MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS’ CIRCLE MEETING AT THE GENERATION CENTRE, GOLDSWORTH PARK CENTRE,  ON 18 JANUARY 2018

Present: Peter, Greg, Amanda, Cathy, Sarah SH, Sarah DD, Liz, Heather

Apologies: Dermot, Alan, Ramzan, Tricia

News:

The second Lightbox literary festival will take place over the weekend of 27-29 April, and another “poetry lunch” on Saturday 28 April is on the cards.

Peter reminded the group about the valuable material relating to the first world war on the Surrey History Centre website http://www.surreyinthegreatwar.org.uk/

The next meeting of the WWC’s book group will take place at The Crown, Horsell on 30 January. Liz reminded the group that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein 200 years ago.

Greg will be taking to the boards again in March. There was a slightly worrying reference to underwear so we moved on swiftly at this point.

Readings:

Sarah DD read the beginning of an untitled story in which she had experimented with writing from different characters’ perspectives. The focus was a shop which had been empty for a while. All agreed that the technique worked; there was some minor confusion about the points at which the perspective changed, but this could easily be clarified and would in any case be apparent to a reader because of paragraph breaks.

Heather read a poem ‘My Pal Leonard’, the inspiration for which had been her grandfather’s memories of his time in Gallipoli. He had always said that going to see his friend’s parents after he had been declared ‘Missing’ was one of the hardest things he had ever had to do. Heather will send the poem and a short preamble to Greg for inclusion on the WWC website.

Sarah SH had written a continuation of her story about Hannah and Anthony. This featured Hannah returning to the river to look for Anthony with the ‘lost’ brooch in her hand. The descriptions of Hannah entering the water were vivid and sensual and the growing panic as she catches her foot and is trapped under water was powerfully conveyed. This was a beautiful piece of descriptive writing which also maintained a convincing tension.

Greg’s short story ‘The Postman’ was written in the first person and painted a warm and realistic picture of the postman’s involvement with the people in ‘his’ street. The humour was warm and convincing and the final triumph of good over evil was greatly enjoyed. All agreed that this was a very enjoyable and satisfying piece of writing.

Liz’s ‘Peter’s Story’ was also in the first person and featured 93 year old Peter who had been a POW in Kent, after first being forcibly recruited by the Nazis. He feels his incarceration in the care home keenly and wants to go for a walk in the fresh air. His memories were convincingly conveyed – such as planting seedlings in a shed. One suggestion was that it might be interesting to feature Peter at different points in his life to emphasise the changes in him; it was also felt that his speech patterns would be influenced by his Eastern European heritage. All agreed that Liz should enjoy writing about him and ‘see where it goes’.

Amanda read a further extract from ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ which tells the story of Kay, who has just returned after 30 years away on a trip to Mars. This was greatly enjoyed and all agreed that Amanda should finish the book. There was a discussion about using abbreviations that are in common usage for well-known organisations and words and also whether it is wise to read other works with related themes for fear of being over-influenced.

Next meeting: 15 February at 7.30pm

Chair: Heather

Minutes: Greg

Wine: Amanda

Milk and Biscuits: Sarah DD

Homework: Unknown Pleasures