Meeting Report

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on Tuesday 17 May 2016

Present:  Liliane, Mairead, Beryl, Jim, Tony, Dick, Steve, Gerry, Cathy,
Apologies: Jane, Richard, Carolyn, Dave.

Business:  As Dave was away on holiday, Cathy chaired the meeting.
We began the meeting by each introducing ourselves to Mel, who had joined us for the first time, sharing with her a little of our backgrounds, writing interests etc.
Following this, we spoke briefly about the FBF, and the progress of our contributions towards the readings. Dave will finalise details at the next meeting on 7 June.

Meeting:
With nine stories to read out, we wasted no time in getting started! The homework was to write a story based on/starting with the phrase ‘I remember that week in November only too well ……..’. As ever, there was a tremendous mixture of work, with each and every tale being gripping and interesting.

Jim: Armageddon

Steve: Retribution

Gerry: Remember, remember : Driving home late down a country lane on Guy Fawkes' Night, a police detective sees a group of children pushing what looks like a guy towards a bonfire on private land.  What seems at first like a simple matter of trespassing and possible fire-raising then takes a more sinister turn ...

Liliane: We will never forget that day and the week that followed

Beryl: Rubbing along

Dick: The great London smog

Mairead: The lacemaker

Tony: Thursday

Cathy: Musings of a Romano-British maid (unread homework from the previous meeting’s historical theme). A village maid muses on escaping village life, and enjoying the delights of the town of Camulodunon, as described by her brothers when they return from visits there. Her brief dawn sighting of a uniformed man near her homestead leads her to wonder if nearby soldiers might be about to disrupt village life.

With time to spare after the readings, we were able to chat about various technical issues around writing. How to bring characters to life for the reader; the comparative merits of writing in the first or third person; using a two way dialogue to get information across; evoking atmosphere; portraying setting effectively. It was an enjoyable way to round off the meeting, and I think all of us went away feeling that the evening had been a good one, though of course it would have been even better if Dave had been there!

Next meeting:    Our next meeting is on Tuesday 7 June, when the homework theme is simply ‘trains’. Wedding trains, trains of thought, steam or diesel trains – how many more can we can up with?