Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 20 October 2015
Present: Dave, Dick, Hayley, Richard, Mairead, Jeanette, Liliane, Jane, Tony, Beryl, Cathy.
Apologies: Gerry
Business items:
Thank you to Mairead for providing all sorts of (early) Halloween themed goodies, tinsel etc! Brave were those who ate the false teeth sweets!
Dave reminded us all that the next meeting, on 3 November, is the AGM, when the annual subs (£30) are due for those members who pay this way.
If you have any thoughts on ways in which we could improve our meetings, please bring your ideas along for discussion.
Beryl will provide the annual accounts, and Cathy a secretary’s report.
Jeanette hasn’t had time yet to get her name inscribed on the Bill Budner trophy, but plans to do it soon.
Tom, one of our regular Scribblers, is currently moving house. Once he is settled he hopes to be back with us again.
Creative writing exercise:
All members (except the secretary, who forgot hers) had brought along a postcard, and some members, helpfully, had brought along several. These were all placed face down on the table, and each person present took one to use a stimulus for thirty minutes of writing. Added to the usual groans and sighs once we’d looked at our selected images were calls of ‘Can I swap?’, ‘Lord, I can’t use this.’, plus various other pitiful cries!
Eventually we settled down to do some intense writing, and after half an hour or so everyone had managed to write convincing tales. These were read out after a break for coffee, and proved that, as always, we can all rise to the challenge of writing ‘on the spot’, however unpromising the stimulus might be.
Next time we do this exercise, the group agreed that for a change we’ll all work from the same picture. We’ve done this in the past, and it’s been intriguing to listen to the many and varied pieces of work that the group come up with, and the different ways in which we all interpret the image we work from.
Next meeting: 3 November, the AGM. No homework for this meeting, but if time allows perhaps there may be a short creative writing exercise.
