Attendees: FB, JO, AP, JW, SC, JH (new member! woo!)
Read: Brenden's Losing Faith (JO short screenplay); Can't Keep a Dead Man Down (SC novel - we read the opening)
A great pair of pieces for the third session, as well as lively, useful discussion (hopefully as ever). BLF follows the story of the eponymous protagonist who has found himself from Alabama in London on a very particular mission. The voice was solid and engaging, a well-imagined world, while we also looked at the pacing of the piece, and how much Brenden's apparent loss of faith was well-timed and believable. Talk ranged to the religious aspect of the short too: how much do the Christian overtones and suggestions of the piece put off or engage with a viewer? Discussion also moved to how much of our sympathies a character like Brenden could indeed garner, and whether it was worth John's while to push the level to which he dictated the audience's sympathies at the close of the piece, and how that could be affected through greater contrasts between levity and seriousness earlier in the short.
CKADMD was first written by Sarah as part of
Nanowrimo 2009, but has since then been edited and expanded to reach a more appropriate novel shape and size. As a opening to a pulp/noir detective novel set in San Francisco in the 1930s, it was both tense and gripping, with a strong sense of character to the hero Joseph, as well as an excellent evocation of place and setting. Discussion urged for even greater focus on both character and setting, and for clarity, even if not directly on the page, from Sarah as to her creative choices and direction: why Frisco? why 30s? But early dialogue and descriptive prose provided plenty of detail and opened up questions for the reader in the way any opening should. A lovely first offering from Sarah to Fas - thank you!
