Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting 9 June 2014

Another enlightening meeting of the CWG tonight where A, P, new member AP and myself were in attendance, L having passed on her apologies.

After welcoming AP, we introduced ourselves and discussed the sorts of writing that we do.  A writes short stories, screenplays and novels.  P writes fiction mainly in crime. but sometimes horror, and AP revealed that he writes radio plays, poetry and has two unpublished novels and he is working on a third.

We then talked about our works in progress.  A edited his screenplay for submission to Writers Room and then has been looking at the novel that he started writing for his daughter.  P discussed a poem she had written from the perspective of pain and this led to a lively discussion about POV in writing.  AP is currently working on a novel inspired by S DeB and I have been working on SC.

A, P and I told AP about the O.U. course that we are doing at the moment and the assignments that have been set and then I told the others about the female crime writers event taking place on Wednesday in Halifax and several free writing competitions that I have come across.  These include the Kirklees 'On your bike' poetry or prose of up to 500 words competition - deadline 11 July, the 'Historic House' short story competition on catherinegaskin.com website, the inspired by song/title competition - deadline 40 June on Liberty80.org, 'Spinetinglers' themed short story competition and the steampunk short story under 2000 words competition - deadline 30 June, on steampunkjournal.org.

The feedback session was on chapters 4 - 6 of SC and it was felt that there needed to be more dialogue in the piece.  I explained that these chapters were an exercise to understand my three MCs before writing  a draft screen play using the draft novella as a starting point.  A felt that the first three chapters had established the characters and that although he liked some of the images, e.g. the dry-skin patient and the zombie reference, that he didn't feel these chapters were needed.  AP asked about the MCs motivation and I shared the story arc and character arcs with the group.  I explained that this is a new process for me, i.e. being requested to write about something that has happened in real life and that fictionalising it deepens the conflict, but runs the risk of deviating from the original too much.  P reiterated her fears about the legal aspects and AP felt that it would be difficult to pitch the idea when the three women the MCs are based upon are still alive.

AP recommended William Goldman's Adventures in the Screen Trade and P shared with the group information she had found on the biggest twists to avoid:

It was all a dream (e.g. Dallas)
Everything that has happened has been a virtual reality (e.g. The Matrix)
Hero and villain are same person (e.g. Fight Club)
Hero lying (e.g. Gone Girl)
Protagonist is dead/ghost (e.g. Sixth Sense)

It was agreed that  AP would take one of the slots for the feedback session at the next meeting and N will be taking the other (both pieces are to be sent via email to the members prior to the meeting).

The next meeting takes place in a fortnight, on Monday 23 June 6-8pm at Cleckheaton Library and then fortnightly thereafter.  New members always welcome.