With regret, we announce the end of WGWG.

It's been an amazing twenty four years and I would like to thank each and every person who attended, you've been amazing  - well, most of you!  ;-)

There's nothing much to add really, other than please don't forget to keep writing...

So long, and thanks for all the fish...
Anne
xxx

Apologies for the late notice but unfortunately we've had to cancel tonight's session. We do hope you will return with us for the next one on May the 4th.

So, Tom came back which was good, and we are looking forward to hearing his work next time ( no pressure, but he did promise!) and Daniel read out another of his stream of consciousness poems.  We hope to have copies of his work for the next reading as it's frustrating for him - and for us - to try and catch the meaning without seeing the poems written down...

Clare read out a revised start to her latest story which made everyone want to know where it was leading - there are a couple of strong characters and her protagonist is not in a good place, whilst her father is lost in Antarctica.  A bit of tinkering with the timelines and we will be flying with this story, I can't wait!

 Marsha read a new piece that led to a very interesting discussion, especially as Rachel Dolezal is still featuring in the headlines.  Will we all be white in 200 years or will everyone want to be black?  Who knows, there is a very strong story here, and I wonder where it is going to end. Marsha has gone off to have a think...

There were hundreds of us at the group this week, hundreds*.
Everything read out was Pulitzer prize material**.  Everything.  I'm not even kidding.
This is the best writers' group in the world and we should build a wall around it to keep it safe***.
We will do that.  Build a wall around it.
You weren't there? Sad.****

*This may be a slight exaggeration.
** This may be an 'alternative truth'.
***Might not happen
**** This is true.

Well, five of us braved the bomb!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/02/two-schools-evacuated-army-called-unexploded-world-war-two-bomb/

We had a new person who read a poem, Daniel read two poems and we learned that Dolgo crossed the Vauxhall Road, and in the background there lurked a real life actual bomb!

So, I waited until 6:25 and took an executive decision and went home.
Honorable mention to Marsha, who was just about to set out when I texted her, so at least she didn't have a wasted journey.

I hope no one else turned up after 6:25 (it's your own fault for being late if you did!)

Better luck in March :-)

'That was good wasn't it?'  said Clare as we were leaving wgwg last night.  And you know what - it was good.

Marsha arrived before the end of the group - hurrah (!) so we were treated to her very funny account of a man from Trinidad ( or was it Barbados?) and his plan to get away from his wife for a few days. It was a brilliant piece, but I can't help being very pleased I'm not married to this scheming trickster!

Daniel has reworked his poem from last week and it has become much more understandable but as Marsha pointed out, he needs to work out if it is a piece of poetry or a stream of consciousness ( or is it both?)

Judith's Dolgo has now made his way into Westminster Cathedral and is waiting to receive the Host, because he is hungry, why else.  But is it the Host, or is it a piece of Vanilla cheesecake he receives?  And do chocolate Jesus's exist for sale in the gift shop or not - we need to know!

David is starting a new course and bought us his homework to peruse.  It was an allegory set on an island where something untoward is definitely going on.  But we all thought that maybe Starbucks was ripe for a bit of allegory action as well.  He has to hand it in today, so I'm not sure he will have time to carry out our suggestions and add a bit of Starbucks, but was a very well written piece which we enjoyed hearing.

Clare's piece continued with her protagonist on a plane annoying the stewardess by reading via her laptop.  But an angry stewardess is the least of her problems.  I'm not sure yet about who will actually turn out to be the real villain in this piece. Is it the father who is the villain, or is it actually the daughter?  Hmm, time will tell...

Oh and for those still wondering about the chocolate Jesus - Tom Waits certainly thinks they exist...

Oooh it was cold last night, proper brass monkey weather.  No one is going to turn out in this I figured, but how I misjudged you wgwg'ers.  Six other brave souls arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed for more literary high jinks.

First off was Judith with more tales of the amazing Dogo.  He has now left Victoria station and is staggering towards Westminster Cathedral, catching a couple of cockroaches engaging in a little cannibalistic activity on the way. Urgh.  I love hearing about his adventures but I sure wouldn't want to be him. I know I've said it before, but what a truly wonderful one off character Judith has produced in Dolgo.

