Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting

Productive meeting tonight.  Sadly two members could not make it, but we got lots done nevertheless.  We started with P's beginning of her new story, a supernatural mystery which we all found very interesting in its premise.  Her use of first person perspective hooks you in quickly and we all urged her to keep writing it, maybe even to have it as her story for the NaNoWriMo challenge next month.

Then our new member L shared with us the prologue to her novel which was very immediate and evocative in first person.  We all really felt like we were in the head of a teenager and back in time with her excellent description and intriguing hints at things to come.  Look forward to reading more.

D then read her reworked first chapter of TSC.  She has painstakingly changed her first draft from third person to first person perspective with brilliant results.  We were all very interested in how she has changed the story when it comes to the other characters that are no longer able to be relayed as easily now the story comes only from her main character, Evie's, perspective.

There was just enough time for me to quickly read out my dialogue writing challenge which you can read below:

Lecturer:        Sit down Bonnie, may I call you Bonnie or do you prefer-

Bonnie:          No, Bonnie’s fine.

Lecturer:        May I ask, is there anything wrong?

Bonnie:          No.

Lecturer:        It’s just I haven’t seen you at lectures for a while.

Bonnie:          Oh.

Lecturer:        Are you still struggling with the course?

Bonnie:          Not really. 

Lecturer:        When you say ‘not really’ what do you mean?  I know you were finding the subject rather unsettling, but you seemed to have really got it that last time.  But then, you stopped coming.

Bonnie:          Yes.

Lecturer:        I understand from your other tutors that there does not appear to be a problem with their classes, just mine.  Can I ask why?

Bonnie:          It’s hard to explain.

Lecturer:        Do you no longer wish to be a criminal psychologist?

Bonnie:          That’s not quite it. 

Lecturer:        Bonnie, the first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want.  Do you know what you want?

Bonnie:          I do.

Lecturer:        And that is?

Bonnie:          To stop seeing them.

Lecturer:        The pictures?  I know that seeing these images of crime scenes can be distressing, but if this is the area of work that you wish to enter-

Bonnie:          Not the pictures, them, I want to stop seeing them.

Lecturer:        I don’t quite understand.

Bonnie:          I didn’t expect you to.

Lecturer:        Does this mean you want to quit the course?

Bonnie:          No, I just want it to stop.

Lecturer:        Want what to stop?  Bonnie?  Bonnie come back, we need to talk about this.

Lecturer:        Such a shame, she was showing such promise.