Members Events

The AMED Writers’ Group met  in three phases and locations around Holborn, London.   Phase 1 took place in a coffee bar on Kingsway, where we spent two hours discussing our various writing plans and projects.   These included one member’s imminent writing sabbatical in Berlin, another’s nearly-completed book on ‘The Inner Critic’, and another’s diffidence about going public with some of his ideas about writing.   We also touched on the meaning of ‘explication.’ 

We spent a good deal of time discussing the inspiring metaphor of the writing process as an example of ‘The Hero’s Journey’, as conceived by Joseph Campbell in his book of that title.   (New World Library, Novato, CA, 2003).   There’s also a number of interesting websites on this theme, including that of Lyricalworks, http://www.lyricalworks.com/herojourney/herojourney.htm.

Phase 2 found us joining several other AMED Members from the Sustainable Development Network, as well as many others, at an Environment Council workshop on Storytelling.   This was a lively event in which we began by taking Mowgli’s story in Kipling’s ‘The Jungle Book’ to establish the potential of storytelling as a means to engage people and organisations in reflection, learning and change.   We came away with our heads buzzing with ideas and conversation, which led us to …

Phase 3, which happened in a nearby wine bar, where we reflected animatedly over olives and wine upon our experiences of the day.   In all, it was a long, exacting but extremely worthwhile day, and we hope to replicate that creative environment at our next meeting on Friday 7 April from 11 am to 3 pm, probably in Southampton.   Please get in touch with Bob MacKenzie on bob_mackenzie@btopenworld.com if you’re interested in joining us, or if you’d like to know more about our conversations on 10 February.