Nine Ely Writers attended this month’s meeting, including two new faces, which is great. They’ve recently moved to the area, and were each looking for a writing group. A quick internet search found us.
If you run a writing group and you’re looking for new members, an online presence, at least on social media, is an easy way for people to find you. Another way to let people know about your group is to find a lovely venue where they advertise your group, like Prosper does for us. This poster, amongst posters for other groups that meet at Prosper, is displayed near the entrance:
Photo by Caity
I know I say this a lot, but it was a really good meeting, and even the subject of the free-writing prompt didn’t lower our spirits or our enthusiasm.
Introductions and progress reports
It’s always fun to hear what our new members have written, are writing or want to write. We hope they’ll find encouragement and support from our group so that they can hone their writing skills and be proud of what they produce.
The existing members had made varying amounts of progress since the last meeting. As long as they did something, and they did, that’s a success.
Free writing
Our free-writing session is ten minutes of writing whatever comes when given a specific prompt. It can be a word or a concept or an object.
The prompt for this month’s free-writing session was bad news.
In general, we wrote about something that was bad news; one member subverted it to a character being judged as being bad news. I love it when members think laterally like that.
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!
Discussion: setting
This month, we talked about setting. Four questions were prepared from a suggestion made by ChatGPT at the last minute (there hadn’t been much time for preparation because of recent events), but we only had time for the first one, which was:
How do different settings influence character development, plot progression and overall mood?
Taken from a suggestion by ChatGPT
It might have been an idea from a chatbot, which I forgot to mention to the group, but it produced a great discussion.
We talked about challenging stereotypes like happy events taking place in sunny meadows and bad things happening in dour towns.
We discussed the weather, and how to use it for character progression, but not to open with it, as states1, unless, as one member pointed out, you’re writing 19842: It was a bright day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.
There’s always an exception to the rule!
We thought it might be fun to bring our favourite opening sentence to a novel to the next meeting, so that’s our homework (as well as doing our best to progress our writing, of course).
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. Occasionally, we give constructive criticism when solicited or with permission.
We were blessed this week with three readings, two of which tallied with our discussion on setting. The third showed the intimacy of friendship. They all left us wanting more.
The talent in our group is amazing. But don’t let that intimidate you: if you want to read your writing out at our meetings, we will find the positive. It’s hard for writers to see past the bits that don’t work; let us find what does work.
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.
Our meetings will continue throughout 2025. The first Wednesday is New Year’s Day, when Prosper will be closed, of course. Subject to confirmation, we will meet on the third Wednesday instead.
And remember, we’re looking for your favourite opening sentence to a novel for next time (Wednesday 6 November 2024)!
References
- 2001. Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing. Illustrated by Joe Ciardiello. New York: Harper Collins
- 2008. 1984. London: Penguin. Text available for free: George Orwell.