The Houghton Inklings

I'm sure most of you know who the Inklings were, but in case you don't, they were an informal group including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S Lewis who met and discussed their writing. (If you want to know more, look it up on Wikipedia. That's what I did.) So, as you've figured out from the title of this post, some friends and I are starting something like that here at Houghton. It began after a friend and I had had multiple conversations about writing, and the other day he said, "Wouldn't it be cool to start a group like the Inklings here?" I was all for the idea, so we recruited a few people, some writing/English majors and others who just like writing, and tonight we had our first meeting in the campus coffee shop.

It was amazing. Seven other people who like writing as much as I do . . . that basically says it all. Since it was the first time, we went around and said what kind of writing we each like to do, and then talked about what kind of things we want to do during our meeting times. For next week we decided we would all write on the same topic, using whatever format we want: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Our topic is impossible goals, specifically, if a goal is good but you know you won't be able to achieve it, do you work toward it anyway, and if so why? -- something along those lines. And next week we will read our writings to each other and discuss them. Other times we might have people bring in past writing that they'd like to share or want input on, or we might have book discussions some weeks; just basically whatever we feel like. I'm really excited about it already. Now I just have to come up with an idea of what to write for next time . . . and actually write it.

(By the way, we're not actually calling ourselves the Houghton Inklings; right now we don't have a name, but, since we're all writers, I'm sure someone will come up with something.)