Allies and Enemies week

At our second session, we concentrated on two things - firstly, what we were going to do about our enemies and secondly, the projects we're all intending to work on during the next six months. 

We've been both creative and committed. One group member's digging into savings for a nanny three mornings a week; another's cramming five days' work into three. We're giving up coffee or drinking more of it, rationing red wine, being firmer with our friends/ partners/ children. We're giving up on feeling guilty for putting our writing on the map of our day to day lives, whatever that might mean for those around us. Maybe we won't be thought of as such nice people any more; maybe that's the way it has to be.

Louise was delighted that we all have specific projects we want to work on. Or maybe her expression owed more to the thought of the party that she was going to afterwards - a celebration of a new anthology of erotica. Apparently the literary editors are all longing to know who wrote which story. The stories are all published under porn pseudonyms (name of first pet + name of the first road you lived in - Fluffy Grove, anyone?), and a list of the authors' real names. Louise is legally bound not to reveal who wrote what. We thought we had some inside information when she let slip that she'd written an alien abduction scene, but then she said she'd cut it. So no chance to tattle to the gossip columnists there then...

I don't think any of us found it easy to sum up our own projects. Any grand scheme condensed into two sentences is bound to sound inadequate at best, and trite, if not incomprehensible at worst - at least to the writer. What became clear, though, is that however hard we are on ourselves, we're supportive of and interested in each other. So interested, in fact, that the proffered disclaimers - this sounds unbearable, sorry for being so cliched, this is dreadful - faded away as we listened to each other.

Next week, the workshops begin. We've all been given writing samples for the first victims - sorry, willing volunteers - and we'll annotate them with positive feedback and constructive criticism in preparation for the session. This will give the writers an excellent degree of considered response as they move forwards.

My feeling is that the first workshops will mark the real beginning of the course. The housekeeping and the initial meetings are important - they prove that the ground's not going to give way beneath our feet. But tomorrow, with real words to analyse, real work to accomplish, real projects under real discussion, we'll start running. The first week really belonged to Tobias Hill; it was a privilege to be at his book launch. We met, swopped names, and learned where the toilets are. The second week belonged to Louise, who has contributed to a short story collection that's flying off the shelves and which made a highly effective smokescreen behind which we could hide our nerves at sharing our project ideas. But, with these initial hurdles overcome, tomorrow belongs to us - as long as we have the courage to take it.