Writing Groups

Sitting in my converted washroom staring out at a bare brick wall, it's easy to forget the social aspect of writing. So it was refreshing to meet up with my original Fellow Travellers in Beverley this weekend. It will be 6 years this Autumn since we all turned up on the Certificate course at Hull University - Department of Care in the Community, or Continuing Education, or some such.

It strikes me that the Masters courses, that a few of us did next, are very different things. It's great to be still in touch with people from my Masters, but I don't think it's a coincidence that with one exception, those I'm in regular touch with were never in the same Conference group - and that one jumped ship half way through.

Just too much blood spilled in Conference. But hey, hopefully we'll all one day be giving each other impossibly glowing reviews in the press - just like all the UEA alumni in the Guardian every Saturday.

It was the Certificate group, though, that had real common purpose. We were all in the same hole (Still are. Still digging) - all trying to work out what we were trying to do with this Writing thing. Common enemies, too. As someone pointed out - Creative Writing does attract a lot of mentally unstable people.

But it was the ability of this group to both honestly criticise AND find common ground and common references and suggest possible directions - to encourage with honesty but a minimum of pain - that was the true value. Michael's tutorship did the trick until it was unnecessarily cut short. As he said, it's good to start from the maxim of First, Do No Harm.

Finally, it's good to have people to drunkenly reminisce with to 4am.

Anyway, I'm hoping to drag them all over to the West coast for more of the same in the not-too-distant future. Maybe even bring some real creative work along as well as the plonk.