Fas Fall X.5 - "you have pierced the film lid of my heart"

Close second for title: "Fuck you, aphorist!". Sorry Ian. Next time!

Attendees: FB, AS, IE, JW, DC (new member! hello!), CF (new member! hello too!)

Read: Chicken Breasts With Cheese and Ham (JW poem); And I You (IE stichomythic dialogue short); The Quarry (FB short story); The Dog in Greece (IE short story opening)

Scrawled on the back of a cardboard piece of food packaging was a sweet two stanza poem all about food and love. Let's pretend it was really about fruit and sex. It was short and sweet and pretty darn funny (see above title) and we talked a little about focusing the addressee of the poem a little more clearly. It was a great ice-breaker to start the session. Thank you JB!

And I You sees Ian further break-down conventional story-telling modes to try for something a little less formatted, and a little more fun. Two unmarked voices break into argument about ideolect which resolves in some sort of admission that the details they detest in each other are also the things they adore. We talked about Ian's choices of words that emphasised an overly posturing ideolect (whack, nigger), about how successful the piece was in representing two separate voices (some people reckoned it was an internal dualogue), and about marking out the voices more distinctly. As ever, it depends in what direction Ian wants to take his piece. As an experiment in trying to represent an argument in which the participants are so similar that they can barely be distinguished, I think we have some markedly successful results.

I brought The Quarry again. Same version as before; you all have it in your inboxes. It is always interesting to hear the directions people feel a piece should pursue. We talked even more about the character of this narrator, about the limits of his memory and what that means for how he reinterprets his diaries. Inevitably, my own diaries came up. Yes, one day I'll bring one along. And we'll laugh until my face melts off.

Then Ian throughout a bit of a blinder: the opening to a provisionally entitled The Dog In Greece. The story itself, as Ian was told it, is shocking as it is; his opening sees two characters, a couple, talking about the intensity of their feelings for each other as they drive along. As a story opening, it's compelling and fast-paced. It sees some of Ian's attention to physical detail that made the first draft of TOR so readable, while also demonstrates him trying out more attempts at realistic, engaging dialogue. Let's see the rest of it, please! 

Fas Fall X.4 - 'title pending'

Another cool session!

Attendees: FB, JW, AH

Read: Points of Perspective (Annabel short story); Sunday Football (John comedy scenes).

Points of Perspective is a charming short story by Annabel about a country jaunt of a young lady and her potentially-interested foreign friend. It was filled with wry, engaging observations and no little amount of underlying tension. It was not yet complete, but discussion centred around what direction to take the story, and what could be omitted in terms of character development and plot and what needed further fleshing out. It remains a great example of short story writing as a process that forces a writer to make decisions, and it was pleasing to see so many avenues being explored by Annabel. Many of our points on red-herrings and plot-points will all be resolved, no doubt, in a next draft, when it becomes apparent what Annabel wants to do with the story.

Sunday Football is a series of sketches/skits/radio-bits/jokes, all built around the idea of a parish football team. John is keen to find a structure that maintains the speed and regularity of the jokes (which are excellent - some wordplay, some situational), while also providing a bit more, well, structure. We wondered whether trying to pace the pieces like a football game might work - short, sharp in the halves, with longer breaks at half-time and pre- and post-match. But we definitely want another session on this, to build a greater distinction between the character comedy and the repartee stuff, and to see what other comedy writers think.