Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met last night at Cleckheaton Library 5.30-7.00pm with Molly, Michelle, Karen, Kathy, Reuben, Gemma and new member Jack in attendance, Alice, Cassie, Paul and Barbara having given their apologies.
Members welcomed Jack to the group and shared their writing backgrounds. Jack has been writing for 4 and a half years, starting with poetry that morphed into narrative song lyrics, then moving onto a novel entitled Keep in Touch, a story inspired by letters from his grandfather during the war and now is working on a fantasy novel for MG or YA which is currently at 50k words.
The minutes from the last meeting were agreed as a correct record.
WIP updates: Karen has edited chapters 49-52 of her MS, entered the RNA competition to win tickets to the Winter Party in London (unsuccessful), was Longlisted for the YEW (Yorkshire Emerging Writers) Mentoring Programme with Simon & Schuster and Bradford Literature Festival (shortlist announced mid-November), was sadly not longlisted for the Working Class Writers Prize (but will be receiving feedback in January) and was informed by her editor that her first novel, a rom com entitled Christmas Evie is now available to pre-order on Kobo, Apple iBooks, Smashwords etc. and will be available soon on Kindle and Barnes and Noble (for anyone interested, see details below):
https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/christmas-evie-1
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1479377
Michelle has written a poem. Gemma has been editing. Kathy has had problems with her Scrivener software whilst editing her Tobias WIP and she found a short story she wrote a while back and has decided to edit and rewrite the first chapter. Reuben has been crafting chapter two and hopes to write the rest. Molly has received feedback from her poetry competition entry but sadly was not one of the 4 winners. She has joined another writers group that meets on a Monday at 6-8pm called Creative Minds that gives prompts to do writing activities and gave details of where it was located. She has typed up her poem for Black History Month and hopes to enter it for the 15 November deadline and has attended a flash fiction workshop at Northeastern University, where they analysed the structure of Kit de Waal's I'm a Painters Daughter, as she is considering a creative writing MA.
CW comps/workshops/events: Hachette Children’s Award opens 26 October (deadline 8 Jan), Women’s Poetry Prize £10 entry fee (£2K, £250 and publication prizes) deadline 4 December, Women’s Pamphlet competition £20 entry fee (20 poems £250 prize) deadline 4 December, CBC Discoveries Prize (1st 10k novel in progress, synopsis and 200 word covering letter) deadline 8 January, BBC Writers Room open call deadline 5 December, Bitter Pill Theatre The Painkiller Project deadline 13 November, Emerging Writers Award £2k Moniack Moor package deadline 30 November, Dragon Hall Retreat writing competition deadline 4 December, The Glencairn Glass Short Story crime competition (crime story set in Scotland) £2k prize deadline 31 December and Skylark Soaring Stories competition (MG or YA) deadline 24 December
Writing plans: Michelle will continue on her Ryan WIP, Gemma will continue editing, Kathy will edit her Tobias WIP and work on the other story as mentioned previously. Jack will finish the next chapter of his fantasy WIP. Reuben will work on chapter 2 of his WIP. Molly will type up what she has worked on, will attend the Huddersfield Ink Spill event and contact her friend about a poem she has written about fast fashion for an event she is doing as it incorporates short stories. Karen will finish editing, continue NaNoWriMo (working on the sequel to Christmas Evie) and carry on with the 'location' edit for her crime novel.
This led to a discussion about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the book Gemma had brought along entitled Book Writers Little Helper by James W Smith Jnr. which gives a guide to what should be in each scene and using Dabble (which is like Scrivener).
Feedback sessions: Jack shared the beginning of his fantasy novel Age of Affiliation Three Kings giving us an outline of the story and the prologue. Members loved the idea of this novel with man-beast familiars and mythical creatures including dragons, and a throne to be claimed by three twin sons. Jack was advised that his outline was not a synopsis but a blurb and that a synopsis had to be a page detailing what happens in the book including the ending. It was felt that it is great he has a blurb and an outline of his novel going forward and it was suggested that he have an elevator pitch (e.g. Sixth Sense meets Se7en) ready which may include Stardust as there are parallels with the dying king and his sons. Members loved the 3rd person close POV and the 'devious smile' line which was excellent foreshadowing that the brothers may not want to rule together as per their father's (and mother's) dying wish. We look forward to hearing more.
This led to a discussion about story beats (e.g. inciting incident) and the book Save the Cat Writes a Novel (plus the new edition for children's writing) was recommended. Karen also informed Jack about the Society for Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators (SCBWI) whose local chapter is in York.
Molly shared her poem for Black History Month entitled Bessie Coalman which was powerful. It was great to have such an inspirational, and yet lesser known, person to base the poem on and the rhyming cadence was excellent. Members wished Molly luck in the competition and felt that the poem would make an evocative performance poem.
Reuben shared his poem which is as yet untitled and great fun. Members felt it could be a children's cooking poem/picture book which could lead to a series. It was felt there was a snaggy rhyme with the words garlic and quick which needs work. Reuben informed members that in medieval times this was a method to pass on recipes and cited Tasting History by Max Miller. Karen asked that Reuben send it for consideration in the anthology.
Michelle shared her poem A Life Unborn which was poignant as it was about a miscarriage. It was felt that the line about procreation was strong and it had a great rhyming cadence.
Karen shared a small descriptive section from her crime novel which members felt evoked a creepy atmosphere that led to a discussion about strengths and weaknesses in writing such as dialogue, description etc.
Writing challenge: NOVEMBER Thanksgiving, Storms and Rhyming Instructions
Christmas 'Do' date: Monday 11 December at Wetherspoons Cleckheaton (in place of the CWG meeting)
Date of next meeting: Monday 27 November 2023 at Cleckheaton Library, 5.30pm-7.00pm. New members always welcome.
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