The Cleckheaton Writers' Group (CWG) met last night at Cleckheaton Library where Andy, Kathy, Martijn, Karen and Neil were in attendance, Pauline, Mandy and Pippa having passed on their apologies.
There were no minutes from the last meeting and as Mandy was not in attendance, she will take one of the feedback sessions for the next meeting.
Work in Progress (WIP) updates were given by all members and then Andy started off the feedback session with his piece 'Lonely in Little Germany' inspired by a picture fellow CWG member Mandy featuring a still life with a watermelon and an empty vodka bottle found by the doorway to the Alhambra in Bradford. It was a tragic piece about a man struggling with alcohol dependency with shades of American Pie that had Andy's usual humour to add like to the darkness of the topic. He then shared two poems he had written entitled 'Dan's Gas' and 'The Dangler' amusing ditties aimed at children about wind and bogeys respectively, to much hilarity.
Karen then shared the new beginning to her fantasy WIP The Half-lands of Aquinas featuring three of her main protagonists. Andy liked the omniscient narrator and Martijn that you were quickly drawn in and Neil that there was lots of action. Karen explained why she had used the omniscient narrator and Andy recommended Scrivener for use going forward with the novel.
Kathy shared the first story in her planned collection entitled 'A Partridge in the Pear Tree' a comedic romance with a wonderfully named Chris Moss. The character of Chris came across really strongly as did the acerbic humour and it was very evocative of first dates that some members could remember. Kathy has written several of the short stories about the '12 dates of Chris Moss' and plans to finish it. Because there is a gap of several years between her writing the first ones and now, it was suggested that she may want to move the stories on in time (maybe a fall out with the love interest at the end of the last one she wrote, only for it to be rekindled for the last few) as this maybe easier to write in the same tone.
There was then a discussion on tone and Andy recommended Orson Scott Card's short story The Lost Boys which influenced the film Sixth Sense. He also wrote Enders Game and Uncle Orson's Writers Class that he would urge members to read.
In regards to NaNoWriMo, only Karen had managed to keep up to the word count this year, having passed 25k words the day before. She was hoping to stay on track with her current WIP and hitting the 50k mark for the first time. Neil had been working on an interview with Leigh Russell for his blog and Cleckheaton Literature Festival's blog and Andy had been taken up with Facebook. Kathy and Martijn had not signed up to take part in NaNo.
There was no time for a timed writing session and the next meeting will take place on Monday 30 November 2015 at 6pm in Cleckheaton Library. New members always welcome.
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