I had a light-bulb moment the other day.

Island Writers has almost reached maximum capacity, and with the lazy days of summer behind us, soon we’ll have to freeze membership again. But that leaves many Isle of Wight writers still looking for support and encouragement from a group of enthusiastic writer friends. Non-members are welcome to join the Island Writers facebook group, but it’s not the same as meeting in person.

Then I had a flash of inspiration: creative writing workshops!

A series of themed, stand-alone workshops, open to non-members and members alike, offers opportunities to link up with other local writers, including people who want to get back to creative writing, and those with more experience.

As a trial run, I’ve arranged three Sunday afternoon workshops, which will be held at our home in Ryde. The content will be suitable for writers of any genre, and will include :

LIGHT & DARK: Sunday 16 OCT, 3pm to 5.30pm, £7.50

CHRISTMAS: Sunday 20 NOV, 3pm to 5.30pm, £7.50

TIME: Sunday 15 JAN, 3pm to 5.30pm, £7.50

We’ve had several enquiries about writing memoirs/autobiography, so next year, I will be leading a series of three Wednesday afternoon sessions in Ryde:

MEMOIR-WRITING: Wednesday 8, 15 and 22 FEB, 3pm to 5.30pm, £22.50 (for 3 sessions)

All of these will have limited spaces, so book your place now to avoid disappointment!

Those of you who have been paying attention may have noticed that my daily NaNoWriMo updates have gone from a sprint to a jog to an uphill plod, and finally come to a breathless standstill. I’m pleased with the 6,000 words I managed to write, but I wasn’t sure where the book was going after that.

I’m not too disheartened. Writing a 50,000-word novel in a month is not easy, so instead, I’ve spent the rest of the month adding bits to existing projects and eating way too much chocolate! But it’s made me determined to prepare more effectively next time – perhaps I’ll try Camp NaNo next April.

In the meantime, we have an extra Tuesday in November, which means tomorrow (Tue 30 Nov) we will be Yelfing – social drinks and chat in Yelf’s Hotel, Ryde, 7pm onwards.

This also means we get an extra week to complete the latest Island Writers assignment: Breathless.

This could be about a person struggling to breathe due to unfitness or some form of strenuous exercise – both of which applied to me as I thought up the subject while rushing home for our last meeting!

‘Breathless’ might also be construed to mean ‘not breathing,’ either referring to a dead person or animal, or a creature which does not breathe – a statue, a toy or even an alien.

Alternatively, it might refer to a shocked gasp, or the ‘breathless hush’ as people hold their breath, expecting something amazing to happen, or waiting for the outcome of an important or potentially dangerous action.

Next meeting: Tue 7 Dec at our house in Ryde – use Contact page for more info.

Will I have finished my assignment by then? Don’t hold your breath!

There will be NO MEETINGS UNTIL JULY 2020, when we will assess the situation.

We are NOT closing down permanently, but in view of Jonathan’s fragile state of health and underlying medical conditions, our family has decided to go into ‘semi-isolation’ to protect him before it is too late – we will not be having visitors and only be going out for essential purchases and medical treatment.

I will continue to set assignments on the blog – please keep in touch via phone, email and on the Island Writers Facebook group.

WE WILL BE BACK!

Who feels like meeting up for a drink on Tuesday 26th March?

We’ll be at Yelf’s Hotel in Union Street, Ryde, from 7pm – 9.30pm-ish (arrive/leave as convenient to you).

If you’re not into booze, they also serve tea and hot chocolate as well as cold drinks.

The next group meeting is Tuesday 19th March at Ryde Library. Our assignment topic for next time is Where the road ends.

I was pleased to hear (and make a note of) your Writing Resolutions for 2019. These targets should help us focus on our top priorities. Sometimes the range of possibilities is so wide that we end up achieving nothing. Many of us are aiming to get our books finished this year, but others wanted to explore new genres or set themselves weekly word targets.

Chantal’s first resolution made us all smile. She’s going to have a more organised writing area, but NOT go over the top and waste time organising her pencils into rainbow order!

