The evening began with organised chaos – as usual.
Moving chairs around the room into groups of four. Allocating members on arrival into groups, ‘Would you pick a number from the box?’ Separating writers from their work, ‘Brought anything for feedback?’ Playing a game of shuffle with anonymous manuscripts. An emergency run downstairs to the Mercure’s photocopier.
Instructions were given. Nineteen eager members champed at the bit to read their fellow members’ work, discuss them, swap opinions and fill out the feedback forms ….then repeat.
It was a busy night. Thirteen very different submissions had been handed over for critique.
Soon the “feedbackers” got down to the nitty gritty of reading. Silence reigned. Heads bowed, brows concertinaed in concentration, pens scribbled notes.
The Presidents caught up on club admin on their phones.
Soon the whispered discussions of the first group began. The whispers grew louder as more groups joined in. ‘It’s very emotional’, ‘It’s exciting. Fun and light’, ‘There’s an intensity to this piece.’
The positive buzz continued to resonate around the room during the well-earned tea-break. The groups had critiqued at least three manuscripts each.
After coffee and biscuits, everyone regrouped to offer their verbal feedback – on flash fictions, short stories, a nostalgia article and a poem plus…. extracts from book-length works – a dystopian young adult, a thriller, a sci-fi, a memoir and a humorous novel. What variety!
Praise was given in abundance. Good pacing. Likeable characters. Strong hook right from the start. Historically authentic. Several pieces were commended for their wonderful descriptions and for cleverly creating a great sense of both time and setting.
Any room for improvement? Helpful advice and suggestion included: Watch out for overuse of adjectives. Get to the story a bit quicker. Don’t have long, long sentences. Check the tenses. And ease up on the exclamation marks (we’ve all been there!!!)
Our evening closed with the Presidents inviting the one poet in the room to read her much praised poem – ‘ Fabulous imagery – this poem shows so much promise.’
Many thanks to all who participated in what was a productive and inspiring evening.
This President went home, brain buzzin’ like a wean that had eaten twa bags o’ Haribo – as usual.
Linda Brown
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