The minutes from the previous meeting were passed and Gemma and Sarah told us about their experiences at York Festival of Writing.
WIP updates: I have written a new scene for my WIP, started planning my potential story for NaNoWriMo (it is between two ideas at the moment) and written two new poems which I have submitted to the Overland 'Tribulations of the Digital Frontier' competition. Sadly, I have also received a nice rejection from the agent that I submitted to straight after the last meeting. Gemma has written 1,118 more words on her WIP and post York, she knows she needs to fill in the gaps. Alice has been procrastinating (we writers are good at this) and Sarah had a good experience at York, having her first novel requested at her 1-2-1s. She is 50k words into her new WIP and is starting again, picking through the scenes she feels she can keep. Her novel has sadly also been rejected but she has been longlisted for the Blue Pencil First Novel Award chosen by the Madeleine Milburn Agency with the same novel. Fingers crossed for shortlisting Sarah. Kathy has written more on her murder WIP because she is finding it fun and a short story based on the Alzheimers competition theme. Cassie has been on holiday.
Feedback: Kathy had brought along a short story which she wrote for the writing challenge, theme 'if you could kill someone and get away with it/no repurcussions, who would you choose?' It was written in conversational style and intrigued the reader/listener. The piece was poignant and philospophical and the group felt like one of the voices could have been one of the main characters in her Tobias novel. It was well received by all and stimulated much discussion. Gemma gave some backstory to her novel and then shared a sample of her WIP novel which was first draft. It was well received and led to a discussion about novel beginnings, as it was felt that this chapter would make an excellent beginning to her novel as it intrigues the reader and leaves them wanting answers to questions such as 'what happened at the wedding?' Sarah said that many writers felt that you could not write a beginning to a novel until you have written the ending and recommended that Gemma finish the story and then edit it with a view to how the story ends.
Events, competitions, workshops etc: Brighouse Arts Festival is coming up on 5-14 October featuring Bradford crime writer A. A. Dhand (11 October). On Saturday 20th, there is also a Murder at the Library event. Further details can be found here: www.brighouseartsfestival.co.uk/
The deadline to the Caledonian Novel Award is coming up and there is still time to enter the Myslexia novel or children's novel competitions. Further details can be found here:
https://thecaledonianovelaward.com/
https://mslexia.co.uk/competitions
There has been an extended deadline for the Bradford Literature Festival free crime novel competition, so there is still time to enter to win an Arvon week. Further details can be found here: https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/northern-noir-crime-writing-competition/
Following write-ins at the Library with Kathy, Pauline, Alice and Karen, it has been suggested that a regular write-in also be organised at a local cafe in Cleckheaton. It was discussed and it is proposed that we meet 1.30-4pm on a Sunday afternoon. An email with further details will be forwarded to the CWG members. The Monday library write-ins will still take place at the library every other Monday for those writers who wish to attend (next write-in Monday 24 September).
The next meeting of the Cleckheaton Writers Group will take place on Monday 1 October 5.30-7pm at Cleckheaton Library.
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