July 2025 - HTW Meeting minutes

The Judges : Ruth and Suzie - Presteigne Poetry Competition, 16th July

Apologies: Irena, Sue, Ann, Jennie, Louise, Marie, Kath, Andy, Fiona

Attendees: Suzie (chair), Ruth, Adam, John A-S, Liz, Stuart

Venue: Peepos

Times: 19.00-21.15

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What have you been up to this last month?

We opened with a review of what we’ve been working on in the past month. 

• Adam worked on homework from HTW June meeting, as well as a poem for Bridgnorth Writers which he read out
• Stuart has been reading about psychology (inspired by his daughter) and is finding it useful to inform character development in his own writing
• Liz has been reading The Lagos Wife (by Vanessa Walters) which she’s enjoyed - especially how the characters have been written. She’s aiming to work on some of Irena’s workshop prompts this month
• John attended the Saturday workshop and enjoyed it
• Ruth has recently finished an 8 week poetry circle (online) and talked about how much she’d benefitted from it and that it had encouraged her to push herself, especially regarding the use of imagery. She also attended the Presteigne WI poetry event as Judge (alongside Suzie), performing a poem written specially for the occasion (which Ruth read out during this meeting)
• Suzie attended the same event as Ruth, as well as completing a poem she’d been working on for quite some time (which she read out later in the evening). She also confirmed an online magazine acceptance for one of her poems.

We then launched into the first of two writing exercises based around the concept of ‘show don’t tell’

(in the course of researching for chairing I came across many online resources, a couple of which are pasted below, in case you're interested)

https://thewritepractice.com/show-dont-tell/ 

https://www.dabblewriter.com/articles/show-dont-tell-worksheets 

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TASK 1 : Write a scene about a very drunk person, without once mentioning that the character is drunk. Using all the senses, see how effectively you can work those ‘show don’t tell’ muscles

We then read out our work and it was interesting to see a variety of approaches, even with a narrowly focused task.

TASK 2: We then moved onto the second prompt. We heard an American poet suggest writing  a poem about where you’re from, but without saying where you’re from - link to his video here (if you have a facebook account)

https://www.facebook.com/savonbartley/videos/643345254865667/?rdid=19nKS4ytFr3B6wwL#  

(Whilst typing up these minutes I’ve actually discovered the origin of this type of poem from George Ella Lyon: https://poemanalysis.com/george-ella-lyon/where-im-from/ )

We then had 10 minutes to create our own version, with a free rein given to approach the topic however we saw fit. We then heard everyone’s version of where they’re from and again, the variety of writing styles was impressive.

We then heard pieces from the group from last month’s homework (The Promise), or in some cases, other work that had been completed.

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At that start of the session we discussed the quarterly workshops. The next one is booked for Sat 11th Oct, but Liz will be asking about likely attendance. There is thought that we might also amend to late November, given that the December session (23rd) is unlikely to happen (Christmas and all that..)

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Summer social / BBQ at Stuart’s:

Date to be confirmed but any of these Sundays in August

17th Aug / 24th Aug (bank hol weekend) / 31st Aug

Liz will be sending round an email to gather opinions on best date

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HTW Blog / HTW Feedback site

We reminded writers that they could send their pieces for public blog publication to Liz to uploading, or for pieces that need to remain 'unpublished' they could be sent to Suzie to upload to the private feedback site.

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday 26th August, 7pm @ Peepos

CHAIR: Ruth

HOMEWORK: Write about your dream holiday, or somewhere you’ve visited but without mentioning where you are, using those ‘show don’t tell’ muscles  (maybe do some research on its history) OR carry on with your “where I’m from” piece.