Next up was David who wrote a lovely piece concerning memory. It was a sort of before and after affair with a slightly melancholy air.  Beautifully written, I hope that his writing course liked it as much as we did.

Then newby Daniel ( he came back!) read his poem.  We were at a disadvantage because he had no copies, but we managed to go ahead without them.  I don't think we caught all the nuances of his poem as we couldn't see it, but he has a lively style and he promises us copies next time.  It was a sort of companion piece to his last reading, with this one set in the cold.  Such a sense of cold and freezing he produced!  I really hope he does bring copies next time because his work is interesting but it's difficult to catch hold of on one hearing, thus making feedback difficult. His is a very dense rhyming style that puts me in mind of Malory.

Clare has a new story that is coming along well.  Families are always difficult and I sense that the father/daughter relationship in this story is not going anywhere good. Brilliant writing as always.

Ibra was reading for the first time.  His native language is French and he has had to translate the poems into English with a little help from Sita.  The poems sparked much debate about language and translation.  They are quite dense and I don't pretend to understand some of them, but I hope he brings more of them along!

First group of 2017! How apt then, to have only one first timer, who had something to read, and two regular facilitators who didn't*. We waited a bit for more people then  embarked on Daniel's lyrical traipse through the forest. It must be pretty intense to be subjected to the full concentrated force of only two critque-ers but he handled it really well. We didn't scare him off we hope! He did say he'll come back.

See you all at the next one on the 19th.

*Why break the habit, eh?

So this week, Anne and Naa sat about plotting. This is what we get up to when no one turns up. Someone did turn up, after having been searching for us for ages it seems. He was over the moon to have actually come across us on the correct day and the correct time but alas had nothing to read. The next actual group will be January 5th, 6pm, Willesden Green library.

In the new year we've decided to put a pause on collecting attendance fees. In the past, attendance fees have gone towards printing anthologies and we've built up some money in the last little while. . So as we work back towards a healthy attendance and a substantial amount of short stories ready for print, we'll stop charging until we've figured out exactly what we're gonna spend it on. So if the cost of attendance put you off before, worry no more and come along.

****INVITE ALERT*****
As I said before, our next actual group is January 5th but on the 15th of December we're gonna treat you wonderful people to a drink (with some of that money built up) to celebrate all the great writing you've written and we've experienced through the year.


So join us for some Christmas cheer....

15th December
The Beaten Docket
Crciklewood Broadway
7pm.

...it's the quality,  and we had some great quality last night.

 Only four of us (where were YOU?) but what a good night. First we had more of Dolgo's adventures - he has now progressed to practising his spitting technique on Oxford Street.  I'd love to know where Judith gets these ideas from - but am a bit scared to ask to be honest!  He is a true original and I love hearing about his adventures, although I'm not too sure I'd like to meet him in the flesh.  If you have never heard Judith read Dolgo's adventures, you are missing something.

Then on to Marsha who read her science fiction piece which contained some unpronounceable names - something like Bbberr'z and N.U.  Anyway, there is a bit of miscommunication between the Bbberr'z and N.U not to mention the Earthmen who have come to greet them.  It doesn't end well...

Only two stories, but they were both great so it was a good night all round - and it was especially good to see Mary back, her book is going to the printers today, Hurrah!

It began as all great nights begin, with two women conversing on subjects such as the reactions when liquid meets leather, how to properly dry your feet and how best to set up a small business selling the wares of your hobbies. This all female Waiting for Godot people certainly passed the Bechdel test. We'd resigned to our fate and were just about to pack up and leave when lo and behold, there were people.*

Six in total with two readers. Vince gave us the beginnings of a story about a fortunate man and the group discussed how best  to unravel the soul of the piece through standard or non-standard writing devices. Alistair treated us to another snippet of sci-fi, letting us into a world where you have another option to standing when there are no seats left on public transport. In our world, we learned there are other options when you don't have paper to take notes  and you don't want to be fiddling around searching and interrupting someone's reading.

 Will be better prepared next time. *NEW PROTOCOL: Facilitators will now allow a minimum of 15mins and a maximum of 30mins to see if anyone turns up before abandoning ship. 

