A good friend is like a four leaf clover. Hard to find, and lucky to have.

A Message from the President:

We are recruiting for the leadership team of 2021-2022 and beyond. Barbara Kidd Lawing is the first to answer the call. She will join the advisory board as the next Critique Groups Coordinator when Jennifer Hurlburt steps aside in June. Thank you Barbara for volunteering for this role!

Finding a President-Elect/VP of Communications is the next priority.This is an executive board position with voting rights and the start of what we hope will be a succession plan for club leadership. Recently, the executive board voted to eliminate the position VP of Nominations when Anshu Gupta's term is up at the end of the program year and assign that seat to President-Elect/VP of Communications.

I will continue as President for another year to get the ball rolling on the succession plan. The person in the role of President-Elect will work with and learn from the sitting president and take over when she or he steps down. We did this before we reorganized the leadership team. My years “in-training” were invaluable. Working with then President Debra S. Wallin gave me a head start on the presidential learning curve.

If you choose to serve the club you will have the benefit of working with Debra, with me and with an enthusiastic group of board members. I often say a president is only as good as her board—these folks are amazing! If you want to learn more about the role of "president in training" let’s talk! Call, email, message or text me.

Join Us on Tuesday, March 16, 2021 6:30-8:30 pm via Zoom for our next general meeting.

Daren Dean: Writing from the Unconscious

Learn more about our presenter Online and his presentation on the

CWC Calendar of Events Page.

If you want to be a guest at this meeting, please contact Axel Dahlberg for the Zoom link.

Bio: Mack Staton is a dramaturg, director, acting coach, playwright, screenwriter, social critic and fiction writer located in Charlotte NC. He has worked with Elm City Productions, Cedrick Duncan Productions, On Q Productions, Ira Aldridge Productions, BNS Productions, and a host of universities and colleges. He is a retired JCSU professor from the college of Arts and Letters where he specialized in teaching screenwriting and playwriting from a modern and postmodern perspective. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild, Charlotte Writers Club and the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts, Inc. He was also the first artistic director for the Wadsworth Estate where his play Shadow of a Rainbow was produced. Early in his career he studied playwriting at the Public Theater in NYC under the guidance of Ed Bullins and interned at Third World Cinema. Dr. Staton holds a B.A. in Literature, an M.A. in Professional Writing and a Ph.D. in Theory and Criticism with a concentration in drama and film. In the last three years, he has completed three full length plays: Mr. J’s Traditional All-American Barbershop, Grope and his latest play entitled Buzzard.

When and where do I write the best?

There is no particular time or specific place I can definitively call a "best time and place" to write. I don't consider writing as anything magical or as an undertaking that requires a muse. I look at writing as a process and the greater part of that process is a mental determination to just sit down and write. Before the world was modified by the onslaught of COVID I wrote in coffee shops, on park benches, at Charlotte Lit's studio 2, and other places that allowed me to sit, breathe, focus and get to it. Now that mobility and access has been compromised I write at home.

Favorite writing tool?

Hardware? Software? Okay. My favorite writing tool is my MacBook pro. Mack's MacBook, certain ring to it, don't you think? I also have an iPad that I occasionally use, but not enough to talk about. My iPad (ten years old) has, for the most part, become my music monster and my visual accommodation and play room for Word, Scrivener, Final Draft, and film editing software. My writing technology, however also includes pen and paper. I'm a writer who believes in beginning to end outlining and pen and paper, the first technology I ever had, is still the king of outlining. Yes, I later transfer the outline to my phone, iPad and MacBook, but pen and paper deserves it props.

I have had many writing resources over the years and I really can't say I have a favorite one. Sounds cliché but my first favorite was Strunk & White's Elements of Style then came The Chicago Manual of Style then all the resources from college and grad school that I really can't remember and probably ran from. Don't judge, I survived. I find myself always returning to David Trottier's The Screenwriter's Bible, for screening, and Richard Toscan's Playwriting Seminars 2.0, for playwriting. Fiction resources are all over the place but I find James V. Smith, Jr.'s The Writer's Little Helper to be a constant refresher.

Best Writing advice you’ve received and actually taken?

One thing I would like help with?

At the moment, I can't say I need anything as far as the writing process, because again, a writer writes. Sometimes we keep studying and searching and researching and that in itself can become a crutch or excuse to keep from writing.

To start a conversation with Mack, send him a message through the Member Directory

If you'd like to participate in Meet-a-Member please contact the newsletter editor,

Teresa Taylor or President Caroline Kenna.

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