The Cleckheaton Writers Group met last night at Cleckheaton Library, Pauline, Gemma, Alice, Kathy, Mandy and myself in attendance, Neil and Cassie having passed on their apologies.
The minutes of the last meeting were passed and Pauline informed the group that the Writing Magazine this month has a free book with inspirational/motivational quotes.
WIP updates: I have put together a beat-sheet of plot-planning for the literary crime novel I plan to write for NaNoWriMo in November, working title 'Digital Heroin.' Gemma has been working on her novel and she has set herself an end date to aim for of her 40th birthday. She has also been working on a short story for a competition her other writers group is running, which she brought to share for feedback. Pauline has been writing Scrivener beat notes and has had another ghost story idea. She has decided to set aside her three WIP novels for now and do something completely different. Alice now knows how her story ends, so she has a point to aim at. She has written a synopsis too and that day wrote 100 words. She brought some of her novel to share for feedback. Kathy has written more on her 'Tobias' story and then stalled. Having found all the other stories for her '12 dates of Chris Moss' collection that she had mislaid, she has scanned them and put them into notepad, then Scrivener (8 in total now). The "gang" that the stories are inspired by have started going out again (after a gap of 20 years) so she feels she could maybe finish the collection now. Mandy has been working on her novella. It is now at 15000 words and she feels she knows where it is going.
Feedback sessions: Gemma shared the first part of her short story for the competition she hopes to enter. It was emotional subject matter, but dealt with deftly. Mandy, having heard of the forest in Japan that features in the story, felt that it described it very well. The writing style was poetic and I particularly like the phrase death seeker that Gemma had used, and felt this might be a good phrase to work with for the title. Her deadline is 24 October for finishing the story. Good luck Gemma.
Alice shared chapter four of her WIP MG novel. The character of the MC stands out far better now it is in first person, but Alice agrees that it is hard to re-write from one POV to another and she felt she had to start again from the beginning once she had the ending. It was felt that the chapter was reminiscent of Eleanor Oliphant and The London Eye Mystery. Alice now has to finish the rest of her word count to a very tight deadline. Good luck Alice.
Kathy shared a section of her 'Tobias' WIP where two of her main characters reveal truths to each other that make Mrs Dunstan realise that the accident is the same one in which her son died. For another emotive subject matter, the writing was beautiful and subtly made you think of the issues raised. It lead to a discussion about where she sees the story going and the role/character growth of the character Tobias within it. We look forward to hearing more.
Competitions: Gemma informed the group of a D H H Literacy Agency competition to win a 10 minute 1-2-1 in York. You need to send the first 5k words of a novel in a particular category to submit to your chosen agent (see D H H Literacy Agency website for details). There are 110 spaces and a list of five agents with different interests, e.g. commercial, literary, YA etc. Interested writers should email the Agency before the deadline of 25 October and the 1-2-1s take place on 1 December.
Write-In: Several members of CWG are taking part in a write-in this Sunday, 1.30-4pm at Ribbon Tree Cafe in Cleckheaton. Alice, Cassie, Kathy, Mandy, Pauline and myself have decided what writing project we will be working on, but we are still yet to hear from Martijn and Neil about theirs.
The next meeting of the CWG will take place on Monday 29 October at Cleckheaton Library, 5.30pm - 7pm, where both feedback slots are available.
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