STARTING BACK - WORDWORKERS AT THE HAC

Each new term of the writing group brings it's own worries (and delights).

This term (Wednesday 21st August) was one I considered cancelling. A few people had said they might not make it. And the room is expensive to hire if you're not sure you can cover it.

That plus all the usual self-doubts. Have I been doing this too long (about 18 years)? And so on.

I turned up early and took away two of the tables the caretaker had put out. I didn’t want a small group made to seem smaller by all the extra chairs.

Yeah... what do I know?

We had a swathe of regulars turn up, plus two new members. One of those newcomers has - amazingly - already added a piece of writing to the Facebook page.

We had some beautiful offerings for the "Travel Dancing" competition. In the end, the group realy was the perfect, comfortable, size.

We talked about doing more prose and using flash/micro/nano and even hint fiction as a starting point.

I gave out a sheet on finding inspiration rather than waiting for it. And a prompt - With Friends Like These - from Jo Bell's 52 book.

We looked at the deadlines for New Writing Scotland and The Edinburgh Flash Fiction Prize. We discussed auto-fiction.

Our On The Spot exercise was inspired by everything seeming to start back at this time of year. Ten minutes of writing on The First Day. We had a limerick in response, the trauma of watching mum turn and walk away, and post apocalyptic green-shoots.

We ended the session with a piece that was brutally downbeat in its subject matter, but uplifting in the beauty and insight of the writing.

I left the group meeting with a metaphoric air-punch, berating myself for ever worrying. I know I'll worry again the next time, but I also know the writing group won't let me - or themselves - down!