Six people tonight, with one apology from Marsha, whose mother is ill ( we hope you get well soon Marsha's Mother) and a we have another newbie folks, name of Sally ( welcome Sally!)

So, we started off with another installment of Alistair's Science Fiction novel which introduced us to a character called Drag - I wouldn't want to have a close encounter with her to be honest. Still don't know where this is going, and still enjoying it very much.

Occasional visitor Judy ( come more often Judy -  really)  read a short piece which was part of an exercise to write about being 'confined' and I think she managed it very well.  Only 250 words and quite a lot packed in, but  I wonder how she would manage with our 50 word challenge - remember that one people?

Judith continued her booze soaked odyssey featuring Dolgo,  um, I meant Dolgo is booze soaked - or did I? ;-)  Still a wonderful, original voice, I wonder where he is going to end up?  I hope there's a good ending in store for Dolgo, he's such an intriguing character.  Take another look at the lost soul slumped in the entrance to the train station as you begin your journey home tonight folks - they might just be a Dolgo...

What a night!  I looked out the window and thought, surely no one is going to come out in this?  I was going to cancel due to, 'inclement weather' but then decided to live up to the motto of the Windmill, mainly, 'We never close' (though admittedly we have far fewer undressed ladies than the Windmill) So I literally waded through the streets to Willesden Green - and guess how many people turned up - nine.  Oh yes, wgwg'ers are made of stern stuff, and not only that, there were four newbies amongst us.

We had a new story from Clare which we must hear more of, such beautiful descriptions, particularly of a garden in Autumn, and a woman who obviously has issues with her father, I wonder where Clare is going to take us with this story?  Victoria gave us the beginning of her new version of an old murder based on the notorious Red Barn Murders which took place in the early 1900's, I certainly hope we get to hear more of this one as well.  Alistair's creepy alien continues to astonish, not only is he eating with his spoon and proceeding to eat the said spoon, he now sort of deconstructs his body as well (you had to be there) I have no idea where he is going with this piece but I am really enjoying the ride.  Lily's new piece left us stunned into silence - it's a beautifully written piece with so many levels to it and it's so different to her other writing, she is full of surprises.  I don't know when we will get to hear the rest of it as Lily is off on her travels, but it will be worth the wait.

So, as you can see, despite the weather, we had a really good session and those who weren't still soaked to the skin went off to the pub ( jealous moi?) So what happened in the pub must remain in the pub - I went home to a warm bath...

So off we go again, the first wgwg for a while, it's nice to be back.

So, Marsha has lots of things to think about. For instance, is her protagonist running an up market classy sort of,  'Gentleman's Executive Relief Service' or is she running a scuzzy massage parlour? How much does she charge for her services and how is it collected?  Who is stealing the money, and how?  So many things to think about, it's not easy writing these short stories you know, but we did have a very interesting discussion about various types of massage parlours and the services they offer.

And Judith's protagonist is still in an alcohol infused state - or is he?  Is it all a dream, an alternative universe or is it the gospel truth as Dolgo sees it, or a mixture of all three?  I don't know as yet, but it's a blast finding out. what a fabulous piece of writing.

See you on the 15th...

Yes folks September 1st is nearly upon us.  I hope you have used the summer break to get those creative juices flowing, 'cos I for one,  am really looking forward to hearing your new work.  Whether you are an old hand or a newbie looking to join,  just turn up at Willesden Green Library in the Education Room at 6pm  - and let the reading begin.

September 1st, usual place, usual time - and don't be late ( you know who you are!)

 So, um, I have nothing to report other than it was half term and I was there, ready willing and ( sort of  ) able, but where were you, oh my WGWG'ers?

 If you turned up after 6.30 I apologise but really, how long is a girl supposed to wait? Back in the day I only waited thirty minutes for Steve Williams to turn up before I left in a huff and I really, really fancied him.

So anyway, I went home after patiently waiting for thirty minutes for someone (anyone) to turn up and I opened a bottle of wine and watched a documentary about fascism and architecture, which I found very interesting though the presenter was annoying...

 The next group on June 16th is the last before the Summer break, so make sure you get there on time!  You have been warned, thirty minutes on my own, never mind Steve Williams, and I'm off...