Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting 6 January 2014

An excellent, productive and enjoyable meeting last night, where L, N, P, D, myself and new member S was in attendance; only J passed on his apologies.

We started the meeting with introductions and each member explained the kind of writing that we work on.  S revealed that like L, D and myself, she writes for children and was looking for guidance from the Writers Group.

Prior to the meeting, I had asked the members for any ideas or suggestions for what they would like out of the Group this year to enable them to meet their writing resolutions and the following was agreed at the meeting:

1)  To return to a structured agenda (I sent this out prior to the meeting)
2)  To introduce a monthly social after the meetings
3)  To keep the current Work In Progress (WIP) updates
4)  To do more sharing/critiquing of members' work (two members per meeting)
5)  To reintroduce the timed writing sessions (this 20/30 minute exercise worked well)
6)  To attend more Festivals/workshops/author talks as a Group
7)  To look into paying for a speaker now and again (suggestions welcome)
8)  To undertake optional fortnightly or monthly writing challenges

Our WIP updates were very encouraging.  L has reached over 50k words on her children's novel and N is working on a three short story collection with a linked theme and is considering sending his Dr Who-inspired short story to the BBC Writers Room Ebook competition (see www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom for full details of the competition).  D is working on a new older children's fantasy which has sci-fi, time-travel and humorous elements whilst waiting to hear back from agents for TSC.  P is expanding on the two short stories that she started writing at the end of last year and completing more character profiles, plus she has also written a couple more poems.  I informed the Group that I am working on completing my comedy novel that I began for NaNoWriMo whilst waiting to hear back from two beta readers for my children's novel TtkotT and that I then plan to send it off to some agents and start work on completing another of my WIPs.  The Group urged me to make it my YA novel QW.  S revealed that she is working on a children's story that she feels is like Alice in Wonderland.  She has not plotted this piece out yet, but feels it is suitable for 7/8 year-olds and is lucky in that her best friends' Dad is an illustrator.

As it was the first meeting of 2014, there wasn't a feedback session, but it was a greed that P and myself (unless another member has a piece they wish to forward before the meeting, they should contact me and then I will give up my place) would supply our pieces prior to the meeting for critiquing on the 20th of January.

We discussed the upcoming Writing Festivals in Leeds, Huddersfield and Otley and D and I confirmed that we had been confirmed as steward volunteers for the Huddersfield Literature Festival.  See www.litfest.org.uk for Huddersfield, 6-16 March, www.yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk for York, 20-31 March and www.otleywordfest.org.uk for Otley, 28-30 March.  We again remarked on the coincidence that all our local Writing Festivals seem to fall on only two months of the year, March and October.

After the last meeting, we were approached by a York author in regard to giving author talk and I had forwarded the information he passed on to members before the break.  We discussed the biography, bibliography and the three talks information given.  Members decided that they would like to receive testimonials and feedback from previous attendees, so I agreed to email the author to expedite this.  It was suggested that we should also consider Alyson Taft, Emma Barnes and other local authors for an on-going series of author talks for the Group, but further suggestions would also be welcome.

The Group then undertook a 30 minute timed writing challenge with the theme 'What the most successful people do before breakfast.'  After the writing session, some of the members bravely read out what they had come up with and all were well received.  We all enjoyed taking part in the challenge and it was interesting to note that D and P had a similar theme and that N and I's both featured Sandra Bullock!  I am sure that some of us can use these to produce longer pieces and all members agreed that we should do this at each meeting.  I am sure another member will be ruminating a theme for the 20th.

D, N and L are taking part in a monthly writing challenge JaNoWriMo (an ingenious idea of D's) as they were unable to take part in NaNoWriMo this year.  D and L will be working on their children's novels and N will be completing his three themed short stories and they promised to keep us apprised of their progress throughout the month.

It was agreed that when I send the minutes of the meeting to the members that I would make sure that S receives the email addresses for all the CWG members.  I will also attach a draft agenda for the next meeting.

