gellhorn. She was Emily “Mickey” Hahn. She was Rebecca West. Each woman was starry-eyed for success, for adventure, and helped ensure that other starry and restless women could make unforgettable lives for themselves. They fought for their lives and their work. They were praised and criticized for it all. **[Amazon Link](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5PCVWQD/?bestFormat=true&k=starry%20and%20restless%20julia%20cooke&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-ww_k0_1_14_de&crid=3ICC6IF65KAPY&sprefix=starry%20and%20res)**[ ](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F5PCVWQD/?bestFormat=true&k=starry%20and%20restless%20julia%20cooke&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-bk-ww_k0_1_14_de&crid=3ICC6IF65KAPY&sprefix=starry%20and%20res) **7\. The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar \(Fiction\)** A mysterious accident along a country road sparks an awakening and an investigation in Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and acclaimed novelist Ayad Akhtar’s most daring work yet—a visionary novel of spiritual transformation in an age of fracture. When a hit-and-run shatters more than his body, a writer is plunged into a spiritual awakening he can’t tell from madness. In its grip, he’s drawn to a brilliant campus colleague by an uncanny pull, and into a scandal that threatens to destroy them both. What begins as a provocative portrait of academic and cultural warfare deepens into erotic entanglement, the exposure of a family secret, and the mystery surrounding the narrator’s accident—both the violence and its aftermath. Moving between rural America and Europe, Islam and Christianity, the intimate and the metaphysical, The Radiance is of our American moment and beyond it—asking not only what has broken, but what [radiance remains.](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Radiance-A-Novel/dp/B0GPGNSLZV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZEWA2V2Q2P4U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Awn3EucQFNs9GlV_AE0C4VOCXORN-P9YLGSRmUSGe2QCA5pSg8g30NlJRsgzh5qsYCO4933ScYu1hIgTwMRiMzNdN7vKRFp_Viml4TevOLLTIkjG0Jv6u9rDhuc4Y9Bz5kqS5I7qwGwYYqAAujKmkuw-HXTuFLyRzREwDHVNE55h7qMOpheCSKjE55OAYb8W7FsSiY2M02wMTBEcQJlWkIl2cJZZS3fjeHUnL801tUU.ePrgH_WAvd7T2RxBUPgFiY-AU9IF0OJUrQIMfZAtwDM&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+radiance&qid=1793396564&s=audible&sprefix=the+radiance%2Caudible%2C226&sr=1-1) **[Amazon Link.](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Radiance-A-Novel/dp/B0GPGNSLZV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZEWA2V2Q2P4U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Awn3EucQFNs9GlV_AE0C4VOCXORN-P9YLGSRmUSGe2QCA5pSg8g30NlJRsgzh5qsYCO4933ScYu1hIgTwMRiMzNdN7vKRFp_Viml4TevOLLTIkjG0Jv6u9rDhuc4Y9Bz5kqS5I7qwGwYYqAAujKmkuw-HXTuFLyRzREwDHVNE55h7qMOpheCSKjE55OAYb8W7FsSiY2M02wMTBEcQJlWkIl2cJZZS3fjeHUnL801tUU.ePrgH_WAvd7T2RxBUPgFiY-AU9IF0OJUrQIMfZAtwDM&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+radiance&qid=1793396564&s=audible&sprefix=the+radiance%2Caudible%2C226&sr=1-1)**[ ](https://www.amazon.com/Audible-The-Radiance-A-Novel/dp/B0GPGNSLZV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1ZEWA2V2Q2P4U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Awn3EucQFNs9GlV_AE0C4VOCXORN-P9YLGSRmUSGe2QCA5pSg8g30NlJRsgzh5qsYCO4933ScYu1hIgTwMRiMzNdN7vKRFp_Viml4TevOLLTIkjG0Jv6u9rDhuc4Y9Bz5kqS5I7qwGwYYqAAujKmkuw-HXTuFLyRzREwDHVNE55h7qMOpheCSKjE55OAYb8W7FsSiY2M02wMTBEcQJlWkIl2cJZZS3fjeHUnL801tUU.ePrgH_WAvd7T2RxBUPgFiY-AU9IF0OJUrQIMfZAtwDM&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+radiance&qid=1793396564&s=audible&sprefix=the+radiance%2Caudible%2C226&sr=1-1)
Shut Up & Write!™ West LA - Mar Vista Public Library
