2000 Words or 2:00

Meg Waite Clayton's novel, The Wednesday Sisters invites you in to the lives of five suburban young moms in the late sixties. Frankie, Linda, Brett, Ally, and Kath, want more from their lives than family and playgrounds can provide, yet they don't even know what they are yearning for when they first bond over the literature they love in Palo Alto's Pardee Park every Wednesday.

Good writing looks easy and they decided to form a writing group after consuming several drinks as they watch the Miss America Pageant. Though they first define themselves by what their husbands do, we soon see them as an athlete, a debutante, a brain, a mystery woman, and a transplant, individuals in their own right who have fascinating stories to tell. As they face rejection, revision, and growth, we see how tough writing and rewriting can be.

Meg Waite Clayton, who is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, started writing when she was 32 and her husband said, "How are you ever going to know if you don't give it a try?" Her first draft writing rule is "2000 words or 2:00," and the day she got her inspiration for The Wednesday Sisters, she wrote in her journal, "Feeling incredibly well-run-dry today... I don't have anything... Not a character yet, or even an idea of where it will go or how it will start." Later that morning a woman in a Stanford cap walked by the patio where she was writing and planted the seed that would be come Linda.

In a Q & A, the author shared her experience and expertise:

Lynn
Tell us about how you got started as a writer. How did your law school experiences and short stories help you write The Wednesday Sisters?

Meg
I imagined becoming a writer . . .

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