MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS’ CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH HALL, HORSELL ON 20th APRIL 2023

Present: Peter, Alan, Simona, Liz, Heather

Apologies: Hilary, Sarah DD, Amanda, Tricia

NEWS:

Congratulations to Amanda, who has been selected for a post abroad. Amanda’s new role will begin in August 2023 and will be for two years. This is wonderful news for Amanda, but sad news for WWC.

Heather suggested that ‘business cards’ with basic information about WWC would be a useful way of seizing the moment when talking with potential new members. It was agreed that this would be well worth a try and Simona kindly agreed to provide a draft for consideration at the next meeting.

Simona mentioned that she had not posted the report of the Bookshop evening on the website and it was agreed that the timing had not been right in view of Carla’s sad and sudden death.

Liz said that the Book Group’s next book would be ‘The Mountains Sing’ by Nguyen Phan Que Mai.  

READINGS

Peter read Chapter 8 from his book about Tommy Smith, the despatch rider. This chapter covered the events that happened during 29th and 30th May, 1940, and reflected the theme of the homework which was ‘Friendship’. This was a vivid and memorable piece of writing and the shock of Tommy’s friend Roger’s death was effectively conveyed against a backdrop of wartime ‘matter-of-factness’.

There was some discussion about clarification in the first sentence and in the second paragraph which would be helpful to readers unfamiliar with the military scene. All agreed that Peter had made extremely effective use of short, sharp observations, such as, ‘…they say the one that kills you doesn’t hurt’.

Heather contributed 4 short poems, each reflecting recent experiences. ‘The Tolpuddle Martyrs’ and ‘Lawrence’s Grave’ had been inspired by a recent short break in Dorset. The first poem linked the Martyrs with the view of the aconites around the meeting place; in each case, it was the gathering together that was significant. The second poem contrasted the setting of Lawrence’s grave with the sweeping dunes of the desert.

Heather’s third poem, ‘The Minotaur in Woking’ imagined the Minotaur escaping from the current Sophie Ryder exhibition at The Lightbox to shop in M&S. The fourth one was even sillier (if possible) and related the author’s battle with newly acquired walking poles.

Alan’s short story, Image Problems’, reflected the homework theme and was quite different from a lot of Alan’s other work. It made telling use of dialogue to convey a huge amount about each of the three characters involved and to move the story forward at just the right pace. The terrifying symptoms that John experienced involving distorted vision were vividly and disturbingly conveyed and it came as no surprise to hear that Alan had personal experience of this alarming condition.

The story had a great deal of warmth, but never tipped into sentimentality and was remarkable for conveying some complex thoughts on human nature with great brevity and skill.

Liz read her tribute on Carla, which had been warmly received at the last Write-Out-Loud Zoom meeting and will feature at the W-O-L meeting at The Lightbox on 27th April. The piece featured Liz’s report of the Zoom launch of Carla’s collection, ‘Workwear’, and included Liz’s personal thoughts following Carla’s death.

All agreed that, due to the personal nature of the piece, it would be inappropriate to give detailed feedback, but it was agreed that Liz had produced a warm and well-written report, highlighting many memories shared by others.

Discussion

This was sparked off by Simona commenting that by contrast with Alan’s story, the chapter she had planned to read out contained very little dialogue.

There was discussion about the use of dialogue to move a story forward and to bring characters to life. The importance of getting to know your characters was considered, so that each would speak with a different voice reflecting their personality and views; also the various ways in which they would speak, eg in very short sentences, slowly, rapidly or hesitantly.

Heather thought that some readers would find text broken up with dialogue more inviting to read.  

Alan referred to authors who had made particularly memorable use of dialogue, including Iris Murdoch with ‘The Accidental Man’.

There was general agreement that the discussion had been useful, but if more time were to be used in this way, some reading time might have to be sacrificed when more members were present. It was agreed that this should be considered further at a future meeting.

Simona took the decision to look at her work again with a view to making greater use of dialogue and to read it at the next meeting.

Next Meeting: Thursday, 18th May at 7.30pm

Chair: Tricia

Minutes: Simona

Wine: Peter

Milk and biscuits: Heather

Homework: New Horizons