The next meeting of the CWG will take place on Monday 20 January 2014 6-8pm at Cleckheaton Library.  New members are always welcome and meetings will take place fortnightly thereafter.


For those of you that would be interested in seeing a couple of the 30 minute timed writing challenges, mine is featured below and N's can be found on his blog at http://neil-walker.blogspot.co.uk/ where you can also find his review of the CWG meeting:


WHAT THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE DO BEFORE BREAKFAST

As I handed the 'triple chocolate mocha latte with real cream froth, no cinnamon or chocolate topping and hold the sugar' over to the man in the immaculately tailored pin-stripe suit, it made me wonder what the most successful people do before breakfast.

He came every work day at the same time and he was hard to forget.  His order was always different, so this kept me on my toes and made me wonder if his choice of beverage reflected the day he was expecting to have, his thought processes as he stood there scrolling through his iPad or just what he felt would help the most with a coffee craving.

I noticed that today his usually coiffed hair was a little dishevelled, as if he had run those long-fingered hands through it.  I had never wanted to be a pair of hands quite so much.

"Hurry up," I heard Lizzie hiss.  Not so loud that he or any of the other customers could hear it you understand, but enough to wake me up to myself and make me realise that I was doing nothing more productive than standing there staring at his hands.

Feeling the blush creep from my neck up to my cheeks, I turned away to finish his order, a slice of caramel shortbread, hoping that my flush would look as if it was just because the room was quite hot at this time of a morning.

The smile, when it came, was welcome.  As I handed him his shortbread, like his mocha the heart in cinnamon or chocolate not included, our fingers touched briefly and I felt the frisson of electricity between us once more.  Not the Mills and Boon kind, the kind that always happens when I wear these cheap shoes.  You would think that I'd learn.

"Thank you, this is perfect," he said, though how he could know that when he hadn't tasted it, God alone knows.  'Just like you' I thought and then blushed again as I realised how like Sandra Bullock in While You Were Sleeping I sounded.

I realised only when he took the plastic lid from my frozen fingers that I was doing it again.  Smiling as we had been taught to do, I forced my hand to lower, along with my gaze.  It wasn't the person behind's fault that they weren't him, but I could feel how false the smile felt, I only hoped the harried redhead wouldn't realise.

"Decaf caramel macchiato with extra foam please."

"Coming up," I answered like the automaton I felt I was now.  It was always the same, the highlight of my day was gone, the highlight of every day.  But as I handed it to her, movement behind her caught my eye.  He hadn't left.  For some reason he had sat at one of the small tables and opened up a file and, pen in mouth, he looked like he was contemplating some huge business deal.  Now I yearned to be that pen.  Oh for crying out loud, get a grip Samantha.

Lizzie caught my eye and winked, then nodded in his direction and I turned to the next customer, having taken the none-too-subtle hint for the second time. 

As I readied the espresso for the small man with the energetic cock-a-poo, I thought again about how I had seen him that one time outside the coffee house.  I had been late, which normally never happened and he'd just been getting into his car, a sleek top of the range Volvo and that had set me off wondering just what he did for a living.  Part of me had wanted to follow him, do the 'Follow that cab' thing like they do in the movies, but I was already late and what would it achieve any way?  A man like that would never look twice at someone like me, especially now the coffee house had been bought out.  Before I was just a waitress, now I wasn't even to be that and the one thing I looked forward to most in my world would be over.

Now I wished that I had followed him that day, at least that way I could still have kept getting glimpses of him as he arrived or left for work.  How stalker-y does that sound?  Now it was just too late and the only thing I would be doing before breakfast for the foreseeable future would be yearning for how it had been.

Lizzie had suggested I rattle the business card jar at him once we knew the coffee house had been bought out.  That way, she'd said, I had a chance of still being in his life.  My God, I was Sandra Bullock.