16 July Meeting report: 'How To' Results

This week’s meeting saw the results of the competition to write a ‘How To’ guide. The competition was judged by John Dowling, previously a journalist with 48 years of experience at the Bexhill Observer. The results were as follows: In fourth place, Roz Balp, ‘Packing for a Budget Airline’; third place went to Maddie Blake, ‘How to Make Friends with the Stars’; second place went to Lorna Thompson ‘Chemo and the Disappearing Hair – a Black Woman’s Tale.’ Our winner was Godfrey Forder, with a charming and very fun guide on ‘How to Potter’.

 

2 July Meeting Report: Drama Workshop

This was a very enjoyable and interactive meeting. Members each brought in a short abstract of their own prose and took part in an exercise to convert their work into a dramatic piece. With guidance from Amanda Giles and Hilary Mackeldon, members considered how to prepare a scripts, including practical aspects such as staging instructions, dialogue, lighting and sound effects.

18 June Meeting Report - 'How to' entries

18^th June saw the reading of the entries for our ‘How to’ guide competition. The meeting was hugely enjoyable and informative. Members left the White Rock Hotel with heads full of new information and new ideas. Most of us had certainly not previously given enough consideration to how important (and potentially expensive) it is to create just the right environment, including the hiring of a fen shui expert, for writing that novel. Nor had many of us realised the preparation needed to attend a comic convention safely and without embarrassing ourselves. We learned about picking locks, and how to pick a martial art. Probably not too late for some of us, we received advice on how to plan our first ‘grown up’ dinner party. There was also valuable, and hilarious, advice on how to train a dog, and also how to master the art of pottering. Other fascinating guides set out how best to pack for a budget airline, how to recycle or repurpose all manner of household items, how to make money from a spare room and how to choose a care home.