Just in case the images are not clear, the items are as follows: a perpetual calendar, a torch, a sleeping mask, an incense burner, a box of sewing pins and a packet of Senna tablets.
All six objects are to be included in a story, not exceeding 600 words, to be read out at the next meeting (22nd May). Good luck!
Morag has received a grant from the Arvon Foundation to attend a workshop on writing for teenagers.
It will take place in August and we shall look forward to hearing all about it on her return.
Following the success of last year’s event, we shall return to the ‘loft’ of Great Northern Wine in Blossomgate on Tuesday, 3rd July. This date will replace our usual fortnightly meeting and has been chosen to fall during Independent Booksellers’ Week.
There will be no admission charge for this event, which will begin at 7pm with the first reading at 7.30pm. Refreshments will be available throughout the evening from the well stocked bar downstairs.
Everyone is welcome, whether to read a piece of their own work or just to enjoy listening over a drink, so please spread the word.
The rehearsal room of Ripon Amateur Operatic Society was the venue for this year's workshop, led by Dr Xanthe Wells, past Chair and current Secretary of the annual Writers' Summer School at Swanwick.
Surrounded by props for RAOS's forthcoming production of Billy, we were led through a variety of exercises designed to dispel negative thoughts about our own capabilities as writers and then to explore previously uncharted parts of our brains for inspiration. We tried to avert our eyes from the coffin propped up in the archway!
Elizabeth B., Jan, Morag and Maggie travelled across to York for Defence against the Dark Arts, Nick David’s interpretation of how to overcome the dreaded writer’s block.
The well attended workshop in the upstairs room of the Brigantes Bar and Brasserie in Micklegate focussed on four main strategies to combat the block:
1. Past performance. You’ve done it before, so you can do it again.
2. Desire. What are you prepared to give up in order to concentrate on your writing?
3. Self belief. William Golding, one of only two British Nobel Prize winners for literature since WW2 – Winston Churchill was the other one – thought his writing not good enough!
4. Focus. Distractions are all around us.
It was a very enjoyable and useful session and we hope to see some of York Writers at one of our events in Ripon before too long.
Everyone is welcome to attend this event. Dr Xanthe Wells intends to cover ‘a variety of traditional and slightly more unusual ways of tapping into our creativity’.
Date: Saturday, 14th April
10.00 – 10.30 Arrival and coffee/tea.
10.30 – 12.30 Morning session
12.30 – 1-30 Break for lunch. Bring your own or take a five minute walk into town for a bite.
1.30 – 3.30 Afternoon session
Venue: Ripon Amateur Operatic Society’s hall on Water Skellgate.
Cost: £10
We celebrated the 700th meeting of the Group with sparkling wine and a very special cake commissioned from Sue Williamson.
Founder member Daphne Peters cut the cake and gave us a lively account of the Group’s origins and its different ‘homes’over the years before it settled into the comfortable YMCA Lounge.
The evening was rounded off by a satirical poem composed for the occasion by Cathy Grimmer and a gentler one by Eileen Walters.
