As there is likely to be just the two of us for a few weeks, we both agreed to either finish something else that we’ve started or else continue in a similar vein.
“R” had promised to leave something at the desk for us to read, if he had written anything during his absence, and as there was nothing passed on to us, we simply launched into a discussion about various writerly things and what a bad week we’d both had previously.
I kicked off with five pages from Catch the Rainbow. I’d not had chance to write anything new for The Fool and, in fact, was still transferring existing material to the new Scrivener file. The story is currently still bouncing between the late 1990s and 1974, and I wondered if that could be altered in any way.
“P” then read out three exercises she had written previously around a certain scenario. She read out The Man, The Cat and The Cleaning Lady, and all were linked in some way. As these were writing exercises to exercise the writing muscle, there wasn’t really a lot of advice I could give on what to do with them. But they were well written and very well read in any case.
I then read a few more short scenes from Catch the Rainbow, this time all from 1974. And, following our continued discussion, we agreed that the book should still open in 1964, then jump to 1974. And then, once the story from November of that year to March of the following year has been told, perhaps it might be better to then jump forward to the late 1990s, and come back to 1975 at the end. So that’s something for me to work at.
“P” had another exercise to read out, this one entitled My Wonderful Home. It rang so true that I wondered if it was a true story, but it wasn’t and, anyway, the ending confirmed that for me. It’s a shame the My Weekly doors are currently closed to new writers, because I thought the fiction editor there might like this one.
Our homework for the coming week is as follows:
- Try not to have such a busy week this time, if we can help it.
- Try and finish something that we’ve started that we should have brought along to this meeting.
- “P” to continue gathering her memoirs together to identify any gaps.
- And me to finish transferring The Fool to the new Scrivener file.
Hopefully, we’ll have something from “R” to read out and discuss too.
Goldthorpe Writers meet every Monday at Goldthorpe Library, Barnsley Road, Goldthorpe, Barnsley S63 9NE, from 2:30pm until 4:00pm. There is free parking to the rear of the library, buses stop almost outside, and the railway station is a short walk away. Refreshments are also currently available for free. All are welcome.
Hope we both have a better week!
So do I!