AT OCTOBER’S meeting a select group of five members (all the others seemed to have gone off on holiday) dissected three pieces of original writing submitted by members.

As always in these sessions, the issue was balancing praise with criticism.

We started by questioning who was competent among us to comment on others’ work. Do you need a literature degree or a string of published books?

One member who thought this was true disproved herself by her own very apt observations, realising that her instincts based on her innate ability as a poet served her well as a critic.

If you are passionate about writing and are open to being surprised or enlightened by each textual encounter then this qualifies you.

First up was the prologue to a new novel. The action centred on a building site early one morning during the Christmas break, gripped by freezing temperatures. The writer asked if he had achieved his aim of making it mysterious, tantalising and atmospheric.

We found his descriptions of the cold and the building site very telling indeed, yielding a variety of scenarios that could develop from such a furtive, Dickensian, fog-stricken beginning; speculation ranged from bodies hidden in the footings to eventual building collapse due to cowboy operations.

However, the opening dialogue and first paragraph were confusing to some, leading to a useful discussion about that old chestnut, getting those critical first words right.

Next up was a piece by a new member. It raced along using a concentrated, humorous style in a gag-strewn account of the flat he lived in 70s London and the antics and interactions of fellow-residents.

There was discussion about how the humour in one or two places could be sharpened with the exclusion of surplus adverbial phrases which interrupted the otherwise free flow. One joke in particular regarding frozen packs of squid revealed a real comic talent.

Third was another episode from Neil Wilson’s memoir of his life as a GP in Yorkshire, this one involving heart failure and a passion for restoring farm tractors.

The question as to how much technical medical detail the lay reader can digest was hotly debated, leading to the conclusion that more rather than less should be included so that an editor can decide. Additional facts about other areas, in this case tractors, was felt to add depth and breadth.

Neil used dialogue to convey some of the diagnostic material; we considered techniques for making such conversations naturalistic and how to avoid lurching into a stilted, public information style.

The AWC meets at 7.30pm on the second Tuesday of every month at Sight Airedale in Scott Street, Keighley; new members are always welcome.

The next meeting on November 8 will be a talk given by Richard Wilcocks on the history of military hospitals. December’s meeting is a social occasion with refreshments accompanying recitations of poetry and prose brought along by members.

* In order to see previous Write On articles, visit keighleynews.co.uk, click on What's On then Out & About.