prose – noun – uk /prəʊz/ us /proʊz/
Written language in its ordinary form rather than poetry

If you are new to Perthshire Writers or considering whether to come and visit us, here is some guidance so you know what you can expect.

We meet every second and third Tuesday in a room we hire in the Salutation Hotel. It is easy to find and the room is displayed as you walk into reception. If not sure, just ask.

A typical night has from 15 to 20 members turn up. Members are all ages, come from all different sorts of backgrounds and share at least two things in common: we all enjoy writing in one form or another, and we all very much enjoy encouraging others to write. So meetings are informal, usually enjoy sharing various bits of prose, or works in progress be it poetry, drama, the formative beginnings of a novel etc. What you can be assured off is a warm welcome, an appreciative audience, and usually some laughter and fun as we share what works, what doesn’t work, and puzzle over how the same line of text can be read so differently by different people!

Our club nights have various topics and sharing of competition entries and results. There is a seperate page that shares specific competition guidelines for entering in terms of layout, naming convention etc. If new to writing, you will find our guidelines are fairly consistent with the Scottish Writers Association. Having guidelines is for the benefit of the judges who have the task of reading and grading every entry, and to test the tolerance of the aspiring writer!

Club Night

We encourage everyone to bring and share what they are writing. Club Nights act as a great sounding board to find out your readers potential response to your work. Since we have a lot of people turning up, simply in the interests of giving as many writers a chance to read as possible, we ask that prose is limited to a maximum of 750 words and poetry to a maximum 40 lines.

Club Nights usual have a theme e.g. ‘Travel’. The purpose of providing a theme is to set the challenge of writing on a specific topic. Alternatively, members may bring any other piece of work, for example part of a bigger piece of writing, but please select a section of your new novel so that you stay within the word limit.

Critique Night

You are encouraged to bring prose of up to 750 words or poetry of up to 40 lines, to read to the group. If you do not like reading to a group, you can always ask someone else to read for you. This can be interesting in itself, particularly with poetry as you hear an independent interpretation of your work. After each reading time is allowed for post-reading ‘positive’ discussion. If you are seeking particular feedback then we encourage you to share what you want to find out. Please bring eight printed copies so that members can share and read or reread what you have written. As well as giving verbal constructive comments, members may wish to write brief comments on the piece before handing it back.

Flash fiction

Flash Fiction is simply a story that is extremely concisely told, but is still clearly a story, with a conflict or situation to be resolved, character and plot development and an effective ending.  Since the writer has few words available, every single one needs to count – and often what’s hinted at is as important as what’s explicitly described. It is a great exercise for a writer to try and convey all that they want to share in as few words as possible. It can also show us what writing is necessary to depict a scene, dialogue etc. and pare our prose down to a more punchy and succinct form.

Short Story
In general, a short story is a piece of fiction that can be read, or listened to, in a fairly short sitting.  It will have a recognisable beginning, middle and end, making use of setting, plot, character and conflict to lead the reader satisfyingly through each stage. It will normally have only one point of view. You might ask what is the difference between flash fiction and a short story? The answer is that flash fiction has a defined wordcount, of which by their nature, the writer will use all of them. Whereas short stories will have a word limit.

We look forward to meeting you,

Perthshire Writers