Cleckheaton Writers Group minutes, meeting 1 February 2021

Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met last night at 5.45pm on Zoom, Karen, Ashley, Gemma and Neil in attendance, Daniel, Sarah and Alice having passed on their apologies.

The minutes were passed as a correct record.

WIP updates: Karen has written several more chapters on her WIP, which is now up to 74k words and she attended the virtual GEA Honkference at the weekend, which included a positive 1-2-1 session with an agent. A few of her writing friends, including Alice, had also been at the Honkference where their 1-2-1 sessions went well too. Congratulations Alice. Karen informed members that the Crowdcast recordings of the events would be available to view and will add the link to the events section of the minutes. 

Gemma has reached 82k words on her first draft of her WIP, so now intends to leave it for two and a half weeks before editing. Well done Gemma on this fantastic achievement.

Neil has written 1k words on his haunted house story in January. Well done Neil, great you have your writing mojo back.

Ashley has written 7k words of a first draft having written 1k words a day last week in a morning. She has also been plot planning which she found helpful. This will be her first MS and it is a psychological thriller with a supernatural twist. Fantastic achievement Ashley, well done.

Gemma and Karen recommended the Save the Cat Writes a Novel! and the How to Write a Novel books to help with this as they found them useful.

Feedback sessions: No-one shared any work for feedback.

CW Competitions/Workshops/Events: GEA link https://www.geahonkference.com/timetable.html 

GEA Workshops include self-publishing, editing, marketing/publicity and more.

Writing Studio Write Your Way workshop Thursday 4 February 11-4 FREE FB Event via Lightbox Originals and Shelley Wilson (Details can be found on the Cleckheaton Literature Festival facebook page) - The writing world is flooded with advice and rules for how you should craft your words. Many of these are lectured into us at school and stifle creativity.

The reality is, there are no rules for writing, only guidance. To become a writer, you don’t need to master a rule book but rather set out on an adventure. Step into the world with an open mind, explore the guidance that’s out there then uncover your own way.

Put on your writing boots, fill your backpack with creativity and join author, Shelley Wilson in our Writing Studio on 4th February where she’ll show you how to discover your very own writing process.

Our Writing Studio is free and you can drop in any time between 11am and 4pm (GMT).

https://www.facebook.com/events/203981688136944?active_tab=about

Writing plans: Karen hopes to get her current WIP to first draft, submit to an agent, enter the competitions mentioned at the last meeting and start editing her picture book and crime novel. Gemma intends to leave her first draft for two weeks and then edit. Neil is going to finish the ghost story by the end of the month. Ashley will continue to write 1k words a day and hopes to have 21k words by the next CWG meeting. Good luck everyone.

Date of next meeting: Monday 15 February at 5.45pm.