12^th October 2011

Ian was underwhelmed by responses from members regarding how to spend the spoils.  Why not overwhelm him with several suggestions?  I’ll do it after this Ian.

Ian had also listed some features in this month’s writer’s magazine.

1)    Beware vanity publishers

2)    Beware writing without payment (should we?)

3)    November is ‘write a novel’ month 50,000 words

4)    Humorous writing

5)    Character writing

6)    Haiku

This week’s challenge ‘A Conversation Piece’

Margaret (that’s me) started off and I have clearly lost the plot.  The comments 'you said' about the conversation were helpful.  ‘I said’.   I have got it really.  Too much description.  Thanks for your comments.

Jane’s attempt was much better.  Reminded me of ‘Ladies of Letter’s another radio submission perhaps Jane?

Ann gave us another successful story.  Comments were; possibly two changes to sharpen the dialogue.

Avril gave us a fishy conversation. Nothing caught.  Everyone thought that the piece was interesting with good use of technical information about fishing and indigenous wildlife.

Mary read her conversation challenge. Guess what job I’ve got?  where one character didn’t have a clue.  A good concise story was revealed to us all.

Chris wrote about, was it ‘Trench Warfare’ or Marital Warfare?  Comments were that there would be more interruption between husband and wife, but it sounded real enough to me.

Nick asked members who attended the workshop to collect sheets of information he had brought for those who attended the workshop.  He also informed us of a flyer he had giving information about a short story competition of 2,000 words on the theme of Identity.

John’s Conversation piece had lots of detail and was thought to be well rounded.  Comments were;.  A bit more identification of which character was speaking.  John agreed that he had cut some dialogue out to shorten the piece and would have another look at it.

Brenda Read her conversation story about misunderstanding information.  Everyone agreed it was an amusing piece.  Suggestions were; names were not needed, before each person speaks. Agreed that it fitted the brief well.

Douglas suggested that when dialogue was read out using two people, which had been the case on several occasions at this group’s meeting, it worked much better.  A thought for the future.

Alan Gave his own take on a conversation about a conversation piece.  It worked very ‘well’.  Suggested that some ‘wells’ could be taken out.

Betty Read her conversation tale about a ‘red’ or a ‘blonde’ moment.  A conversation heard during a bus ride.  We all want to go on a manhunt to Benidorm now.  Agreed that it worked quite well.

Cathy gave us her slice of life called ‘Forbidden Fruit’ definitely a cake moment.  Suggested that some words used could be revised. And a more definite point of view could be shown.  Worked well.

Iarla Didn’t write on the theme, but gave us a poem called ‘Lighten up’ a very short piece but everyone wanted to hear it again to get the full impact of such a pithy piece.

Jerry ‘A home for mother’ an interesting account of a conversation between mother and son.   ‘mother’ is too astute for her son.  Fits the challenge well  Suggestions were; explanations not necessary as it is clear what the piece is about and who’s speaking.  Perhaps no preamble is necessary either.

John Reminded us about the open Mic session on Tuesday 8^th November 7.30 in Chadwicks Bar at Villamartin that’s run in conjunction with Wordplay.

Ian We had a good feeling for his first conversation piece!  This was about the possibility of making a foursome.  Very entertaining.

The second piece was a dating problem ‘will she or wont she’

The third was the Petting Cemetery and group sex ending with a kick, not a kiss.

Jerry Read another conversation piece this time in the car.  You’re sure you’re not shouting Jerry.  Everyone thought that this was very familiar and a bit too real for me Jerry!

Douglas didn’t tell us a story using conversation, but did write a commentary on last week’s meeting where the voices of the people in the group brought the stories to life and he pointed out how helpful and interesting that made the stories and how accomplished some readers were in this group of getting their point across when they read their stories out loud.

That’s it folks, sorry no fancy pictures, but a bit pushed for time.

Margaret