Fas Fall X.9 - mulled wine and mince pies

The final session of the third season of the Frank Brinkley Pimlico Fruit and Sex Writing Group for Writers and Frank! We met at mine (first time!) and had mulled wine and mince pies and if you missed it, you're a total fool.

Attendees: FB, CW, EP, JW

Read: The Barber (FB short story); A Pathetic Apathetic (JW nanowrimo opening); ideas from EP

First on the block was The Barber, one of two stories I wrestled with throughout November (the brief thoughts on the other are right here). The Barber describes a few days in the life of Faisal, a barber in Hasan Abdal in Pakistan. It's a little about death, about new beginnings, and about being in a community but feeling entirely alone. I'm pretty happy with it; it seemed as though Fas was too. The language problems didn't come across as jarring (How far can one use Pakistani slang in a short story in English?), the tone and pace worked, more or less, and it held up well in the reading. Now onwards, to try to recreate that spurt of productivity.

John boldly offered us the opening of his Nanowrimo novel. He didn't win but was left with this little tidbit of a good idea. The story details the changes that come across a man who's settled for mediocre for far too long. As with any longer form idea, there are plenty of plot and character details that need to be straightened out and clarified, but John recognised that more than anyone. The idea has its strengths, so it's up to him to make something of it.

Finally we did something we've not done in quite a while, and riffed on a few ideas of Ellen's for a short (ish) film. It will be great to see what direction she takes things, as she has the makings of potentially a very engaging, very thought-provoking, violent piece, and once more, she's just gotta put the words down. So, all that's left to say is:

Fas Fall X.8 - just so stories

Attendees: FB, JW, RM, AS, CW, SC (new member! woo! welcome!) 

Apols: IE, HH, JR

Read: The Most Tender Place (FB short story); Mailbait (CW comedy sketch); A Model Employee + 1 (AS comedy sketches)

TMTP was one of two short stories (and two poems) that took over most of my writing mind during November, as opposed to NaNoWriMo (even though I did bumble to a win!). So I thought it best, even after I felt it done and dusted, to give the Faslets a chance to chew it over. It documents details of a relationship from a female perspective, wherein the intense situation has led to the characters creating their own language to bring them closer together.

As ever, I was left with plenty to think about: small detail work still remains, in particular with overly descriptive turns of phrase or overly obvious exposition. We discussed at length the difference between a romantic 'past' and a romantic 'history' (and indeed 'background') - any further thoughts on which is more/less loaded? Also it became clear that my intended / faintly emphasised mood in the second section was far from obvious or indeed effective. Tonal shift needed? Perhaps.

Mailbait and Adam's sketches were all juicy, delicious, re-heated-in-the-oven-at-180-for-20-minutes offerings that came from the comedy session two meets ago. Mailbait is a Daily Mail mocking quiz show, born out of Colin's obvious mastermind-standard knowledge of Daily Mail journos. It followed many of the typical comedy-quiz show conventions, but was sharp and shocking enough to be enjoyable and engaging. As with other sketches we've considered, all that remains is finding a proper outlet for the material - is a sketch show slowly brewing on the horizon?

Certainly Adam's sketches would make worthy contributions to such a show - both were funny, well-written, and after only a few tweaks would stand up very nicely. They were pretty typical Salt humour: the absurd in the mundane, taking simple misunderstandings as starting points and pushing idiocy to its (il)logical limits. Once more: where do we go with this material? What's next?