Audrey Gomez
When a writing class offered through Linn-Benton Community College was cancelled, a group of Sweet Home classmates decided to keep meeting and writing anyway.
What emerged from that is a new group, The Write Stuff, which meets weekly on Fridays at the Sweet Home Senior Center.
“The class developed a real camaraderie among the members who were coming,” said Glenda Hopkins, one of the group’s founders.
“I encouraged the ones who wanted to do it. I like to encourage what everybody has to contribute.”
Many of the group members are from the class, which was taught for years by Lori McNulty.
The group’s emphasis is different, though, and they are not trying to compete with the LBCC class, Hopkins said.
“This one that we have is a very informal group,” Hopkins said. “We have no instructor. We did have to have some guidelines to go by so we sat down together (and came up with them).”
Among the guidelines is that writing may include fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.
“We leave it open to what people want to write,” said participant Roberta McKern. “We haven’t run into any deliberate fiction yet.”
Though the purpose of the group is to share stories and ideas through writing, participants are not required to share written work at each meeting.
A few regular attendees were missing from the most recent meeting, on March 27, and a couple of people didn’t write anything, but the discussion was lively among the diverse group.
Connie Stafford read a piece she had written about when, at 17 years old, she was diagnosed with tuberculosis while living in England in 1952.
She wrote about the special precautions her mother took to care for her, her five-month hospital stay, and the one friend who visited her regularly through the ordeal. She’s been free of the illness for more than 60 years.
She’s writing her life story for her son, she said.
Although she didn’t write anything for this particular meeting, Vivian Chelstad said she could relate to Stafford’s story, from a different perspective.
As part of her nursing experience, Chelstad had set up a TB tent in Africa many years ago.
As each member read or told her story, the conversation shifted to a range of topics from life in Nome, Alaska to raising children to current events.
Conversation is encouraged but members are not critical of each other’s work.
“We don’t correct people’s writing unless they want us to,” Hopkins said. “That’s not the purpose of the group.”
The Write Stuff meets at the Senior Center but there is no age requirement to join in.
“It’s a very congenial group,” Hopkins said. “There’s a lot of give and take and a lot of laughter.”
Still, Hopkins knows some people may be hesitant at first.
“One of the women had been encouraged to write her stories of her life growing up and she hadn’t done it and she just kind of looked around and listened to us,” Hopkins said. “We just visited with her. I jotted notes down. Typed up the notes and gave it to her.”
Most of The Write Stuff participants write nonfiction, but the group is open to other forms of expression.
“One woman had poems,” Hopkins said. “She hasn’t been back, but I hope she does (come back).”
Members can write about anything; it doesn’t have to be limited to personal history, Hopkins said.
“I think everybody has a story,” Hopkins said. “I prefer true life stories.”