P.W.G Minutes of the Meeting on 21 May 2020

Venue: Zoom

Present:

John Goodwin Bob Barker Jennie Rook Nikki Burrows Richard Powell

David Greensmith

Apologies from Caroline Harman-Smith.

Greetings Scribes,

As always, we hope that you and your closest are healthy and safe.

This week’s 10th online meeting was held solely on Zoom. We are on day 1 of Phase 2, of the Cyprus lockdown easing. So there’s no limit to time spent out, the curfew is lifted, no need to send the SMS and all shops (not the Malls), bars, cafes and restaurants are open for patio use only. Let’s hope everyone is maintaining the social distancing and hygiene rules, so Cyprus can keep the virus at bay and cases low.

We had a full meeting with 2 hours of homework pieces, readings, feedback and discussions. Thank you to everyone who is contributing.

Jennie warned the group about the possible electricity supply disruption for all during the meeting, as EAC, the Cyprus Electricity Board, is at full capacity and due to the current May heatwave and to COVID-19. They couldn’t bring the engineers over from Greece to start up the back-up generator for the island due to the lockdown. Today being the first day of lifting of the lockdown there could be some disruption across the island.

Jennie mentioned to the group that she had spoken to Stavros at Neo’s Sports Bar in Peyia, by phone and that she will visit the venue next week, to arrange how we can return to our meetings at his venue, while keeping to the social distancing requirements. There are currently building works being undertaken at the venue, so the return will likely be in 2 or 3 weeks.

We discussed the possibility of having our first, face-to-face meeting in the grounds of The Roost in Polemi. Nikki said her first arrivals (depending on the situation) will be 29 June.

As before, any more information will be distributed after next week, by email and on the website.

John and Bob announced that they had both been approached by writers to edit and give feedback on autobiographies. We had a discussion about the difficulties in marketing such books when you’ve not an accomplished author. Jennie mentioned an article she’d read this week, here is the link from Writers Chatroom website: https://bit.ly/2XkL3ML

John asked Jennie if she was also posting the minutes to the PWG public Facebook group. She said she wasn’t but could she have the name of the group so she can in the future. Jennie asked the six members present if they were happy to give permission to post their full names on the public site, for GDPR compliance. All agreed they were giving permission. Should anyone not wish to have their names posted on the public site (in the Minutes only), please contact John or Jennie by mid-June to opt-out.

Readings:

David: Based on last week’s homework: Remdesivir – guess what the word really means. Very well done.

John: Based on last week’s homework: Zoonosis – a wider definition of the word and it was well written.

Bob: Introduced us to his new WIP, book 6 of the Jamie Carver series. Chapter 1 – The Woman Across The Street – from a 14 year old boy’s POV, set in Brooklyn, USA, leading into the book. A good start and Bob received plenty of feedback from the group regarding POVs, observation from a child, who’s the audience, getting to grips with US language and colloquialisms, etc.

Rick: Chapter 4 of his POW mystery – Tracking down Caz – great imagery, good voice but must check his use of tenses and POV.

This led to a long and relatively deep discussion regarding managing characters when writing a novel. We discussed the use of character plotting, Bob mentioned good advice from a back cover of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel to Rick, that he’d read, which detailed her characterisation methods. Feedback for Rick was recorded and sent to him for his editing.

Reading:

Rick also read Chapter 6 of Roman Roads chronicles – feedback was the same as previous reads, it’s a nice journey through the English countryside from a foreigner’s POV. Each chapter entices the reader to go and visit the area.

Bob announced that his UK writing group had organised an online training on Scrivener and how to use it to write creatively. The meeting will be held on Zoom tonight and the link to the meeting has been sent by email to all PWG members, should you wish to join.

We will continue with Zoom/Skype though, for the next 2 weeks until further notice. Should anything change before next week’s meeting, all will be notified here on the website.

For those interested and want to know more about Zoom, please go here for details: https://zoom.us/meetings

For those interested in joining our PWG Online Skype group, please email us your skype name to add you to the group.

Coffee break: Throughout the meeting

Homework:

Write a short piece of dialogue, between and English person and two or three other characters. The other characters must hail from a foreign country and speak in their regional/country dialect to the English person.

Your characters could be from Cyprus, Wales, Scotland, Russia, Italy, U.S.A. or Asia. Anywhere but England. The idea is to write a piece of dialogue, not a whole story, so we practice the use of other languages and imagine different traits of these characters.

For those attending the call, please send your piece to Jennie to upload to the PWG Zoom Group, or any other you would like feedback on.

Next meeting will be on: Thursday 28 May on Zoom.

Thanks to all who attended. Stay healthy, safe and happy writing.