Tuesday 22 September 2015

Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) meeting 21 September 2015

Yesterday, the CWG met at Cleckheaton Library where Andy, myself (Karen), Martijn and new member Kathy were in attendance, Pauline and Mandy having passed on their apologies.

We welcomed new member Kathy to the group, explaining the workings of the group/meetings and backgrounds on our writing.  She revealed that having not written for 12/3 years, she wished to get back into writing and had a couple of ideas she was working on, a short story and a themed children's short story.  She used to write odes (poetry) and had worked on a story with 12 planned sections but had stopped at section 7/8. 

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed and feedback was given on writing done since the last meeting.  Karen has been working on a short story (feedback session) and Andy has been exploring some new things and playing with ideas.  He is hoping to begin the final editing on his novel 'V' before self-publishing it.

Andy had brought a new piece to share for the feedback session with the working title The King's General, which was a Blackadder-esque tale where the protagonist schemes to kill off his enemies.  It was well received and discussion took place on where Andy sees it going.  He has various ideas, including the ending and a few plot twists and secondary arcs.  We look forward to hearing more.

Karen had brought her short story The Mirror, which was a scary story in the Victorian Gothic style, like a modern-day Woman in Black.  The group felt it was eerie and discussion took place on the plot.  It was felt that the 'fat needed to be cut' in that it had too much detail that could be jettisoned and that an alteration to one word in the final sentence gave it more punch.

Karen informed the group about the upcoming Ilkley, Morley and Brighouse Festivals and agreed to put links to the full information in the minutes:

www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk/
http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/morley-arts-festival-8009951904
http://www.visitcalderdale.com/brighouse-arts-festival

The Wakefield Literature Festival and Durham Book Festival are also coming up and the links to details of events are:

http://www.wakefieldlitfest.org.uk/
http://durhambookfestival.com/

Karen had been asked by Mandy to remind all members that the submissions for the CWG anthology need to be passed to her as soon as possible in order for the book to be self-published in time for the Cleckheaton Literature Festival  2016.

She also reminded members that Dawn and Laura are setting up some extra CWG meetings on a Saturday morning in the teen area at Cleckheaton Library, the first of which is scheduled for 31 October at 10am.  Dawn will send an agenda to members nearer the time.

There was time for a timed writing session and after brainstorming some ideas and writing, Andy, Karen and Martijn shared what they had produced.  Andy's was in the vein of his current WIP 'TKG', Karen's was a twist in the tale using the prompt of someone in fancy dress at the wrong time of year and Martijn's was a short horror tale about a man being chased. 

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 5 October 6-8pm at Cleckheaton Library.

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