Hello everyone,

General:
We have now got to the stage of Alpha Days without Challenges being issued. I have been looking back through some of the challenges that we’ve done, not only this season, but in earlier ones, and I feel that the general standard has improved considerably.

When I started with the idea of short challenges, it was because there are lots of competitions for short stories, poetry and some for articles, with or without themes, and any budding writer can have a go at them. Our challenges, in a way, are harder, because you have to rise to the challenge in a set short number of words, which means that you have to think about them carefully, sometimes very carefully. I think that by doing the challenges – which are quite testing - we are practising the art of honing our use of language. Yes, there’s scope for great ingenuity, but even then, those ideas have to be fitted into the required length.

Writing, like all communication, has two principal factors: the content and the style. Limiting the subject matter in some way, and limiting the number of words top be used makes us work hard on both of these factors. Much more difficult than just writing an open theme story in about 2,500 words.

Membership:
It’s good to see Patrick and Maya entering into the spirit of the way we operate. However, after judging the entries in total for Challenge 9, I think there’s no way that we should accept any more than 20 as a full membership. Does everyone agree?

Assessments:
No-one has offered any comment on my statistical analysis of our marking system: was it that you didn’t understand it?

Current Challenges:
In total, we had 15 entries competitively for Challenge 9, and two voluntarily from the newcomers. That’s the biggest entry we have had.

Tara set us a challenge which I thought might be relatively straightforward, but I found it very hard to create an acceptable attempt. I will look forward to seeing other entries – and then it’ll be the last marking of the season. Tara will be sending out the file of entries about now.

Telephone Story:
As I said last time, this is progressing well. The 10 chapters may make very interesting reading: when it is complete, everyone will be able to read it. I wondered if it was put into an A5 booklet form it might be sent by traditional mail to you all. I have some money still in hand, and it is an easy and cheap way to produce something to put on a bookshelf: a bit more permanent than a file on a computer. In that way, we’d all have similar copies. I’ve kept a photo of a telephone box that could go on the cover!

Leaderboard Update:
Why do all the best plans go astray? The results for Challenge 9 seemed to be straightforward (but there’s that catch coming up).

Geoff is 1st, so he gets 3 points

Zena and Sally are 2nd, so they get 2 points each

Chris is third, but so far ahead of any other entry, that he can’t be asked to share that role, so he gets 1 point.

Now for that catch. Everyone who enters gets a point – but Sally and Chris have apparently not sent in a judgement for Challenge 9, so they do not get the point for entering.

Adding all the appropriate points into the list, the leaderboard now reads:

Zena	25 points
Geoff	23 points
Sally	22 points
Clare	19 points
Rosemary	17 points
David	15 points
Christine	14 points
Chris	13 points

So it’s clearly down to the last Challenge which will determine the winner. If the men knew which were the challenges that Geoff and Zena had written, it might affect their voting but, of course, we do have a secret judging system. On the other hand, if the wrong answer comes up, there may always be a case for the MDC (Male Dominance Co-ordinators) to ask for new judgements. Anyway, let’s hope the best man wins!**

On the matter of clear winners in the eyes of the judges, the situation changes a little. Geoff gains 4 clear firsts, Zena gets one, Chris gets one, and Sue gets one (albeit with only two points). Interesting variation.

On a slightly different point, I find that my own assessments of my challenges are way out. I thought my entry for Challenge 9 was my best for the season – yet I find that I collected fewer marks than for any other. The one I collected my single bonus on was one of which I was far from proud. Has anyone else felt like this about their own entries?

Words:
The challenges this year have all tended to concentrate on the art of writing, and rather less on the use of words for their own sake, as in a simple sentence or comment.

I’ve just come back from Ross-on-Wye, where I saw a small bit of graffiti which made me smile. There was an arrow on a wall pointing upwards (I don’t know its original intention). But underneath, now half covered with thin white paint, someone had written “Jesus went thataway”

I then recalled some was reminded of some examples which I’d found very clever in the past. For instance, at Bath University, in about 1968 or so, someone had scribbled on a wall:

It’s just the sort of thing you’d find at a University. But during the next week, it had gained an addition, so that it now read:

I also recall a poster advertising a medical lecture in a maternity hospital

And underneath, someone had written

So has anyone got any clever bits of graffiti that they’ve come across?

What’s in a Name?
David set Challenge 7 relating names to people, but I’ve just come across something which I didn’t know, and I think many of you may not, either. It was in an article relating Daniel Defoe to Somerset. I’ll quote only the releveant parts.

‘Daniel Defoe is remembered as one of the fathers of the English novel, the creator of Robinson Crusoe and for his other enduring character Moll Flanders.

Defoe nowadays is rarely read in the original, but more in abstract. A rogue himself, with principles that were negotiable, Defoe, the son of a tallow candle maker from Cripplegate added the nobler sounding “De-“ to his family name to improve his business prospects.

A visit to Martock in Somerset brought a wonderful comment about the Somerset accent.

“It cannot pass my observation here that when we are come to this length from London the dialect of the English tongue, or the country way of expressing themselves, is not easily understood – it is so strangely altered. It is true that it is so in many parts of England besides, but none in so gross a degree as in this part… those who are little acquainted with them cannot understand one-half of what they say.”

Dialect:
In the past, we’ve had some interesting discussion on dialect, but I don’t think I’ve ever sent you any passages of Somerset dialect, and clearly the above comment from Defoe gives me the opportunity.

There were four distinct dialects for different parts of the county, but this passage actually is part of a narrative using dialect from a combination of Central (Sedgemoor) and West Somerset areas. I wrote it when I was Chairman of Watchet Writers Circle. I’m sure (well, I hope) that Christine will forgive me for omitting all the elision signs and spelling largely phonetically (as old Somerset men did – if they ever wrote anything)– but it does make it more interesting to read aloud – especially if you add the Somerset burr.

Wot? Ant e erd bout thik thur hrwitin sircul wot they da ave down to Watchet? Cor! Yer orter meet wi wun o they wot da belong to n, zame’s I, tuther day. Then yerd a thort twur the tork o they on the wyless.

I ad ter goo to Varmer Norman bout zum pigs e da zee, and thur wur a young veller vrom Lunnon staying thur. You da mind Lizzie Norman, er with the turble vunny ats, wot wed an went up thur to live? Well, twaz er zon.

A smartish veller e were, n cood e tork! – mostwise bout this yer hrwritin sircul. I cant mind arf of wot he da zay, but I’ll tell e zo much as I can.

Zeems as if zum of em wanted ter vorm a group like, zo’s they cood put all thur wurds together. Duz a lot o it, zo e zed. Zum of em da hwrite poetry. Now that da want zum brains, I da know, cos I’ve tried it meself.

I zeed zum verses wun day in the Vree Press. They was turble good, zo I thort as how I’d ave a goo at zum, but Lord bless e, wen I got the wurds to zound the zame’s they orter, thur wadden no zense to em. Wen I da get em to make zense, twadden poetry.

Sadly, with so many incomers to the county, very little Somerset accent survives today.

Best wishes to you all.

- Olaf