Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met on Monday evening via Zoom, where Sarah, Mandy, Alice, Neil and myself were in attendance, Kathy, Sam, Cassie, Mark, and Gemma having passed on their apologies.
We discussed how lockdown had affected us since it began, including how and when it had changed our writing production.
WIP updates: Mandy had completed two novellas and started a third. She informed CWG members that Victorina Press will be publishing her next book in January. Sarah's first book has been published during lockdown and she has been undertaking publicity for this. Her second book is now out with agents and she has started plotting her third novel. Alice has been editing her first novel, including feedback and deadlines from GEA, and started work on her new one. Neil has been planning on finishing two short stories he started a while back and to finish his reading list. He has also been blogging regularly since lockdown. I have written a new novel (currently at just under 110k words) in lockdown and am half-way through editing it. This is my fifth book and the other four are currently out with agents and competitions. Having submitted a lot of my work and entered a ton of writing competitions, I'm happy to say I won a couple, including a Cornerstones Literary Agency Literary Clinic session and a Bridport Prize entry. Taking part in #PitMad on Twitter last week, I garnered a like on my pitch from a U.S. agent for my current WIP and I've sent the first five pages and synopsis for consideration.
Competitions/Events: The Society of Authors is currently running a Summer Festival online, as is Jericho Writers and there are various online opportunities with SCBWI and GEA.
Recommendations: Sarah recommended the novel Save the Cat! as she is finding it particularly useful and CWG members agreed that this and the follow-up Save the Cat! Writes a Novel are excellent writing tools.
Upcoming writing: The CWG members then discussed their plans for the next week in terms of writing. Mandy will be completing the second and final edit on her second novella (currently at 30k words). Sarah will be taking part in the Jericho Writers workshops and plotting and reading Save the Cat! Alice has received her feedback from GEA and will be working on the timeline issues. Neil will be making a start on his short stories (including Colony X), reading through his notes from the last two years whilst job hunting and reading. I will continue editing my current WIP and finalise the key story plan and re-writing the first 10k of my third novel as advised by GEA.
Next meeting: It was agreed that the CWG members would like to continue the meets on Zoom and that any member wishing to share work for feedback would do so via email by THIS SUNDAY 14 JUNE 2020. These pieces will then receive feedback at the next Zoom meeting scheduled for Monday 22 June at 6pm. Hope to 'see' you there.
Happy writing :)
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