Fas Spring XI.2

Something of a killer second session to continue the great form of the new season: thanks to all. In a break from format, here are some rambling thoughts as to it all.

I decided to pitch a new project of mine. Tentatively, and definitely not permanently, entitled 100days (see the twitter hashtag to follow, #100days), it sees the careers and collapse of two protagonists of differing backgrounds and sympathies. More on it anon. Satisfying that my own inclinations with the project were mirrored in Fas: it needs to be a human story with human relations at its centre. My own writing flourishes in that kind of situation, as opposed to trying to write a polemic or something that says something. Who wants to say something anyway?

Next up, John (O) (John-O) pitched an idea of his own. If I thought I was being vaguely political, John upped the ante and we were on Communist Russia of the 30s and some of the massive reversals of fortune that so many people experienced. The idea is a stormer and deserves a hearty, well researched treatment, but I for one am looking forward to seeing it at Fas.

Also up for discussion was about making the evening sessions more overtly a social / drinkle / fun time session and keeping the Sunday sessions as strictly Fas with reading / crit time. What are people's thoughts? I think it'll work, I think it'll provide options for the meetings and a range of opportunities for writers to talk about their work both formally and informally. So there we go. Game on.

Fas Spring XI.1

The start to the new season - joy of joys! New members, new (ish) plans, new writing. Let's go!

Attendees: FB, JO, AS, AP (new member! welcome!), MZ (new member! welcome!)

Read: Are You Looking for the Way Out?, Real Melodrama (two FB short stories of sorts)

I wanted to try out a couple of new things on a reinvigorated Fas, so brought along the super short story AYLFTWO, which tells the tale of Sal and Jerome in an art installation, and Real Melodrama, which is collected writings pre, during and post break up for the hapless author of the piece. 

The former was received fairly well, all told, if with some assistance to divine quite what it was all about. Indeed, the very format and style of the piece was devised to provide something of the disorientation and hostility of the art installation it described, and I was quietly pleased that it remained fairly inscrutable. If a space is to rebuff the viewer so strongly, it was important to me that the description of said space offered at least something of that same opaqueness. At the centre of the story stood the rather one-sided Sal-Jerome relationship, but it was suggested that with no emotional journey in the story, even if that journey were something as simple as a climax of internal realisation for Sal, a change that would not ruin the tone or direction of the piece, it might provide a more understandable emotional hook for the reader, especially given the apparent inscrutability of the piece. Mina also made the very valid point of considering who the reader of this story might be: was I trying to say something about art (is there anything left to say?), about relationships, or about something else? Was there a readership or audience for the story, and if so, whom did I think that was? These kind of questions have never been addressed so directly in Fas and I think it was a good angle to take. Thank you!

Next up was Real Melodrama, and what was remarkable was the response here. I was presenting what I considered to be somewhat trite, if not wildly over-emphasised ramblings from a writer fairly close to my heart (if not my mind); Fas figured that in fact the packaging as something of melodrama was what was off, and that in fact, if the few moments of overstating clichés and emphasising the melodrama were unworked, we might be presented with some emotionally raw and quite intense, introspective writing. One member suggested it be worked into a framework to provide context for this writer's thoughts of the most intimate kind, but other members felt it worked best without any muddying material: a simple, stark portrayal of a mind turned upon itself in the throes of relationship break-down. Maybe it's worth another look.