Excellent meeting of the Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) this evening, where A, N, P, myself and new member S, were in attendance, L, D, J and SH having passed on their apologies.
We started the meeting by welcoming our new member S to the group. We all introduced ourselves and discussed what we write. S has spend 25 years as a screenwriter and he has worked in film, television and festivals, though he has never directed. He is a film script consultant concerned with structure and how it works and commerciality. He gave the members an in-depth biography of his work, including his MA in screenwriting and that he currently has a novel that Harper Collins is looking at, it having reached number one on Authonomy last Christmas.
For our Works in Progress (WIP), A informed the group that he has been converted to scrivener and has been working on something every day for at least 4 hours (ideas, as well as writing and planning out). He has been working on a story 'V' about a man who dies like a Viking and has got to 25k words on his WIP children's fantasy novel. P has started on an adventure story about two wizards fighting each other that we hope will be shared at a future meeting. She informed the group that one of the authors she works for, Harry Gallagher, has a book out called 'Poor Man's Gold' and that he will be doing a signing at the Albion Street, Leeds, Waterstones 11.30am - 1.30pm on the 30th of August.
S informed the group that he has worked with an editor and that he can produce book covers. He believes that 50 pages of a novel equals 30 minutes of television and that comedy is his genre, but it is hard to sell because it is subjective. He gave A some advice about sitcoms and film scripts including the need to have 3 things - 1 out there, 1 working on and 1 festering (e.g. idea/plotting).
I told the members about the various upcoming Literature Festivals (details to follow in future blog posts) including Ilkley, Wakefield and Brighouse and details of a writing competition, and agreed to forward the information along to the members.
It was agreed that as L was unable to attend the meeting this week and her work has been emailed to the members, we would table it for feedback at the next meeting, giving us further time to read and digest the chapters.
S has agreed to lead a mini-workshop at a future CWG meeting on structure and believes that a story is only as good as your antagonist.
For the feedback session I shared two story ideas with the group for feedback on which one had the most potential. It was felt that the second of the two worked better and drew you in to want to know more. S explained to the group about the story structure in terms of the protagonist and antagonist, sparking a lively discussion.
A then shared the first part of his steampunk novel that he has been working on. It was agreed that it is an absorbing world and although A felt that he did not have the 'story' yet for his world, members felt that he may have his 'hook' in the misdirected message.
S recommended Final Draft for writing screenplays.
The next meeting of the CWG will take place on Monday 1 September 2014, 6-8pm at Cleckheaton Library.
No comments:
Post a Comment