Flash Fiction Results - 16th March, 2015

On 16^th March, our judge, Alexandra Benedict, who writes under the name of A K Benedict, gave her feedback and verdict on our Flash Fiction entries. A possible record of 24 entries of exactly 250 words had been submitted, and Alexandra commented on the quality and interesting range of approaches taken: the humorous, the scary, the touching and the lyrical. Her one piece of advice was that in every story, she felt at least one sentence digressed and distracted the reader from the main thrust of the narrative, and that we should trust our instincts to go with the flow of the story. In first place was Sally-Ann Clark's 'In Perspective', which was praised for its structure and lyricism. Diana Locke came second with 'Missing Baggage', Marcia Woolf third with 'Devotion' and Roz Balp fourth with 'The Green Door'.

In the question and answer session which followed, Alexandra talked of the value of what she had learned from the creative writing courses she had attended at the University of Sussex, of finding an agent and the auction for her first novel. She told us an intriguing tale of the inspiration for this novel, The Beauty of Murder, with its time-travelling serial murderer, in a strange experience while an undergraduate at Cambridge.

Journalism Workshop - 2nd March, 2015

A lively and informative workshop, led by experienced journalist Emma Boyde, offered a strong foundation for entries for our journalism competition. She explained the different structures required by a both news story and of a feature. A news story is often drawn as an inverted pyramid, which has the meat (who, what, when) in the opening paragraph with following paragraphs having progressively less crucial information, so that sub-editors under pressure can cut from the bottom without loss of meaning. In a feature, the introduction often takes an individual instance, then moves onto the core arguments, ending either with reference to ‘expert opinion’ on the subject or a return to the individual.

Emma then provided us with examples of a range of journalistic models: a piece of news analysis, a theatre review, a blog which went viral – and a piece by our judge for this competition, Kathryn Flett. She encouraged us to examine these in terms of structure and the use, or otherwise, of the first person. Feedback from this exercise involved some lively discussion of the merits and demerits of journalism and its function in the age of social media. Emma suggested that there remains a vital role for traditional journalism which uses proper fact checking as against the unknown reliability of social media. She talked about so-called ‘balance’ in a story as a misguided ideal because bias is inevitable, and a ‘balanced’ story would be, at best, 80:20. Our practical exercise was then to interview a partner, to write up the interview, incorporating a quotation, and for the interviewee to assess accuracy.

Manuscript Evening - 16th February, 2015

Elizabeth Allen offered a brief introduction to the challenges and value of effective critique. She gave general guidelines, such as being specific, addressing the text, rather than the writer, and establishing trust by pointing out positives. She also  emphasised the value of the writer deciding on the focus of the discussion and what type of comments would be most helpful.

Four members then presented their work in progress, all of which offered a great variety of approach and provoked a lively discussion on topics and technique. Bill's first short story as a member of HWG was inspired by our first writing exercise of the year in which Eileen gave us a prompt for a story opening, featuring a clock, a hat and a body in a church porch. The story drew on his wartime experiences, and people commented positively on its lucid, pared-back style.  Marcus gave us the opening of a charming novella in an undefined past, featuring a boy who appears seeking sanctuary in a remote, 'ill-fated village'. Members remarked that the opening had the feel of a fairy tale and was far removed from Marcus's usual violent robots! Glyn's chapter was not the opening of his novel but chosen because he was keen for feedback on whether he had been heavy-handed with the symbolism used to construct his creepy, controlling male character: an advocate of Nietzsche, an owner of Doberman Pinschers and a man who keeps finches in cages. The story was set in the 1970s, and there ensued an interesting general discussion on the difficulties of using time-appropriate terms and convincing your readers that these were indeed used in the given period. Members remarked on quality of the writing, and we now have the added intrigue that Glyn's chosen writer's name is a woman's... Our fnal manuscript was from Kate O'Hearn; like her published work to date, it was aimed at a Young Adult readership but went down well with our rather older group of adults. Her concern was with voice: she is not a lover of first person, but, knowing that all the super-successful YA fiction uses that technique, she had reluctantly adopted it for this novel. We all agreed that it was handled very effectively, and we are now much more informed on the nature of incubi and succubi. 

Flash Fiction Entries - 2nd February, 2015

2^nd February was the deadline for our first competition of the year: Flash Fiction in exactly 250 words. The tight word count didn't inhibit the variety of approach, and there was a startling range of genres: comedy, drama, tragedy, love, murder, genocide with a variety of protagonists, including Nigerian warlords, holocaust survivors and a coin of the realm. In all, there were 27 entries with 23 being read out on the night.
       In the second half, members were given a scenario: 'A group of writers are in a hotel room reading their work when suddenly the lights go out and they are plunged into darkness. What happens next?' We worked alone or in small groups, and the results revealed some members had been murdered while others had encountered a range of ingeniously construed situations. Most – but not all – had happy endings.

