Drifting Characters in Search of a Plot

Got sidetracked writing about Harry Potter when I really meant to write about MPH's Writer's Circle.

Today there were just sixteen of us. A drastic drop in numbers after last month's exciting encounter with Tash Aw, which in itself speaks volumes ... if this group is to survive there needs to be a clear focus to each session, interesting guest speakers and plenty of advance publicity.

Oon Yeoh was back, though still needing a crutch to hobble around after his knee operation and subsequent infection. The group consisted of several wanna-be fictionators (including Li Ying, Emily, Christina, Hezrine); Chris, a published writer/illustrator with a book of ghost stories to his credit; our print-on-demand friends Gary Gan and Shirley; Malkeet and Avtaran of Micechannel (Malkeet took part in my creative writing course and jumped into writing fiction with enthusiasm after years of writing about golf!); Jennifer, a speech and language pathologist, writing about her work; her father who edits The Planter and her mother who writes occasional articles for it; Sulaiman, a motivational speaker for whom a book project is as yet a twinkle in the eye at present; Joyce, an ex-trainer interested in design and layour; another Shirley, "passionate about publishing"; and Lim a management trainer in sales negotiation.

Phew!

And here you see the size of the problem ... so many divergent interests and no-one quite sure of what our direction should be.

Over the previous months there has been valuable discussion about how to publish your own work and market it locally. But those wanting to write fiction have been largely ignored.

I told Oon that maybe we should alternate, one month the focus should be on fiction, the next non-fiction ... and we should try to bring in interesting speakers whenever possible. I've volunteered a session on writing and editing short fiction which I have a bit of insight into after editing a collection, and keeping my ear to the ground to hear what other editors have to say. Shall try to rope in one or two other friends to talk too. (You know who you are! Be warned!)

In many ways though, this diversity within the group has been a strength in that it encourages networking: I've certainly benefitted through the contacts and friends I've made. But I think the next few months will be make or break time for the Writer's Circle.

(Read Oon Yeoh's account of the meeting on his blog.)