Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met on Monday at 5.30pm at Cleckheaton Library where Pauline, Karen, Neil, Mark F, Gemma, Cassie and new member Sam were present, Mandy, Mark S and Alice having passed on their apologies. Karen explained that Mandy had sent an email to say that she was working more days now and longer hours so wished to pass on her ongoing apologies for the foreseeable future.
Karen and the group welcomed back Neil (it was great to see him again and we hope he might be able to make the meetings a little more often now and get back into his writing groove) and welcomed new member Sam. The group went round and explained their writing background and genres. Sam explained he had written a few books when he was younger, mostly fantasy, and was working on a novel, the first book of a trilogy in a fantasy civil war region. He feels the book is quite political and he's on the third draft of the prologue and is working on chapter one (he has been planning in between).
The minutes from the last meeting were passed (with one alteration) and Gemma showed members the ProWriting Aid programme on her laptop explaining the things it can do. It can be purchased as a lifetime subscription or regular payments and can be used in tandem with Scrivener or Word. Pauline also has ProWriting Aid and both ladies recommend it.
WIP updates: Karen has written some new scenes for her novels Digital Heroin and Burning For You, the latter of which is being edited for a deadline of the end of August. She hopes to pass the finished version onto beta readers in July and Pauline and Cassie have kindly offered to be beta readers, as has Gemma if she has time as she is working to the same deadline for her novel. Pauline has been working on her Bickerman WIP explaining the premise/storyline to members. She's also worked on evolving her short story about a bouncing ball into a novel as she sees the main character (MC) as a killer who believes he is a superior being. Pauline also detailed the premise of her third novel, as MC memoir-writer meets supernatural murders. Cassie has been working on crocheting squares. Sam has been working on chapter one and planning his WIP entitled The Watcher. Neil is wanting to finish his ghost story and then work on his other WIP which he sees as 'Colditz in space.' Gemma has been editing her WIP and has written a new beginning. Now she has discovered ProWriting Aid she uses it in conjunction with Scrivener explaining the things it can help with. There is a free two-week trial, followed by a monthly cost (she thinks maybe £60), but now and again they do offers of £100 for life, so CWG writers could look out for the next offer. She finds it helps to edit a lot quicker. Mark has been working on ideas for his POV chapters of his WIP instead of info dumping and he wishes to spread it out over a lot of chapters. He explained to members that there is a way to send a novel as an attachment to your Kindle address (but not as a pdf) to be able to read it on there as you would a book.
Feedback Sessions: Mark shared chapter one of his WIP after giving a recap on the prologue he shared with the group last meeting for those that missed it. The chapter was entitled The Damned and it was very well received. Mark explained he had been working on the story for a few years and it was the second book in the fantasy world he created. He sees it as a Man in the Iron Mask idea, i.e. to overthrow the King and put a bastard on the throne. Gemma suggested writing a short story from Mountains' POV first.
CW Writing/workshops/events: Bradford Literature Festival starts on 28 June and Karen passed on the list of events book around the group. Pauline passed around her copies of the latest Writing Magazine and Writers Forum for members to look at, pointing out a writing competition for age 60+ writers. Neil informed members about EdgeLit coming up on Saturday 13 July in Derby. It is £30 for all day and you get books and workshops with the price. Full details are available on Facebook and Neil thinks the average cost for a train ticket is £50 and a hotel £79 should any CWG members wish to attend. Karen reminded members that some of the CWG group meet to write on a Monday afternoon (2pm at Ribbon Tree Cafe in Cleckheaton) and the occasional Thursday afternoon (e.g. we are meeting at 2pm on the 27th of June) should any others wish to join and explained that from September the Ribbon Tree sessions will change to just Thursday or Friday and we will need a new venue for the Monday meet up. Mark kindly suggested Cafe 139 in Brighouse as a potential venue as he works there. It is located opposite the Police Station and Swimming Pool. Karen told members about Brigantia, a new creative arts venue run by Creative Scene in Batley at the Empire Building (opposite the Town Hall). Individuals can pay for a years membership of £3, groups/businesses £30 for use of the creative space. There is a creative /artists breakfast meeting once a month on Thursday mornings (8.30am). Events members may wish to attend are the Boot Camp, Writers Group (run by Rachel who used to run creative writing sessions at Kirklees College), It's A Word Thing Spoken Word Night, Freelance Thursdays, Y Don't U - Do It Yourself and for young outdoors arts producers (who will shortly be putting a call out for writers) aged 18-25 Emergency Exit Arts through the Paper Peace Project. Sam informed members of a free helpful writers app on Android called World Scribe where you can save brief biographies of characters (which can be used with concept art from Google) and chapters etc.
The next meeting will take place on Monday 8 July 5.30-7pm at Cleckheaton Library. Mandy, Karen, Cassie and Sam have already passed on their apologies for this meeting.
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