April 2023 Meeting Minutes

 HIGHTOWN WRITERS’ WRAP-UP FOR 25th APRIL 

Venue: Peepo’s

 

Timeslot: 7 pm till 9.45 pm

 

Host: Me (Alex)

 

Present and accounted for: Tony H, Adam, Liz, Sue, Jennie, me

 

Apologies: Andy, Kath, John A-S, Irena, Stuart and Marie

 

 

HTW’s fourth official meeting of the year was a most scintillating occasion. The evening was highly inclusive, as, this time, the gender ratio was 1:1, with three men and three women. The King, however, politely refused my invitation to join us, owing to prior commitments. Now then, on with the show…

 

We started with a relatively brief discussion concerning future homework assignments, and then a certain group member arrived uncharacteristically late. After this, we moved on to the evening’s first task, which I like to call “E-less, Not Gleeless”. This entailed writing 100 words without using the letter “e”, and it produced some interesting results.

I would have to declare Jennie, who wrote a piece of writing about the task, the winner of the round, as her piece contained 100 e-less words and made sense – very impressive, Jennie! Nevertheless, everybody did well and produced some interesting writing. The next time that I host (which won’t be for a while!), I may try out this idea again.

 

We then had a quick chat about AI, with Liz mentioning that she had asked a device of hers to compose a haiku about the colour grey, and that the result had been rather impressive. Worrying.

 

Then it was time for the read-outs portion of the evening. Adam went first. His piece, entitled “Plum tree”, was a contribution to my “write a spring-themed ballad” homework task; it was rich in imagery, and I look forward to reading it on the blog.

 

Jennie followed Adam, reciting “Spring time”, which was also a contribution to my homework task. It, too, was rich in imagery, and it contained some interesting alliterative phrases.

 

Tony’s piece, “Perfect”, was a contribution to the fairy-story homework task. It was a light-hearted short story about Jenny Morris, a popular, high-achieving young woman, who falls for a binman, in an opposites attract-style relationship. After that, she remains inexplicably single for quite some time, prior to attending an ill-fated Christmas fancy-dress party that leads to a surprise…Incidentally, one of Tony’s short stories features in the current edition of Yours magazine – which is available now, in plenty of newsagents!

 

Last up was me, reading my topical, and perhaps controversial, comical dialogue about the current doctors’ strikes.

 

After this, we had a short discussion about writing, and Tony mentioned his future plans. He has written a six-part comedy series that has been accepted for television!

 

Next, Adam read out his contribution to my dactylic-poem homework assignment. He actually wrote this poem as part of a task set by his other writing group; it was entitled “Contrails”. Now, for those of you who don’t know this, contrails are the water vapours emitted by aeroplanes; they form long, cloud-like streams in the sky. Some people, however, refer to them as chemtrails because they believe that the planes are dispensing chemicals, and not water vapour, into the atmosphere… It was an interesting and original poem that contained some imaginative descriptions.

            

Then it was time for task number two, “Pass the Piece”, which was to add to the following:

 

 

I awake to glaring sunshine emanating from a high sun. It feels like midday. As I stand, and brush the forest’s debris from my tartan-jacket bed, I’m greeted by an earthy smell.

 

The forest feels muggy, radiating a damp heat, and the bottom of my neck is sticky.

 

Folding my jacket under my arm, I crunch through the undergrowth. Trees tower above me like giant shields, offering me some protection from the elements.

 

My eyes are hazy, and slightly sore. My paper tongue is moistless and course; I roll it round my mouth to renew it.

 

Slowly, my dreamy feet carry me to a clearing. And there, I notice…

 

 

This produced some intriguing results. Tony’s piece was about a mysterious footprint, Adam’s was highly descriptive and set in an another world, Liz’s was about a group going camping, Sue’s was about a hummingbird moth, Jennie’s was a senses-appealing piece about a footprinted path and mine was about an inscrutable caravan.

 

 

HOMEWORK

 

Your homework – set by Liz, I think! – is to write a comical piece, entitled “Out on the town”, about three friends going for a night out on the town.

 

 

Now then, the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that I have not spent several pages of this wrap-up rambling on about poetry metre.

 

So, a Balliol rhyme has an AABB rhyme-scheme and is written in trochees or iambs. An iamb is a light syllable followed by a heavy syllable (-/). The following are all iambs:

 

at work

 

in line

 

away

 

parade

 

Example:

 

Well, Alex Swanson chaired tonight,

And yet his timing wasn’t right.

For sadly he succumbed to fate,

Arriving half an hour late.

 

*****

 

The next unofficial meeting has been scheduled for 9^th May, at 7 pm; its host probably will be Marie. The next official meeting has been scheduled for 23^rd May, at 7 pm, and it will be hosted by Jennie. I think that it would be a good idea to discuss plans for the group’s upcoming tenth-anniversary tome at this meeting, as the anniversary is next year. Adam thinks that HTW may have started in February, but he’s not certain; if we could work out when our group started, that’d be great!

 

Well, my fellow word enthusiasts, that’s yer lot!

 

 

Alex