One of our newer members, Susan Storrier, brings you all the news from our latest meeting
Present:
Aileen, Craig, David C, Dele, Ian, Ray, Richard, Rosie, Susan S
Winter Journey by David
The genesis of this piece was the author’s awareness of the increasing difficulties performers face in obtaining visas for the UK.
The group praised the effective building of horror in this very accomplished piece and the contrast of the goodness and dignity of the protagonists with that horror. There was some discussion that perhaps the reader could guess too much how the piece was going to go, with a suggestion that the short opening statement was unnecessary. There was a skilful musical metaphor present throughout the text, with the story, and especially the characters, likened to an orchestral piece, the sum being more powerful than the total of the parts. The author explained the significance of the title as describing not only the protagonist’s journey but also being the title of one of the works by Schubert performed by the characters.
Napp by Susan S
This short piece took the form of an advertising article for a fictitious soporific app, inspired by creating writing exercises for learners of English. There was discussion of the role of the digital environment in the present day and the author was dismayed to learn that she was too late with this one as other, albeit less fantastic types of sleeping apps have already been invented!
The Youth of the World By Richard
The author read most of a revised version of this piece and the consensus was that it had benefitted from being moved into the first person, the change making the story both more vivid and convincing. The wry humour and tell-not-show structure (the latter compared to that of Mark Haddon’s short stories) were praised and the author explained that an aim of writing the piece was to inspire people to remember the things of childhood they usually forget. There was discussion of the need to achieve the correct balance between being biographical and keeping a text fresh and also of the difficulties in re-writing humour.
Rosie’s future project/discussion point
Rosie reported that her comedy script had been submitted for review and that she had received no response as yet.
She then went on to outline plans for a writing project based on the theme of karaoke, with songs integral to the work, and asked the group its view of whether the episodes should be autobiographical or in the third person. It was agreed that the theme was a very promising one with many possible successful options. She was advised not to be too concerned with planning links between episodes at this stage and just get started. Craig suggested that a tying motif could be a venue and the group discussed how karaoke is an escape from real life.
Five Earth poems, by Roddy
In the author’s absence the group discussed these five works.
Blue Plane Haiku
There was uncertainty about the use of tenses here.
Melting World Haiku
Some doubts about the use of ‘we done’.
Beaming Down to Cappodocia
Members questioned if the use of ‘corn flour’ were deliberate and if ‘beatnik’ was too old-fashioned or just right for the Star Trek period. ‘Strangely’ was questioned too.
View from Apollo Eight
Some felt the sentiment in this piece was a little clichéd.
Voyage Ones Last Goodbye
This was generally considered the strongest piece in the collection, with good rhythm and alliteration. The ending in particular encapsulated a great deal.
The group considered that if only three pieces were to be submitted then the two haikus should be the ones to go.
Other Business
Dele mentioned that we might be able to get free room use in the University if students were invited to meetings. However it was felt that the group should not grow so large that sufficient time for reading and discussing pieces would be compromised.
The group congratulated both Roddy and Craig for their success in being selected for the Scottish Book Trust’s Blethers series. Their posts can be found on the SBT website.
Richard asked about the upcoming short-story book project and the group heard that the committee has in hand plans for a meeting to come up with an appropriate time scale.
Dele also suggested the idea that members could be photographed reading their pieces to accompany these updates on the website. Opinion was split on this idea, but it was clear this would done on a purely voluntary basis.
Following the move to fortnightly meetings, our next meeting is on Wednesday 31st July.
