Questions

Epping Forest U3A Writers’ Circle

Our Writers’ Circle meets under the auspices of The University of the Third Age (U3A). This organisation is now world wide, having arrived in this country from France in 1982. All members are retired or semi-retired, forming self help groups to learn for pleasure or to follow their interests in the company of like-minded people. Our local Branch has six hundred members and over sixty groups, of which the Writers’ Circle is one. Each group has a leader, not necessarily with academic qualifications, and meets fortnightly in a member’s house.

We only have seven members. Two men and five women. Partly because our venue is small but, having discovered that we all have plenty to say (and write), we don’t want passengers. Everybody enthusiastically attends regularly, reads their work and accepts feed-back. Several of us have experienced larger groups with members who only come for counselling or praise, and we’ve all decided we haven’t enough life left for all that.

I, as leader, set homework at each meeting which usually can be interpreted however the member wishes. One lady is a wow at Ruthless Rhymes. e.g.

He fell from the top of a tower block

And landed head first on his pate

The resulting mess made a pleasing sight

And he’s now on display at the Tate.

She used to work for Social Services. Need I say more?

Another twists every subject into an anecdote from her fascinating past. She met Picasso years back who sketched her, calling it ‘La belle Anglaise’ after she had shoved him away. Not knowing who he was, she tore the sketch up a few days later!

Poetry, short stories, articles are all triggered by the homework subjects and work is polished and submitted for publication. One member has had twelve poems accepted by Forward Press and other publications, while others have won short story competitions, had a musical performed on stage and pieces read on radio. A high success rate for people retired from widely differing walks of life, none of them professional writers. An anthology of our work for the millennium sold extremely well so we had a ‘jolly’ on the proceeds.

One source of ideas is ‘The Creative Writing Coursebook’ from the University of East Anglia but I use other triggers, including pictures from magazines (to a concerted groan), but they still come up with the goods. The fortnightly meetings are hard working but great fun and our summer and Christmas lunches in local hostelries are a riot. We all like a glass or three.

Several members subscribe to literary magazines and we pool information and exchange the magazines, together with the URLs of Writers’ web sites. Writing has encouraged us all to become computer literate, even our oldest member, the Picasso lady, at eighty-four.

Writing can be a lonely business but reading work to trusted people who give considered opinions and who in turn accept feed-back helps tremendously with editing. It is so easy to become enthralled with a particular phrase and work the whole piece round it, when that is just what should be edited out.

I have learned so much over the past seven years since I became leader of the Writef’s Group, I am now having my first book of short stories published by Circaidy Gregory Press. See my web site.

Pam Eaves


- Pam Eaves

Overcoming writer’s block has so many prescribed cures that seem like witches’ brew, you may as well be trying to get rid of hiccups. My favorite remedy is “just write anything.” If I were to follow this advice when I’m stuck in a frustrating blank stare moment, my page would be filled with expletives that would be of no use to anyone, including Lenny Bruce.

If you have no idea of what to say on any given subject, you do not have writer’s block, you have a lack of knowledge problem. If you have the facts in front of you and still do not know what to say then you have writer’s block. The basic step of gathering enough material to complete your writing task should never be confused with writer’s block. Writing takes leg work – tedious legwork. Before the Internet this task could seem insurmountable; but now with worlds of knowledge at our fingertips, I don’t want to hear about any problems getting background material on any subject. Learn how to use the search engines well. This should already be part of your writer’s skill set.

Genuine writer’s block comes when you “just don’t know how to say it.” You have the information, a basic outline, yet you are not satisfied with the tone, cadence or anecdote provided. It just doesn’t feel right. You can’t tie your ideas together into one cohesive product that supports the underlying theme you are trying to convey. What do you do?

Take your material and write it out as you have it. Even if doesn’t feel right complete your assignment as if it were due today, and walk away. Leave the problem to rattle around in your brain for a while. Now here comes they key. Do something totally unrelated that requires you to pay some attention to your new task – a household chore, returning emails, running an errand. I generally find a physical chore, like walking to the post office to be superior to a mental chore like answering emails. Exercise is one of the great inspirational tools available to us. If you exercise regularly this would be a great time to do that. Sometime during your chore or exercise the answer will pop into your head. That is the way our brains work. Inspiration comes to us all the time. We need to be distracted from the noise that interfering with our ability to hear the inspiration. Once we have changed our focus away from the problem at hand our brain can finally deliver the answer unimpeded. Whether you believe the answer has come from your brain or from the cosmos the answer is always available to us. Sometimes more than one chore is required for distraction. On a big problem it might take a week of chores. Be absolutely sure you have a pen and pad of paper with you at all times, because the answer may be fleeting, or just a partial answer with the remaining portion to show up at a later time.

Most writers are working on more than one project at a time. Leaving one assignment and starting another can also help in getting the answer to a previous writing problem. Remember; never confuse lack of preparation with writer’s block. Lack of preparation is a matter of laziness and is a whole different problem to overcome.


- Jeffrey Dorrian