SYDNEY, N.S. — There are a few things you should know first about Whitney Writers Ink.
You don’t have to be from Whitney Pier to be a member.
“People from all over are members,” said founding member Sandra Dunn.
And secondly, there’s food.
“We always have lots of snacks and I make coffee and tea.”
And if that wasn’t enough, two of their meetings, which are held twice monthly, feature potlucks.
“Writers like to eat,” laughs Dunn, adding it fuels the main components of each meeting, exercising and improving their writing skills.
The group was formed about 11 years ago in response to a series of popular writing workshops that took place during the Whitney Pier Festival for the Visual Arts (now known as PierScape).
Dunn says the workshops put on by writer/editor E. Alex Pierce inspired the participants to establish their own writing group which has continued to this very day. Part of the reason behind the group’s continuing popularity is the emphasis on it being a writing group, said Dunn. During the class, there will be several exercises that put the writers on the spot and make them create new work from prompts and there is homework, which might include working on a short story.
“Everyone gets the same prompt — it could be anything — then you just write about it. It’s a good exercise for the brain,” said Dunn. “Sometimes you get stuck on the big things and you need to do the small ones to get the big ones going again. You just have to step back.”
The idea is to help each writer develop in their craft. And it seems to be working.
Over the past 11 years, the group has released three books of short stories including “From The Pier and Beyond,” “A Trail of Words” and “Sun and Shadow.” As well, several of the group’s approximately 12 members have seen their own work published, including Dunn who has several books to her credit. Three members are currently working on novels.
“It’s a productive group,” said Dunn, adding members prefer to share knowledge on how to better move a story along, rather than trash each other’s work.
Surprisingly, it’s not a group currently seeking new members since it would make matters too unwieldy. With each participant expecting feedback from all their exercises and assignments, it would make the meetings too long if there were more people involved.
“We have a ton of fun but we are very serious about our writing,” said Dunn. “We don’t take ourselves seriously but we take our writing seriously.”
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