Minutes of Hightown Writers May Meeting
26th May at 7pm
Garden Bar, Bridgnorth Club
Chair: Jason
Attendees: Adam, Jason, John, Liz, Sue, Jennie, Irena
Apologies: Suzie, Marie, Stuart, Kath, Andrew, Irena,
Ann, Ruth and Michele.
Introduction:
We discussed what things regarding writing or reading had
happened over the past month, which for most of us had taken a back seat as the
time has been busy with other “life” activities. Looking forward though, a
couple of members would be visiting the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye, so there
will likely be some good news to come from that trip at the next meeting. Jason
bought along a copy of a self-published author, an old work associate who
retired and wrote his own book “The Reluctant Codex”. https://www.kenswayne.com/
Jennie mentioned in the previous meeting that a local
author, Christian Toms-Arbel had been in touch with her with a view to talking
to HTW about his novel and the process of writing. It was tentatively agreed to
invite him to the September meeting and Liz will follow up on this shortly.
Jennie requested for another peer review of her Chapter 4
story about the 11th century builder of Bridgnorth Castle, Guy de Belleme.
She had used the feedback from last months session to re-work and edit the
original text and despite the noisy environment of the meeting room (the bar
was open downstairs to serve guests using the beer garden), she delivered
another fascinating account of 11th Century intrigue and nobility.
In her own words “it’s not a particularly interesting subject’ – nay said the
group, you have a “festering dagger wound in his calf, that pulsed in rhythm
with the throbbing heartbeat in his head”. What? How? Where? is what all of us
were thinking and wanted to know more. Was he the father of the boy in a later
paragraph who sorted his “little clay soldiers into two armies” with a leader
of the army the boy knew “was called Infidel….he had heard his brothers speak
the word and knew it was bad”. Was he one of the clay soldiers in the boys pile
of soldiers with broken legs or arms “called the Mortally Wounded” or “the Dead
Men”. It may well be historical fiction but there is plenty of drama to be
unfurled Jennie and we liked it a lot.
May's Writing Task – My Thoughts Exactly' Those
of us present read our work to the meeting.
Adam – an afternoon car ride in the countryside for Felicity
turns to disaster when her car gets stuck in a field opening to let a tractor
pass on a narrow lane. It conjured up visions of mud-and-muck-soaked John
Cleese in the film Clockwise. When Felicity finally arrived to meet her friend
at Beryl’s tea room, she is politely advised to take a shower – “My thoughts
exactly” says Felicity.
Jason - wrote a story about an outdoor instructor guiding
DofE youths on a hiking trip, using What3Words (My. Thoughts. Exactly) to
navigate to an old weathered stone on a parish boundary, where they found Old
English graffiti that means ‘Ol' Scratch lives here’. Thunder, lightning, a drop
of blood on the stone and a strong smell of eggs meant they hoofed it off the
top of the hill pretty quickly. But who was it tipping a black hat farewell as
they looked back?
Liz – the piece from Liz was a “combo” of April and May
tasks in some way as it was titled “What’s in a name” and was about a
conversation whilst trying to suggest baby names to a son and daughter-in-law.
It launched off with “My thoughts exactly …” I whispered, “be tactful.”.
It gave us insight into the meanings of Yoruba names, such as ‘Ade’ = ‘crown’
or ‘Babatunde’ = ‘father has returned’. along with a few of the more humorous
or incendiary translated options!
If anyone who could not attend wants to share their
writing with members they should either post it directly on the blog or send it
to hightownwriters@gmail.com to be shared through our blog.
10 min Writing Task – Jason introduced the group
to the old style radio show “CBS Radio Mystery Theatre” available on YouTube. Each
show tells a story through dialogue between characters only. We first listened
to a short introduction act where the characters set the entire scene
describing a house sale of antiques and a grandfather clock.
For the exercise, we each chose a different number from 1 to
25; there were some strips of paper with the chosen numbers on and when
selected and unfolded, it revealed two character names, an object and a scene
or event. Writing for around ten minutes, we had to consider the names, object
and scene and weave it into the starting “act” of a mystery radio show titled
“The Old Masters’ Diary”.
The key to this challenge was un-wiring our usual writing
habits of using description to set the background of the place or setting, or
including “he said, she said, I spoke, they whispered” and so forth. Irena
highlighted that this was an exercise in “showing, not telling” the reader
(listener).
As the group read out their work, we discovered that
everyone did very well in setting the scene in a short space of time and
limited number of “conversations” between their characters.
·
Johns’ couple Finn and Zara had
inherited a musical box from a family estate and were arguing about its
sound whilst on a train that derailed in an accident.
·
Jennie had a couple, Leon and Ophelia,
at the theatre with a jewelled dagger in the ladies bag but having a
conversation about an MP revealing governments secrets.
·
Liz’s act featured strained negotiations
on a radio transmitter with pirates, with Archer and Esme
unsure of the price.
·
Adam’s characters, Elias and Serena
were trapped in a collapsing cave with only a rusty compass to
help them.
·
Sue wrote about Julia and Freya putting
on masks against the smoke while attempting to escape a burning building
with a locked briefcase.
·
Jason’s southern slaves Everett and Nina
were being hunted by Yankees with dogs through a forest, having
bought the old diary map for a gold coin.
·
The final opening act came from Irena with her
two children Damian and Clara bearing an old leather satchel
(with a pouch for treats) whilst trying to find their way in an unfamiliar
city.
As for the writing process, it was a bit tricky and a little
outside the “comfort-zone”, but it did force us to pause and think about how to
explain what is there or happening, through conversation, not narrative
description. Overall, it was a fun activity, and the group would like to try
something like this again.
Interested to listen to the full CBS radio show(s)?
Link is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl-moEcfrwA&t=346s
David Von Pein's Old-Time Radio Channel youtube.com/@DVPOldTimeRadio
Next Meeting: Tuesday 23rd June, 7pm Bridgnorth Club Garden Bar
Writing Task: Writing inspired by "40 degrees and rising"
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