{"id":11567,"date":"2025-04-01T15:50:55","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=11567"},"modified":"2025-04-01T15:50:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T19:50:59","slug":"ponte-vedra-writers-help-other-writers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/ponte-vedra-writers-help-other-writers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ponte Vedra Writers help other writers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>By Maggie FitzRoy<br>mail@floridanewsline.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Novelist Kevin Pettway has been writing for 20 years, but he spent half that time learning and developing his craft before realizing his dream of becoming a published author. Part of his education involved attending writing workshops led by other writers, and on Feb. 22 he led a \u201cHumor in Writing\u201d workshop at the Ponte Vedra Beach branch library to teach a room full of fellow writers how to add humor to their work.<br>Whether writing fiction or nonfiction, \u201chumor adds variety, like in soup,\u201d said Pettway, who writes funny fantasy books full of adventure, friendship and more. \u201cHumor, like salt, is a flavor enhancer. Any genre of books can be enhanced with humor.\u201d<br>Pettway\u2019s workshop was hosted by the Florida Writers Association, a nonprofit organization whose mission is \u201cto provide writers with knowledge, opportunities and connections to support their goals.\u201d The Ponte Vedra Writers branch meets at 11 a.m. the fourth Saturday of every month and hosts free workshops on a wide variety of topics. Upcoming meetings include \u201cHow to Sell Books to Hollywood,\u201d on May 24, and \u201cMeandering Memoirs,\u201d on June 28.<br>\u201cWriters Helping Writers is the motto of FWA,\u201d said Vic DiGenti, FWA (Florida Writers Association) regional director, who has also been group leader of the Ponte Vedra Writers for 17 years. He has a mailing list of 800 writers in the Northeast Florida area, which includes groups in Nassau, Clay, St. Johns, and Duval counties.<br>The Ponte Vedra meetings are open to the public and you don\u2019t need to be a member to attend. DiGenti said as many as 40 to 50 writers may show up in any given month.<br>\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable how many writers there are in the area,\u201d he said. \u201cThey come because they want to improve their craft.\u201d<br>Pettway, who lives in Riverside, said for the first 10 years of his writing career, \u201cI mostly wrote and rewrote the same book over and over again.\u201d He feels his experience is typical of a lot of writers because there is so much to learn. \u201cTypically, you will write three, four, or five novels before you are ready,\u201d he said. \u201cI call them trunk novels. Nobody ever sees them. You toss them in the trunk and move on.\u201d<br>He says he is glad he did that \u201cbecause by the time I met my publisher, I was ready.\u201d<br>He\u2019d also discovered that he was good at writing funny, which involves techniques that he learned by studying comedy and which he was happy to share with others during his PowerPoint presentation. His advice included using humor as a trust-building tool; using humor to make characters relatable; and using the rule of three to create and then subvert expectations.<br>\u201cHumor deepens the story no matter the genre,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tool that makes you a better writer.\u201d<br>Workshop attendee Cherry Lindholm said she attends monthly meetings depending on the topic, and that she was interested in learning how to incorporate humor in her work.<br>\u201cI like the process of writing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s very involving.\u201d<br>Andy Reistetter has been a regular attendee at the Ponte Vedra meetings since 2008. A golf and travel writer as well as an author of inspirational and spiritual books, he said he enjoyed Pettway\u2019s presentation.<br>\u201cIt was good,\u201d he said. \u201cAll the workshops are good. Very educational.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CUTLINE<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo courtesy Maggie FitzRoy<br>Florida Writers Association Northeast Florida Regional Director Vic DiGenti leads a Ponte Vedra Writers meeting Feb. 22 at the Ponte Vedra Beach branch library.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maggie FitzRoymail@floridanewsline.com Novelist Kevin Pettway has been writing for 20 years, but he spent half that time learning and developing his craft before realizing his dream of becoming a published author. Part of his education involved attending writing workshops led by other writers, and on Feb. 22 he led a \u201cHumor in Writing\u201d workshop [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11567","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ponte-vedra"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ponte Vedra Writers help other writers - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ponte Vedra NewsLine By Maggie FitzRoymail@floridanewsline.com Novelist Kevin Pettway has been writing for 20 years, but he spent half that time learning and developing his\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/ponte-vedra\/ponte-vedra-writers-help-other-writers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ponte Vedra Writers help other writers - 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