Are you a scribbler?

writing-group-1If you’re a writer or ‘wannabee’ writer, you may want to consider joining this new writing group.

We will focus on honing writing skills through ‘short short stories’ (also known as Flash Fiction). We’ll focus on various aspects of writing including, grammar, punctuation, word usage, phraseology, point of view, style and more. It’s always more fun to have a goal when embarking on something new. Our goal will be to produce an Anthology with our writing collection and—publish it! We will also register Oliver Scribblers with the Federation of BC Writers.

For those not familiar with Flash Fiction here is a very brief description:

A Flash is a story with beginning, middle and end in approximately 1000 words or even less. It’s not just a matter of writing something and then trying to reduce the number of words. It’s deceptively complex. It involves painting a picture that encompasses a mystery or a twist with an emotional impact. It means selecting the right words with the right shades of meaning without strangling the plot or characters.

Writing Flash is not a fad, it’s an art. Some contemporary Flash writers are Meg Pokrass, Sherrie Flick and Stuart Dybek. One of the masters is Hemingway. Here is an example of Hemingway’s famous six-word story. ‘For Sale: baby shoes, never worn’. The last two words evoke a powerful image —grieving parents coping with tragedy and writing this classified ad.

Developing skills to write Flash is an excellent basis for other writings – novels, memoirs, family histories, business letters, letters to editors, essays and biographies.

If you are seriously interested in sharpening your writing skills, join Oliver Scribblers. The tentative plan is to meet once or twice a month for a couple of hours in the morning. The venue will depend on the number of people in the group. All the details will be decided at the first meeting to be scheduled later.

I’m a member of the Federation of BC Writers (FBCW) and you can view my profile at

http://www.bcwriters.ca/member-directory/#action=Listing&value=11504&searchID=12011&cid=1226&did=100

Use this one February 2010

Simply click on the address and it will take you directly to my profile.

Oliver Scribblers – Head Scribbler -Vi Brown vi.oliverscribblers @ gmail.com