It's hard to believe that Forth Valley Writers only began in May this year! So much has happened since then.
The most significant thing is, of course, that thanks to Laura Fyfe, the Forth Valley Writers Collective happened at all. For the first time that I can remember, people who had been writing away in isolation found themselves in a room with performance poets, events organisers, teachers of creative writing, leaders of writers groups throughout the region, and made contact with the library services, and people from the Creative Writing and Publishing departments of Stirling University. Suddenly there was a network of contacts, and a chance to pool expertise and experience to make things happen.
The biggest issue seemed to be that the long-established Stirling Writers group had lost its venue in the Tolbooth and wasn't able to meet. Thanks to the good offices of Stirling's Makar Clive Wright a new venue was found at the Burgh Coffee House, and Stirling Writers re-emerged with its new website at Stirling Writers Group
The next need was for a dedicated writing group for people with rather more experience who were focusing on publication and needed detailed feedback. The FK8 group was formed, and now meets regularly.
We have done the boring structural bit, and we now have a committee which does the planning and communicating with members. There is a facebook group, which you can join, and this blog, with some useful links to resources for writers. As ForthValleyScribe is a poet, this list is still top-heavy with poetry resources, but links will be added as we become aware of them.
And on the other hand, there is the regular fun-filled Forth Friday meetup, mostly in Stirling so far, but we do hope to visit Alloa and Falkirk and Callender too. Forth Friday is a chance to network, meet other writers in your genre - and maybe in genres you've never thought of! - swap tips and share opportunities, but we are adding extra features as we go. We've had a Hallowe'en night, and an introduction to the fabulous resource that is the Federation of Writer (Scotland). The next event on 27th January is going to be The Write Angle's Very Peculiar Burns Supper (more about this in the next post) and there will be a panel on being published (date to be confirmed) and a talk about novel-writing in March.
Not bad for a fledgling organisation! But special thanks should go to Laura Fyfe, Ian Maxtone, Janet Crawford and Frances Ainslie for the work they have all put in to make it all happen.
A very Happy Christmas and holiday break to all our readers. We look forward to seeing you with your freshly sharpened pencils on 2017!
