WRITERS MEETING FOR 14TH October 09

Present at the writers’ meeting were: Terry, David, Jo, Cath, Helene, Melissa, Mary, and we welcomed Leonie who has recently moved into the area. We hope Leone will come back and join us.

Since nobody had any brags, Dale handed around some information about a crime writing workshop being held on October 24 from 10-4 at the Shoalhaven City Arts Centre in Nowra. Cost is $25. Further contact details from Barbara Simmons info@fawnswhoalhaven.org.au

Word of the Day
Terry avatar - as we often see on the internet is actually an old word meaning an incarnation- the descent of a god -Vishnu to earth in human form.
David frenemy - a one time friend who has become an enemy
Retort - the crucible in which you heat elements or a sharp reply
Jo ructation - belching or burping
Cath feckless – indifferent, insipid, vain, uncaring
Helene détente – a relaxing, as of international tension
Leonie transference - to do with psychoanalysis, where feelings shift from one person to the other eg. A person may refer to their analyst as father.
Mary avuncular of or relating to an uncle especially in kindness or geniality
Dale nescient lacking knowledge, ignorant

Word Count
Jo produced an interesting piece about the way publishers work out word counts- not the same way that computer spell-check does. Terry is going to photocopy it for everyone.

Homework
David, Jo, Cath, Helene and Melissa produced an interesting array of stories and poems that dealt with a bet between two men, being trapped then rescued after an explosion, a mother and her two sons’ questions and answers, a gambler and a poem about Davy Jones’ Locker. It was as always interesting to see how each person tackled the homework topic so differently.

Broadband
David gave us some important information about Broadband and kilobytes and kilobits and what causes some computers to be slow downloading.

Abbreviations
David then produced a whole range of initials to see if the rest of the group could guess or remember what they stood for. Eg LSD is pounds, shillings and pence - the original Latin being Librae solidi denarai. GMT, LCD, GC, MVP were among the others. He gave the history behind abbreviations such as eg exempli gracia,
i.e. it est. and many others. Many of these originated from Latin.
He also explained how to do Suduko for those interested.

Terry posed a grammar question about the correct use of colons and semi colons.
A colon is used before giving a list. A semi colon which should be used d sparingly is a longer pause than a comma but not as long as a period. However often the long sentence involving a colon can be broken into two shorter sentences. We learned excessive us of the semi colons spells amateur to editors.

Jo also queried the use of that and which. That is usually an inanimate object which can be more do with a person. That does not have a comma before it. Whish needs the comma before it. Often that can be left out of a sentence without losing anything.

Clichés
Jo also produced a list of clichés and well worn phrases. Something for us all to be wary of using.

Childhood Games
We also had an interesting discussion about childhood games and rhymes and the difference some of us knew in them.

Quick Write
The quick write was based on I remember and produced some funny, some sad and some poignant pieces of writing.

Nobody read from any current projects.

David read the Henry Lawson poem provided by Robyn for next week’s homework. The aim is to write a story, or a poem if you like about the character in Lawson’s poem.

The Future

Terry asked about future ideas for Quick Write ideas and what to include in the group and ways to develop characters better. Predicably different people had different ideas about what they enjoyed and what they didn’t.

Melissa would be interested to know other people’s reactions to the movie Gone, Baby, Gone.

Next week
Facilitator – Jo
Exercise Vala
Homework Wendy