Meeting on 26th November 2024

 Whereas apologies were received from John Spence, the meeting was attended by fourteen members. We were disappointed to learn that Elizabeth has chosen to resign from the group and wish her well for the future in the hopes that she continues, possibly, as a postal member. Congratulations are to be given to Lorna whose children’s novel “The Superstar Puppy” has recently been published on Kindle and further esteem needs to be applied as she told us of the time-consuming task of self-publishing. We wished John Bon voyage as he sets off to Australia to welcome his new grand-daughter into his family when she arrives and look forward to seeing him on his return in February. Good on yer, cobber!

The main part of the afternoon was taken up by a workshop based on the genre of crime-writing delivered by Russel McLean. An author of eight crime novels - the eighth “The Friday Girl” due to be published in the New Year. Russel is also an editor for numerous publishers including Amazon, has taught creative writing at Dundee University and has also worked in film and TV.

He compared the agony of writing with its ultimate joy and urged us to approach our own efforts with a youthful zest. We were encouraged to read outwith our normal comfort zone and question the appeal of particular books and what makes us so keen on them. We analysed the concept of conflict, the build-up of character empathy  and concentrated on the “primal urge” which drives characters forward  thereby drawing us in. He drew from a wide variety of authors - both classical and modern - illustrated his ideas with reference to TV and film and, again, urged us to think outside the box. We analysed different types of crime writing - from the cosy mysteries to police procedural and crime noire, his most librating point being that a crime writing can cover all forms of writing providing that a committed crime remains as a central core. This certainly freed up a lot of ideas - especially amongst the afficiandoes of science fiction within the group. It was a very thought provoking and “freeing” afternoon.

Russel’s competition is to write a short crime story of 1500 words based on the title “Who killed Alexander Black……and why?”. Members will smile at the title with obvious reasons! He advised entrants to “open up at a point of high drama and get out quickly at the resolution”. Entries to be with Morag by 14th January.

Thank you, Russel