Nine Ely Writers attended this month’s meeting. All but one were regulars, and I love to see them return month after month. It’s heartwarming to know that people enjoy coming to our meetings. Thank you to all of you.
The tenth person came for the first time. It’s always a pleasure when new people come; of course, we hope they’ll get enough from the meeting to come back next time. It’s always fascinating to hear what they bring to us, as well.
Many thanks to all who came; you were all wonderful, each and every one of you.
Introductions and progress reports
Since the last meeting, there hasn’t been a huge amount of progress. One member was stuck, but found a solution from an unexpected guest, showing that inspiration can come from anywhere at any time; you just have to be open to it when it comes.
Sometimes, life gets in the way. When it does, we have to accept that we’re not going to write as much as we’d like, and then get back on the saddle when we can.
Free writing
The prompt for this month’s free-writing session was renewal. The only way to fail was to write nothing.
Some of our members read out what they’d written in the ten minute slot – and blew us away! There was one poem in particular that caused emotions to bubble up no matter how it was interpreted. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Ely has some talented writers.
If you’re sick of staring at a blank page, why not set a timer for ten minutes, take something from what’s happened to you in the last week or so as your prompt, and see where it takes you. Perhaps you’ll write about what it means to your character. Perhaps you’ll write about what it meant to you. The result, whether good or guff, means your page isn’t blank anymore!
Workshop: memoir
Every time I hear of someone writing a memoir, I think of Moominpappa, who always seemed to be writing his memoirs – I remember the Moomins from the British TV programme from back in the day. I wasn’t sure what memoirs were back then – something to do with memories, I guessed; I think I know what they are now.

Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9273900
One of our members is writing a memoir, so last month’s discussion on naming characters wasn’t so helpful for them, given that most people have a name of their own! I wanted to make up for that this month, so I did a little workshop on memoir. First, I read through the handout on writing memoirs I got from a creative writing course by Ruth Wade that I attended in Cambridge some years ago.
Essentially, a memoir is a story with the author at the centre that shows the reader what it’s like to be that author. It differs from an autobiography in that an autobiography starts when the author is born and ends at the point at which the author sets pen to paper; a memoir is more specific incidents from the author’s life, connected by a theme, such as triumph over adversity, life lessons learnt and so on.
Next, I asked the group to write a fifty-word memoir of either themselves or a character they’re writing about; I got this exercise from Rosie Johnston. The group wasn’t quite sure what they were doing; luckily, I’d anticipated this and had prepared a piece to read out – this was what I write when set the exercise by Rosie, which I’ve read out at a previous meeting. This example gave them the confidence to plough on with their own memoirs.
Some wrote about their characters; some wrote about themselves. All of us wrote something, which is a complete success for the exercise. Well done, us!
This exercise – to write a fifty-word memoir – not only helps the memoir writer to be succinct in their work, but but also helps create a backstory for fictional characters. During the discussion after the exercise, it was noted that these short memoirs helped create characters with more depth. Minor characters that are shallow or have no background are unpopular because they’re so unrealistic.
Everybody in the real world (apart from new-born babies, perhaps!) has complexities resulting from their experiences, the people they meet, the places they go, the way their brain works, their memories, and so on. People in stories should be like that as well, no matter how fleeting their appearance. I’m not saying there should be a lengthy backstory given every time a minor character happens along – that would be ridiculous – but there should be enough of a glimpse into their lives, their personality to make the person real, especially if the reader is to care about their fate.
I read a crime thriller some years ago – it’s driving me up the wall that I can’t remember what it was – where the point of view, just for one chapter no longer than a single page, switched from the main character to a new minor character. He was in his car, driving home, thinking about his family and what they were going to do that weekend, and how he felt about it all. The author took us right into that man’s world – then killed him off. Because we’d got to know the character, it hit us harder than if we hadn’t – in the same way we care more about people who are close to us than we do about strangers.
Some of us read out our memoirs; they were really poignant. I think we all realised the beauty of a memoir.
Readings
Reading out our work is strictly optional, and we only ever make positive comments on anything you read out. A single negative word can knock a writer’s confidence for six, whereas the point of Ely Writers is to encourage and embolden writers.
We were going to hear one reading this month, but because we were enjoying discussing memoirs and listening to them so much, we didn’t have time. It’s a shame, because I’ve enjoyed what I’ve heard of that story up to now. There’s an atmosphere to the story that is dark and creepy, created only by words and what they invoke. We’ll look forward to hearing it next month instead.
Next meeting
If you like to talk about writing or you’ve written something you’d like to share with other writers, why not come along to our next meeting?
Next month’s meeting is from 6:15 pm till 7:15 pm on Wednesday 6 November 2024 in Prosper.