WRITE UP TO CHRISTMAS

One week off isn't long - but I missed the place :-) Welcome back!

As is so often the case, a small group makes for a good session. To those of you who were busy elswehere, we missed you. But we still had fun!

Today was mostly talking, but we got a lot of stuff lined up, which is as good a way as any to start a session off.

We talked about Ravenfest (the deadline is on the 7th of Nov) and what made something in the style of Edgar Allen Poe. Who is up for that challenge?

Deirdre talked a little about the current incarnation of NaNoWriMo, which encourages people to write a novel in a month. We agreed that the weekly sessions didn't lend themselves to longer writing, but there was no reason why someone working on a novel couldn't use the group for feedback and critique. We talked about the encouragement aspect of NaNoWriMo and how small groups could exist within a bigger group. So, who wants to work on a longer piece. Personally, I'm ready to break out and do something different.

We talked, again, about the Line-A-Day idea, how it's a daily reminder that you are a writer, how it's a creative challenge, and how those lines can turn into something else. If you haven't started that, I'm recommending it. It's new for me and I'm enjoying it.

I brought out an "Instead Of A Card" poetry pamphlet. They are often ten poems on a theme - Love, Family, Easter, Heartache, Sleep... In Wigtown they were Ten Poems on Cows, or Sheep, or Chickens.

The one I had was ten takes on Family. But I bought it for one poem in particular, John McCullough's "Family", which had a very different take on Christmas.

Christmas as a theme can seem cliched, but how much that is true is down to the writer. I had never seen McCullough's take on it. So, I shared it with the group. It turns out to be more than I first thought it was, and we couldn't decide if it was very smart, or very smart-arse.

We have eight more weeks of the group this year. Seven, if we look at having a presentation day on the eighth. And most of us have a wealth of Christmases under our belts. Could we, each, come up with ten takes of Christmas. And I'll make them into a little booklet for you.

Speaking of which, the People's Friend Christmas Special is out on the 27th. I've done various takes on Christmas over the last few years, usually twelve pieces on each theme (in a Twelve Days of Christmas stylee). This year, they wanted to go traditional. So, I basically had to find twelve takes on the original Christmas Story. No pressure!

I used the Booker Long-lister "Seascraper" as a near perfect example of the difference the stranger makes. I used W. Somerset Maugham's "A Writer's Notebook" for the importance of picking up character sketches and plot ideas from here there and everywhere. More on each of those later.

We discussed the latest Poetry Scotland (next dealine in January).

Isobel transported us with her "Snapshot of Paris".

Caroline started a lot of discussion on what it was - or used to be - to be a man with her poem.

And I can't believe Deirdre almost didn't read her poem about the items gathered after a house clearance!

I surely haven't remembered everything. Feel free to add anything else we talked about in the comments.

So... what have you been writing? What would you like to achieve this term? Pin your colours to the mast. Or take up some of these themes.