Flash Fiction Workshop - 19th January, 2015

On Monday 19^th January, Dr Elizabeth Allen, our resident English Literature lecturer, led a workshop on Flash Fiction. First, we discussed four very short stories of different lengths and genres, saying what we thought was successful and what wasn't. The key questions explored were: whether to have a resolved ending or not, the optimum number of characters and how to make such a short piece resonate
In the second half, Roz Balp shared a practical editing exercise from the OU free online Creative Writing course. The main focus was on what should be slashed and what needs to be kept. We decided this depended on what the author wanted to place in the foreground and which words or phrases couldn't be sacrificed for the sake of atmosphere.
There was a buzz of friendly disagreement throughout the evening with a wide range of opinions and ideas being expressed.

First Meeting of 2015 on 5th January

The first part of the meeting was devoted to discussing and resolving various group business issues:

1. The accounts for the period ended 31st December 2014 (14 months due to a change in the date of the end of the financial year) were presented by the Treasurer and approved by members

2. The budget estimate for the year 2015 was presented by the Treasurer and approved by members.

The meeting thanked Samantha Davey for her work as Treasurer

 

3. Resolved: to move the AGM to January each year in line with both the subscription and financial years now ending on 31st December.

 

4. Resolved: to create a committee post of Fundraising Secretary to initiate and organise fundraising activities. Some members are experienced in fundraising and are willing to assist the Fundraising Secretary as needed.  If you would like to volunteer for this role, please contact eileen@eileenmasters.net . If there is more than one volunteer, the membership will vote. All are welcome to put themselves forward and we particularly encourage new members to volunteer.

 

5.Resolved: Amanda Giles will take the lead in organising HWG’s judging of the anthologies entered for the National Association of Writers’ Groups competition. HWG has been given this responsibility because we won last year’s Volunteers to participate in judging please contact Amanda on aloeamanda@sky.com.  All are welcome to assist and we particularly encourage new members to participate.

 

6. At present, members have to be up to date with their subscriptions in order to continue their membership. It was suggested that there should also be a minimum requirement for attendance. It was agreed, without a vote, that more information is needed and the matter was adjourned to a later meeting. Meanwhile, the committee will decide on a sympathetic case by case basis.

 

7. Resolved: Former members who wish to return will not automatically be put on the waiting list. Instead, the committee will decide, on a case by case basis, taking into account the contribution that former members made to the group and their particular circumstances.

 

Then Elizabeth Allen read her winning Catherine Cookson Cup story. The judge, Catherine Smith, had this to say about it: 'Nothing is wasted. Every paragraph, sentence, comma and word is deftly deployed in the service of the story.'

 

Finally, we tried to get the creative juices flowing by exploring genre in an exercise given to us by our Chair, Eileen Masters. We worked in groups  to discuss, categorise and extrapolate a story from a given paragraph. Most of us found this pretty challenging; hopefully, we'll improve along with the weather!

Presentation Evening, 2014

At our annual Presentation Evening on 5^th December, the new Chair, Eileen Masters, greeted everyone and briefly summarised the group's activities over the year, highlighting the award-winning anthology, 'Animal Writes', and encouraging people buy it to help raise money for the two charities it supports.

Our first guest speaker of the evening was Catherine Smith, who had judged the annual Catherine Cookson Cup competition. She told us what she looked for in a short story, likening the genre to a fish tank, which provided a glimpse into a different world without distractions from the wider sea. She warned of the dangers of trying to 'cram a quart into a pint pot' and said some entrants had tried to write a novel in 3000 words and encouraged them to go on and write that novel. She said she wanted to be enchanted and intrigued and added that when she had finished the stories placed first and second, she had been so convinced that she imagined the main characters would actually walk into the room. The 2014 cup winner was new group member, Elizabeth Allen, with 'Growing Pains'; Catherine said the story was a polished gem with a distinctive style which drew her in. Sam Davey was second, Roz Balp third and Diana Lock fourth.

After the break, our patron, Tamara McKinley, spoke about the hard work and passion that has to go into professional writing and gave fascinating and inspiring examples from her own long and successful career as a best-selling novelist, which illustrated the dedication and self-sacrifice necessary to garner any rewards, particularly in the current world of publishing. She then handed out certificates to all members who had been placed in the group's five internal writing competitions before announcing the winner of the Writer of the Year Award given to the member who amasses most points across all competitions. This year, after a neck-and-neck battle, the shield was shared between Jill Fricker and Roz Balp.

The evening was rounded off with a raffle for Christmas hampers, and a group photograph was taken by the HWG''s very own world famous photographer, John Coles.