West Sussex Writers to meet online until the end of the year at least.

“Meetings have been put on hold for this year – that is to say our face-to-face meetings at the Methodist Church Hall in Goring, but we have had our first meeting on Zoom. It was very enjoyable to see and hear from everyone who could come. It was an open mic session with a mixture of short fiction and non-fiction stories and poems. Two of the winners of the Flash Fiction competition read out their stories.

“What can be said is that we laughed a lot and clapped a lot and were reminded of the broad range of talented writers we have in WSW. We knew that, of course! We have always welcomed new writers as well as more experienced published writers. With the gap of a few months, this gathering reminded us how important it is to share our work. The time limit for each of us was five minutes… though a bell was not sounded to cut anyone off!

“The plan for the rest of the year is to continue having the monthly meetings on Zoom on the second Thursday each month at 7.30pm. On September 10 this will be the AGM. A speaker is planned, as well as the brief but essential round-up of the year and voting in of next year’s committee. If time, there will also be an open mic at the end.

“The programme for the autumn is in place and will be announced on the website.”

New members are welcome. Again, more details on the website.

“We also continue to have competitions for members. One coming up is a 1,500-word non-fiction competition, and the judge is Sarah Higbee.

“We continue to send out a monthly newsletter that covers a range of interesting items on the world of creative writing including other competitions and events locally and nationally. We publicise members’ successes including recent books they have had published.

“We post these on our Facebook page and it’s always worth a look to see any other snippets that we post.

“Recent successes include Richard Buxton’s book launch.”

Cherrie admits the downside of Zoom is that there are some people who can’t use it and also some people who won’t use it, so inevitably some members will be lost for a while.

But it was the only practicable way forward.

“Some people had been thinking that we might be able to meet in the open air, and we put it to the members who responded that they didn’t really see it as an option. It is so dependent on the weather, and if you are meeting outdoors, it could be difficult to hear each other with the distancing.”

Besides the signs are that Zoom will work well: “There were at least five or six people that I hadn’t seen since lockdown, which was nice. The readings were fantastic. They were so good – and we had a good laugh!

“So it will be Zoom for the rest of the year, and I think that is more reassuring because obviously we don’t know what is going to happen. It is not clear at all when we might be able to meet.”