For Nicky, it’s decision time: should she revise and complete her old writing, or move on to something new? Heather plans to develop her writing further by incorporating more personal experiences and improving the way she writes dialogue, while Peter even managed to present his resolutions in a poem – now that’s creative!

I was particularly impressed by Bev’s well-thought-out and achievable list of resolutions: she included some goals for blogging, some for her work writing and some for her creative writing. One we all liked was, “Enjoy the journey of writing, and not just the end results.”

One topic which came up during discussion was the Snowflake Method of plotting a novel. There are two well-known methods of deciding your plot: planning, where you make a list of events and break it into chapters before you write, and pantsing, where you just start writing with a basic idea, fly by the seat of your pants and see how your novel turns out once it’s finished. The Snowflake Method starts with a single-sentence basic idea and expands it gradually, building and spreading until you have developed a coherent outline.

A few dates for your diary:

We’re going Yelfing again on Tuesday 29th Jan – meeting up for a few drinks at 7pm at Yelf’s in Union Street. Jonathan will try to get us the Writers’ Room again.

Yvie’s monthly book club, Words, Wine, Wit and Wisdom is meeting on Wednesday 30th Jan. The book under discussion is The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. If you haven’t read it, you can still come – just sip your wine and look intelligent! Contact Yvie through the Island Writers Facebook page for more info.

And the next Island Writers meeting is Tuesday 5th February, 7pm – 9pm at Ryde Library. Our (optional) assignment for next time is The view from a window.

–

Despite the last-minute notice, seven of us turned up to celebrate the New Year with a drink at Yelf’s last night. Good to see Geoff, who’s back from his six weeks of travelling to the Caribbean and the Canaries – he should have lots of new experiences to explore in his writing, although I’m not entirely sure how whizzing down a hillside in a giant basket on skis will help with writing a crime novel set at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway…

We were talking about (among other topics) psychedelia and mind-expanding drugs, and how they changed the type of music and lyrics the Beatles produced, and unfortunately, I jumped into the conversation when they mentioned Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds and kind of derailed what Jonathan was saying. The point he was trying to make is that, as writers, if we expand our minds and try new techniques and different genres, we may find we produce more satisfying writing.

As far as actual drugs go, though, I think we’re all with Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory: “There’s only one mind-expanding drug that this man enjoys, and that’s called School.” I could certainly get addicted to education!

We had the chance to get to know Lucy, a bright and bubbly new member who joined our Facebook group a few weeks ago and came to check us out. Now she’s realised we’re all as friendly as she is, we’ll hope to see her at our next meeting. We’ve had more enquiries since the New Year (all those resolutions kicking in?), so a couple of other writers may be joining us then, too.

See you on Tuesday 15th. It’ll be interesting to see who’s found time for writing over Christmas!

Anyway, if you’re still up for a drink and a laugh I will meet you at Yelf’s in Union Street, Ryde on Tuesday 1st January at 7pm onwards.

If you have all made other plans by now, I will sit sadly alone in the bar, nursing my drink and looking like a complete Milly-No-Mates.

So, no pressure.

To all Island Writers!

You are invited to Christmas drinks on Tuesday 11th December 2018.

Let’s meet at 7pm at Yelfs Hotel, Union Street, Ryde.

There’s plenty of space inside and it’s quiet enough to hear each other speak!
We are such a warm friendly group so let’s get to know each other a little better and find out about the person behind the writing!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Warm festive wishes, Heather x

PS.  I know not everyone can do this date, I was going to offer an alternative but given that lots of us aren’t on the Facebook page, it would be difficult to communicate effectively between all of us.

I have decided to stick to the Tuesday which is the night that we usually meet and the majority of people are free. To anyone who can’t come, there’s nothing to stop us going out again!

If I don’t see you on the 11th have a magical and joy filled Christmas all of you and I’ll see you in the new year peace and love

You can find Heather’s phone number on the Facebook page, or send a message via the Contact form.