Writer's Notes - May 2018.

A new item has been added to the Writer's Notes page. - 'Infestation' by Anne O'Neamus.

Adjudication and readings of Young Adult Story 24 April 2018.

At her workshop on 27^th February, Vicki Gemmell had set us the task of producing a blurb for a Young Adult Story and then writing the first chapter of that story.

The winning entry was from Judith Vallely with “The Secret Swimmers Club.” The chapter told of a terrifying encounter with a shark resulting from her brother hacking into a teenage Daisy’s virtual reality device.

Second was “Belonging” by Joan Frondigoun. Maddie finds a hidden photo of an unknown man holding her as a baby. She has different, colouring, mannerisms and interests from the rest of her family and yet her parents insist that she is not adopted.

Diana Devlin took third place with “Face the Dark”. Whilst walking in the rain, as respite from a drunken mother, Jess is attracted by a cry for help and scrambles into a derelict theme park. She becomes disoriented, bleeding from a gashed leg and scared.

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Elizabeth tells of a boy from Scotland reluctantly starting life in Canada. Whilst still jet lagged, he gets a taste of an alien land of baseball, wood cabins, barbecue breakfasts, dark forests and bears.

Pete’s writes of a girl born with a periodic ability to project herself forward in time. She gets to experience her life as it might be dependent upon her earlier choices.

Hilary writes of a girl who feels that she is at odds with the rest of her family. Using make-up as a shield, she starts to leave home. She takes with her a youth who is also trying to escape from a desperate drug saturated urban environment.

All of the entries received loads of written feedback and encouragement from Vicki and each reading sparked interested comments from members.

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                     Open manuscripts.

Both Kathleen and Diana gave us poems which were time related.

Kathleen wrote of experiencing time in relation to people you have met, places you have lived and major events which have happened in your life.

Diana saw time through the medium of a kaleidoscope of components from watches and clocks in a clockmaker’s shop.

Pete wrote of the dubious skills of a DIY expert not always being passed down to later generations.

Joan Fr. read a short poem on The Passing of a Good Men.

“I had a dream” - 17 April 2018.

This topic naturally inspired stories and poems of dreams of different writer’s views of the ideal world, of dreams that came true and others that did not.

We looked for a utopian world free of pain and strife, a litter free country, springtime without rain, a life uncontrolled by electronics and a mind hovering between dreams and nightmares.

Off the main theme of dreams were two very diverse pieces; the culinary masterpiece of baked beans and an introduction to volunteer tutoring. The latter was not easy to pitch in terms of format, length and content for the ‘average’ potential volunteer.

The group had previously decided to improve the amount of suggestions, critique and discussion provided for each of the writings.

This worked well. It obviously took more time but most appeared to think it was worthwhile. Like everything else it needs practice.

We did not all agree on our comments about any particular piece, but that’s life; we are all different and often have diverse opinions.

It was agreed that, where used, the extra element of humour had worked well.

Fairy Fails

During the Easter break Wilma and myself journeyed to the land of make believe. The Macrobert Arts Centre housed within the grounds of Stirling University was showing Stirling’s Musical Theatre Society’s adaptation of several well-known fairy stories. The theatrical production placed the various stories into one contemporary play.

            It was performed on a black featureless stage. The young cast, wearing their own fashionable clothing, were all on stage for the opening number. This gave the audience a blast of things to come. We were then introduced to the cast and the characters, which they played. With the aid of the obligatory Fairy Godmother and the character of Rapunzel, this scene set out the premise for the show- how not to pair off characters with out knowing and caring about them?

             Said characters were Bell, Aurora, Gavin, Snow White, Prince Charming male, (of which there were only two in the show.) It took me a wee while to cotton onto this after several checks of the programme in the darkened auditorium.)  Other players included the Director, Alice, Dad, Cleaners and Party guests. The over officious and blundering Fairy Godmother had made a list of wishes each character had wanted granted. They included, finding love, friends, and freedom. The list of wishes would then ticked off from a ledger after being awarded to the relevant characters. Using a grand party as the vehicle, the wishers were then endowed using the most appropriate spell. This as you might guess, caused misunderstandings and problems for all as the individual’s stories evolved.

            With interesting sub plots, social innuendos, local jokes and classis pantomime gestures, the cast bravely fought, through difficult songs. The story line tried to introduce some aspects of the original fairy stories.

            One of the best scenes was when the play’s director had been corralled by the Fairy Godmother as she complained she had not been on stage since scene three. She then told the audience she was the most important character in the show so she should have more time on stage.

            The young cast worked very hard, throughout the play. The audience, which were mainly family and friends, were very encouraging. The show was interesting and it was unusual. It could have been much funnier if the scriptwriter had used more unusual Disney characters, making the misunderstandings far more pronounce.

Hilary Stevenson.