Making Connections at City Voices

I have loved every minute of my time at City Voices since I joined this year. I can hardly believe I have been there for a full six months already. Time certainly flies when you are having fun!

All the members are very prolific in their own way, with many short stories, flash fictions, poems and plays between them. It’s great to meet up every two weeks and to hear what people have been up to. Just this last weekend, Jason Smith and Paul Williamson revealed that they have been collaborating on a play that started as a short story written by Jason. Paul, being a playwright amongst other things, adapted it. We will get to hear it at the group some time and I am looking forward to that.

Coming soon, we will have an anthology of poems entitled “Connections”, and most members of the group have contributed up to five poems each on that theme. It will be really interesting to see how differently people have interpreted it – that’s the beauty of prompts and themes in writing. Everyone comes up with a different way of looking at things, and the wealth of material we can come up with is stunning. I don’t consider myself a poet – it does not come as naturally to me as to some of the very talented poets in our group – but I had a go and sent five in. I will post about it when it comes out. Watch this space!

At our meeting on Saturday 15th October, Anita Oxford took a workshop and it was wonderful. She had brought with her a whole stack of postcards and greetings cards that she has collected over the years. Each one is special to her for either their message, or their photographs and pictures. She had a particular favourite that she had written both a poem and a piece of prose about, and she read these to us in the meeting. Afterwards, she challenged us all to pick a card at random (without looking) and then we had half an hour to write something about it.

My card had a drawing or painting of a woman; quite sensible and prim looking, with greyish hair, dressed and sitting quite properly as if she was waiting for someone. In my mind she was waiting for a job interview and had a determined look about her. It gave me a wonderful idea for a piece of flash, or even a longer short story.

Others in the group also came up with great ideas, and we had a read around after to see what we had created. This is one of the main reasons I love City Voices so much – since joining I have written so many more stories and flashes because the ideas just keep coming. Or being given to you!!