Saturday 7 November 2020

Cleckheaton Writers Group meeting, 2 November 2020, Zoom

Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met on Monday on Zoom with Sarah, Alice and Karen in attendance, Daniel and Neil having passed on their apologies.

The minutes from the last meeting were agreed as a correct record.

WIP updates: Karen, having missed the last meeting, has been writing new chapters of her current WIP, written the first act of a horror script as part of a collaboration, a performance poem, song and poem for HLF creative writing group, pitched to Carina Press and entered her MG story into the SCBWI October Slushpile competition. She has also heard back from agent Emma Layfield who has passed on her email for resubmitting her picture book once it is edited following her feedback. Karen has also started NaNoWriMo and hopes to get her current RC WIP to first draft. Alice has also been preparing for NaNoWriMo but on week three she changed the book that she was going to write, so she has finished off that and has undertaken two days of NaNo. She is also awaiting editing notes on her first novel. Sarah has written 74k of her fifth draft which has taken six weeks to edit and rewrite (she has rewritten the beginning 12 times). She has sent it to two agents and then will send it to two publishers if she doesn't hear back.

Competitions/workshops/courses: The Blue Pencil Prize has a deadline at the end of November. The BBC are running some free courses with Malorie Blackman and David Walliams.

Feedback: Karen had submitted some scenes from her current WIP. Alice enjoyed it and felt that the new telephone scene with the cafe owner moved the story on. She felt that more needed to be made of the flower shop and to up the risks for both MCs, suggesting that the chapters do not need to be of interspersed POV, two consecutive ones could be from one MC. CWG members then discussed ideas for conflict for the male protagonist. Sarah will send along her feedback. 

Writing plans: Alice is intending to hit her self-imposed deadlines for NaNo word counts. Sarah is taking a week off then will be back to book three in order to lose one POV that she feels is not working (it might belong in a different book). Karen will be continuing her daily word counts for NaNo on her current WIP, editing her picture book and a couple of her other novels.

The next meeting will take place on Zoom on Monday 16 November at 5.45pm. Can any CWG member wishing to send work for feedback please do so to everyone by this Sunday, 8 November. 

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