One of the members said their group name described “people with vague or half-formed intimations and ideas.” And he said it was for “those who dabble in ink” as they talk about their works in progress.
Members to this dynamic group included Warnie Lewis, Owen Barfield, Charles Williams, Colin Hardie, Adam Fox, Hugo Dyson, Lord David Cecil, and Nevill Coghill. Those names might not ring a bell for you. But there were two other members you might recognize. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Wow! Talk about talking about some works in progress.
Imagine the conversations there might have been when C.S. Lewis introduced his “Chronicles of Narnia” to the group. Or when J.R.R. Tolkien introduced “Lord of the Rings.” Of course we think of them now as blockbuster movies. Larger than life. But back then, those writers just thought of them as ideas and manuscripts.
Those guys formed an informal group they called “The Inklings.” And they met in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, in the 1930s and ’40s.
Warnie Lewis, who was Lewis’s brother Warren, said, “There were no rules, officers, agendas, or formal elections.” Evidently C.S. was the main member, and others in it were mostly his “friends and university colleagues.” And, according to an article I read, “pre-Inkling meetings of Lewis with Barfield and Tolkien had started in the late 1920s, before the group adopted the name.”
The article also said:
“When the group was most active, the Inklings held meetings twice a week, with six to eight members typically attending. On Tuesday mornings they convened at the Eagle and Child pub (commonly known as the ‘Bird and Baby’) in Oxford for beer and wide-ranging conversation. But their most important meetings were Thursday evenings in Lewis’s rooms at Magdalen College.”
I think it would have been fun to listen in on those meetings. Because that’s when “various members read aloud from books or poems they were writing. And other members responded with vigorous critiques and suggestions.” Can you imagine getting to critique a famous writer? Yeah, me neither.
But imagine being one of the first to hear these works in progress:
The Problem of Pain, The Screwtape Letters, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, and Miracles. Those are just a few of C.S. Lewis’ now famous works.
In addition to Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien (or his son Christopher) read chapters from The Lord of the Rings. So little Frodo and Ben were first introduced to other writers in a pub. Wow.
Warren Lewis was quoted saying, “We were no mutual admiration society: praise for good work was unstinted, but censure for bad work, or even not-so-good work, was often brutally frank.”
And THAT brings me to my point for sharing all this with you.
Accountability.
Without it, everything you do might lead you nowhere, in a never-ending circle of works in progress.
But that doesn’t have to be YOU.
Because accountability is one of the parts in my RondaReady System. And you should access it AND all the parts in the most affordable way possible. And that would by my RondaReady System book.
Lots and lots of businesses have used my RondaReady System to take their business to the next level. And they’ve found out the business-building and goal-reaching power of accountability.
I’d love to help you take your works in progress there, too.
Make an investment in YOU and your future. Get the RondaReady System book on Amazon, today!
Just in case text links don’t work for you, here’s the clunky version of the link. You can copy and paste it in your browser: https://www.amazon.com/RondaReady-Online-Business-Coach-System/dp/1688796479/
Stay Ready,
R.O.N.D.A.
Your Responsive Online Nonstop Digital Assistant