MINUTES OF WOKING WRITERS’ CIRCLE MEETING AT ST MARY’S CHURCH HALL, HORSELL ON 15th June 2023

Present: Peter, Liz, Keith, Heather, Alan, Amanda (for a short time)

INTRODUCTIONS

Having been joined by a guest, Keith, the group began the meeting with introductions:

Peter, our chairman, an engineer by profession, writes informally and is currently working on a novel. He sometimes writes poetry and has in the past written plays.

Amanda, our secretary, will be leaving the country on a new adventure in Tanzania and enjoys writing in a variety of styles: poetry, drama, satire.

Keith, our guest, has a software and tech background and has trained as an artist. Since retirement he has enjoyed writing poetry and has now published his first book. He usually writes a poem a week and has a novel in the works!

Heather writes purely for pleasure (and sometimes mostly about cats) and has so far self-published 6 books. Heather has enjoyed some well-deserved success recently (check our other article celebrating this) which makes her very happy.

Alan’s background is that of a mechanical engineer and usually writes short stories. His novel ‘Theta double dot’, is an exciting high-octane thriller. He has won a few competitions and has currently entered a flash fiction competition for which we wish him the best of luck!

Simona, newest member of the Circle manages the website and joined the group in search for feedback and improvement on her sci-fi novel.

Liz, oldest sitting member, has a novel in the works (Letters from the wall) and a few other ideas about another novel based on her childhood. Liz used to write short stories but has turned to poetry as she finds it easier to convey the depth of emotions through poetry.

NEWS:

Amanda began the meeting by stating that due to her departure she will have to hand over some responsibilities to other members. Peter invited Heather to volunteer for the position of secretary as she had expressed an interest. Heather gracefully agreed with the Circle’s gratitude for her dedication.

The Chairperson brought up the matter of the business cards and Simona presented a second design with lighter details. Simona suggested that she can obtain these, half in darker design and half in lighter design and she can bring them to the next meeting to share with everyone.

Sarah’s article for the Horsell Matters publication was approved with thanks and Liz suggested that we reach out to Woking News and Mail.

Liz’s book group next meeting will be focusing on ‘Lesson in Chemistry’.

READINGS:

Peter’s piece ‘Starting out’ was an excellent portrayal of the journey into working life and the gratitude that should be expressed to those who help you along the way. Alan appreciated how well the piece resonates with his own experience and how it rings of authenticity. Liz picked up on the fact that the piece was very well articulated despite the contradictory hints in the text. Keith suggested that Peter should consider some of the technical aspects presented in the book as they may contain some historical inaccuracies.

Keith read two poems, the first of which, ‘Poets are misunderstood’, was inspired by Keith’s interest in what drives the creative process for each individual. Peter enjoyed the use of near rhymes as it gives the poems a bit of a twist. Heather enjoyed the poems and described them as very good performance poems with a good pace. Keith stated that rhythm is very much something he likes to focus on. His second poem was inspired by a visit to Moscow which was well received by the group. Simona suggested that the group may have benefited from having a copy of the poem as well as Keith’s voice was very powerful and at times disrupted the mental images from forming.

Heather’s poem was inspired by a Laura Knight paining, ‘Sea and rocks’. The group received the poem with admiration. Liz commended the poem for being powerful with very few words with great depth and sadness, especially at the end. Alan stated that the poem was very strong visually and powerfully reminiscent for the reader/listener. Peter appreciated that the poem was loaded with meaning in every single word and praised the poem for having the intense condensed language of poetry. Keith appreciated the wonderful metaphors and stated that the simplicity of language was powerful.

Alan, drawing inspiration from last month’s homework read a short story, ‘The signature move’, punctuated by themes which he enjoys writing about (the mysterious, the unknown). Simona enjoyed the piece very much, and in particular how it hooks the reader slowly but then powerfully forced them to face the mystery head on. The foreshadowing of the signature move itself worked fantastically. Heather said that the story will stick with her for a while and Peter agreed saying there is much to distil.

Keith brought a third poem to read, ‘Who wrote King Lear’, inspired by his time in Sheffield in his training to become a teacher. The poem highlighted the author’s perception of the socio-economic differences when compared to his background. Peter suggested that the poem may be too long and may need to be split as his focus was lost but not because the quality of the poem. Simona agreed with the potential split of the poem but not because of the length but because the descriptive part and experiential part of the poems have different paces. Heather said that the poem contains some powerful themes, and she felt a break was needed in order for these to sink in and make the poem more digestible and powering each theme individually.

Liz’s piece, ‘Grandpa’s funeral’, was grounded in her experience as a young girl attending the funeral of a loved one. To make the reading fun, Liz added two elements to the poem which did not belong in the overall theme and asked the group to guess what these elements were. Peter asked Liz what she tried to achieve with the last few lines of the poem as he found these quite macabre. Liz replied that this is how she felt at the time having been hit with realisation. Heather helped the group understand Liz’s perspective of a young child that is potentially the only person thinking about her grandfather and what he liked with the final verses helping to reinforce this.

Next Meeting: Thursday, 20th July at 7.30pm

Chair: Peter

Minutes: Simona/TBC

Wine, Milk, and biscuits: Simona, in celebration of her upcoming nuptials and Amanda’s new adventure!

Homework: Leveling