Another productive meeting of the CWG tonight where N, A, L, J, D, V and myself were in attendance (P and S had passed on their apologies).
N, D and L, who took part in their own writing challenge JaNoWriMo, told the other members how they got on. N has finished one of his three short connected stories and is half-way through his second of the trilogy. L has finished her first draft and is a quarter of the way through reading it in readiness to send out to her proof-readers before the end of June. D has finished her first draft of her second manuscript and she promises to share with the group when she has some typed as she wrote it longhand. D also revealed that she has signed up for a free 31 day trial of Scrivener and will review it at a future meeting. D agreed to forward a link to the trial offer to the other CWG members.
J revealed that he has been too busy to write anything since the last meeting, but has vowed to try and write even a few words each day. A has written a couple of stories from the challenge set at the last meeting and has started a children's fantasy novel. He has also researched Kindle in terms of self-publishing since the last meeting. V has been working on the story she began as part of the challenge at the last meeting and looks forward to rising to Ps writing challenge. She has also purchased a creative writing book and signed up for a Writing for Children on-line course.
As Alan Titchmarsh is coming to Cleckheaton Town Hall to discuss his latest novel Bring Me Home on Wednesday 26 March at 7.30pm, it was decided that some of the members would attend this event. Also, the date for the Leeds Trinity Writers' Festival has now been confirmed as Wednesday 12 March.
The feedback session led to much lively discussion. We started with my first three chapters of SC, the comedy I am currently almost to first draft on. The members felt that the three main narrators have strong voices with distinct convincing personalities that generated empathy. A and L found it interesting how through these characters we see the same situation via different perceptions. Some of the members felt there should be a bit more showing, not telling, but others thought that the confessional/counselling style worked well. L felt that there was a confusing section involving one of the characters, Di, who A also felt was out of character. I will be taking this useful feedback and altering my manuscript accordingly.
L's first three chapters of her first draft KatFG were very imaginative. D felt that the first line needed changing to tighten it up and that the whole first chapter could be taken out. It was felt that the pace in the first section was spot on and that changing some of the backstory sections in the following chapters to flashbacks, would bring about the same well-worked pace in the rest. There were some particularly vivid scenes, e.g. the phoenix and the hooded attackers, but A wondered when the tale was set. L revealed that she had not decided this yet, but it was agreed that the imagery is strong enough to warrant a fantasy world should she decide to set it in one. It was suggested that it would be nice to place more emphasis on the fairy tale within the fairy tale and/or have the first section as a dream to inform the readers, but give a nice 'ah' moment later in the novel. All members agreed that the ending to chapter three was excellent in that it made the reader want to know more. I look forward to hearing more chapters at future meetings.
For the timed writing session, we chose either a quotation 'Three men may share a secret if two of them be dead' or Blake's Dark Satanic Mills taken from The Creative Writing Workbook (currently on offer at The Book People for £3.99) and we all wrote for 20 minutes on this challenge. A, V and J all shared their pieces and some felt that these could be the beginnings for much longer pieces.
It was agreed that N and A would send work to the members for feedback at the next session.
The next Cleckheaton Writers Group will take place on Monday 17 February, 6-8pm at Cleckheaton Library where new members are always welcome.
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