大象传媒

Who can join?

Membership is open to anyone who is interested in writing.听 We have a mixture of both published and hobby writers amongst our members who come along to the meetings.听 We also have a fairly new Online Scribblers Forum which is open to membership from anywhere in the world. Currently we have members from Australia, France and Eire in our numbers.

Have any of your members got published works?

Yes we have a number of published writers - novelists Morag Clarke, who has appeared on Look East after winning an ongoing writing competition, Ruth Dugdall winner of the Debut Dagger Award and also a Self Publishing Marketing Award from Writers' News. Another, Richard Bradshaw has a set of four children's books entitled 'Feathered Tales'.听 Felixstowe Historian Doreen Rayner has written several books and articles on the area. We have an Irish writer as a member of the online group, Rochelle Moore who has also听published books.听Also, I am co-author of the book "Ipswich Speedway: The First 50 Years."

Additionally several members who have been published in magazines, trade magazines, on the Internet, in various anthologies and had poems read out on Radio Suffolk (Caz Wilkinson was a regular at one time) and at one stage we had a regular slot on Ipswich Community Radio with John Row.

What age groups do you target?

We do not intentionally target any age group - our membership is open to anyone.听 Our youngest members are 12 and 14 years old whilst our most senior member around 80 years young, still comes along from time to time.听 We have a complete diverse mixture of writers at Felixstowe Scribblers.

Does it cost anything to join?

Membership is free although we do ask for a voluntary donation of 50p that includes a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit or two.

What is the best thing about the Felixstowe Scribblers?

The experience to be part of such a diverse group of creative writers who have made it into such a friendly, light-hearted听 and supportive gathering where, irrespective of experience or ability, everyone gels.

What sort of things do you do at the meetings?

Our meetings are based on homework assignments where a word, phrase or genre is given at the end of a meeting. From this a short piece of creative writing, poem or article is produced at the next gathering to be read out for feedback.听 Writers with their own ongoing projects often share a chapter or section of their work instead.听 Overall this idea has helped improve creativity and opened up a whole new world of subject matter.听 We tend to review our formats and from to time alter the structure of the evenings, for example we are now introducing short discussions on various aspects of writing - our first about 'building character profiles'.

Why should people join the Felixstowe Scribblers?

Well, we cannot guarantee that membership will lead to eventual publication but, being amongst like-minded people, can help reduce the feeling of isolation that some writers suffer, and have support and feedback on their work.听

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