Writing group
Our last writing group was extra special. One of our members has moved and invited us to have our meeting at her house, with lunch provided. Or did we invite ourselves? Either way, we were treated to a kumara lasagne, catering for one member who is gluten-free, with boysenberries, whipped cream and a gluten-free chocolate dessert to follow. Yum.
Our group meetings are something I look forward to each month and I am sure other members do as well. We are a team of six, although often there is one person missing. This month there were two away, one who was with family down country and the other who is supporting her recuperating sister near Wairoa. Last meeting, another member was visiting family in the USA.
We are a diverse bunch and our writing reflects this. One person writes songs and poetry, often bringing her ukulele to accompany her latest piece. Another is into the walking-dead genre, with her work reflecting this. Two of our other members have written novels, one a trilogy and the other a single story and both of these are in the process of finding a publisher. One of these women writes short stories as well, and the other poetry, often sending pieces away to competitions. The last member is in the editing phase of a travel memoir, detailing her life in the early eighties and captures a screen shot of that period of her life well, naming the different places she visited in her travels.
As much as our work is different, it is our love of writing that brings us together. Most sessions take the form of a general discussion, followed by each person reading a piece of their work or whatever they wish to share, generally for about 20 minutes, with feedback afterwards. Everyone is supportive and so it creates a nurturing environment for more writing. We might hear something that sounds repetitive or not correct so we tell that person and equally, we tell them what we like about the piece they are sharing. So, the feedback is both helpful and rewarding.
We have only lost one of our people since our group formed and that was Carol, who died of cancer five years ago. Her anniversary actually fell Thursday, the day of our meeting. We had a small remembrance to her. All of us who knew Carol, miss her so much, she was a lovely woman. But in the same token, we have two other lovely members who joined after she died. We are a closed group, meaning no one can join without the others’ acceptance, but with six of us, we are at capacity. As it is, our meetings extend the entire afternoon.
As a writer there are some words, that I can never remember the correct spelling of. One of these is dessert. I had to look this up as I wrote this, just as I had to several days ago when I used the same word. Another is practise. I can never get my head around the correct spelling. We are lucky these days in that spell check pulls up a lot of bad grammar or spelling, but it overlooks both of these words. Could one have a cactus for dessert? Probably not. I just tried out the sentence of seeing a cactus in the ‘dessert’ and spell check didn’t pick that up either so obviously it is a word I will have to learn for myself – perhaps finding a rhyme. I can still remember the periodic table and the cranial nerves I learnt years ago at school and nursing training, just by rhymes we learnt at the time. Perhaps I can picture eating dessert as the two ss’ making one larger and a desert, with one s makes one skinnier. Actually, that could work.
Perhaps I could practise this. Ha ha just had to look that up again too. I obviously need another rhyme. And on that note, it is time to sign off.