Mon, Nov 23, 5:50 PMJoin us for an hour (or up to ninety minutes) of uninterrupted writing! Whatever you're working on - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoir, PR, script writing, anything! - join other like minded writers and scribble at **THE MAR VISTA BRANCH OF THE LA PUBLIC LIBRARY,** **12006 Venice Blvd., in the Mar Vista neighborhood of LA** LIBRARY INFO: We start at 10:00 when the library opens, meeting in the conference room immediately to your right when entering through the parking lot doors. We stop at 11, 11:15 or 11:30 (depending on attendees schedule), and then we invite everyone to share (if they want) a few sentences, without any intro or explanation. After that, we're open for any kind of writerly questions, discussions, sharing of struggles or successes. SCHEDULE: 10:00 - Timer starts: write for pre-determined amount of time Finish - Share some sentences if you want, chat, take off or, if you're on a roll, stay for a while and continue to write. LEAVING EARLY IS OKAY, no need to apologize or explain. We're a casual group and happy you'll be with us - also, **no need to RSVP thru MeetUp - just show up!** **The only time our MeetUp is cancelled is on ALL Monday holidays because the library is closed.** Parking is easy behind the library and there is also paid street parking. Cafe Laurent is moving out of the area and SUAW will miss them!
Shut Up & Write!® in Los Feliz on Wednesdays!
Thu, Nov 12, 2:45 AMJoin us for some focused writing time. All writers and all experience levels are welcome and don’t worry, no one will see what you've written. This session is about getting your writing done and meeting other writers in your area. Feel free to show up between 6:30pm an 7pm to say hello, grab a drink and get your writing tools ready. At around 7pm, I will lead quick introductions and then set the timer for our quiet and focused writing session. We'll do 1 hour of quiet writing! Afterward from 8pm onwards, we’ll have time to chat and get to know each other. We often talk about our successes and challenges as writers. If you don’t have time to stick around, no worries! **A note about the format** We don’t host critiques or readings. These events are a safe space for writers of all skill levels and genres to work on their craft, so no one will read or critique your writing. For our full event schedule, visit [https://shutupwrite.com](https://shutupwrite.com). **Other Important Details:** WiFi name/password: They usually have free wifi, make sure to ask when you order food! Travel / Parking info: There is loads of street parking, and valet if you really want to do that. :P We'll be on the side of the house. Venue Guidelines: Please thank our hosts by purchasing something.
Shut Up & Write!® Pasadena
Tue, Nov 10, 3:00 AM**ABOUT THE EVENT** Join us for an hour of writing! We’ve discovered that it’s strikingly helpful to write with other writers. See if it’s true for you at 7:00pm on Monday Evenings. Be it a book, blog, script, essay, dissertation, resume, melody, poem or just plain work stuff, you are invited to write it with us. No one will see what you've written or give you unsolicited advice. Instead of just thinking about writing, come and get some real writing done. SCHEDULE: 7:00 - Quick introductions. 7:10 - Timer starts. Write for 1 hour. 8:10 - Chat / take off / keep writing. OPTIONAL SOCIALIZING happens at 8:10PM. Writing can be very solitary. Connecting (and sometimes even commiserating) with other writers is a cool thing. What Should I Bring? All you need is something to write with and a way to make a food/drink purchase. Free WiFi is available. Parking: The **cheapest** parking is at the **Schoolhouse Parking Facility.** 33 E. Green Street (corner of Green and Raymond) - 2 blocks from Nana's Green Tea. **$1 first 2 hours**; $2 per hour thereafter; $12 daily maximum The **closest** parking is across the street from Nana’s Green Tea 48 N. Raymond Ave (corner of Union and Raymond) $10 flat rate
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