It was a red letter day for GWC. After over 50 years in existence we were forced out of meeting in person for two years because of the scourge of Covid19. We continued online using Zoom which to many of us gave us some sanity in the early days of lockdown but also became a frustration as time marched on. Our membership of 24 dwindled to 12 to 14 for most meetings as many members were not comfortable or set up for online meetings.
However last night was the meeting many of us had been waiting for since the beginning of this pandemic. It was such a great feeling to once again meet up at the Ardgowan Bowling Club and meet our fellow writers. Loaded with bags once more Grahame carried forth the famous GWC teapot and cups while Helen arranged the tea, sugar, coffee and biscuits for us all – thanks Helen.
Our meeting took place in the big hall – the set up was well spaced in a horse shoe shape. It was comfortable with lots of space, masks and hand gel so to all members not attending so far we wish to welcome you back as soon as possible so we can get back up to full strength.
Colette our Vice President took charge of the first meeting as our President Anne Pettigrew had to isolate as she awaits some surgery. She started the meeting with our usual housekeeping and announcements followed by a one minute introduction around the table to say who we were, what we liked to write and this helped to introduce our speaker, adjudicator and a potential new member who had come along for her first visit. The floor was handed over to our guest speaker Claire Watts who gave us a fascinating talk on writing for YA – Young Adult (16 – 18 year olds). Claire gave us some insights into the different styles of books from romance to humour and informed us that the majority of readers for this market is female.
She followed on with some do’s and don’ts, how to promote online, advice on getting an agent or self publishing and some differences between the US and UK markets for anyone wanting to write in this space. The challenge for any author is to write these style of books in 1st person present which is difficult to do for a whole book as you can’t wander off to another character you have to stay with the protagonist. Overall a good insight into this world for anyone wishing to write in the Young Adult arena.
Next we had the results from our 3rd competition – memoir. David Mackie who gave us a talk just one month ago was back to announce the winners of the competition. He gave his thoughts on the different entries before announcing the winners.
The winners (of course everyone’s a winner really) were:
1st Place…………….: David McKelvie (A Spanish Custom)
2nd Place……………: Morris Lindsay (The Great Gordon Street Water Fight Of ‘76 )
3rd Place……………: Helen Heffernan (Bus Trips in Tamil Nadu)
David read his story of his younger days heading off to Spain with a friend and attending a bullfight. His description and dramatic blow by blow description took us all into the arena and felt like we were there. Well done David.
We meet again on the 16th March at Ardgowan (Peer editing night). Please remind those who haven’t attended and try to encourage anyone you know interested in creative writing to come along and join in. Let’s build the membership again and try to get meetings of at least twenty.