Cleckheaton Writers Group (CWG) met on Monday 24 June 2024 at 5.30 pm - 7.00 pm. With thanks to Kathy for taking the minutes in my absence.
Present: Kathy, Molly, Michelle, David, Ellie
Apologies: Karen, Rueben, Paul
Welcome /
Attendance
New member, Ellie joined us.
We had a round of introductions, talking about our writing styles, genres,
and generally our reasons for being here.
Ellie introduced herself, she is local to the area originally and has moved
back after finishing Uni. Studies were
around script writing and drama. She likes
comedy stuff, does some performing herself and indicated her fondness for
dialogue (a girl after my own heart…) 😊
Really hope you can join us next time Ellie – and welcome!
Minutes of Last
meeting
Taken as read.
Work in Progress
Kathy - in terms of writing, nothing of note.
Michelle – New job
has taken up much of her time. However, she
now feels the need to get back into writing and create a bit more structured
approach to it. Is toying with entering the
National Poetry Competition, with her poem on the broken vase.
Barabara – Has since written a short story, which she has
brought, no details at this stage – all will be revealed at feedback session…stayed
tuned.
David – Written a couple of pieces and has brought them with
him. One is story of 700 words and then a
short one of about 150, based on the May theme of maypoles.
Molly – Attended the Nabeela Ahmed poetry workshop and has written
some poems and a short story.
Competitions /
Festivals /Other
Nothing new, other than National Poetry Competition that
Michelle mentioned. Submission deadline
is 31 October 2024. 1st prize
is £5,000, first entry costs £8, subsequent entries are £5. Any theme.
Writing Plans
Kathy – Try and get some more editing changes done on Tobias,
but also write fresh for Book Puppet.
Michelle – Will definitely try to write a poem, as she is inspired
by the colour grey. Everything seems to
be grey coloured at the moment like cars, kitchen designs, bathroom designs,
windows and doors and so on. When she thinks of grey, she usually associates it
with things not being quite right. And
there’s plenty of things going on in the word that are not quite right.
Barabara – Further to her ‘Valetta’ story, the teenager who
inherits money at her coming of age, she has an end in mind - so will aim to
complete.
David – Has a new idea for a story called ‘Pastures
Old’. Will be about finding lost great-grandfathers,
will be a work of fiction and set in modern times. Putting everything else on back burner, especially
‘Done to Death’. Will lay that aside for 4-6 weeks mainly to give his friend
(the inspiration behind it) a chance to digest and comment.
Molly – To continue writing her morning pages, 10 mins per
day, and intends to write short story next.
Ellie – Considering writing a one-act play. The plot to centre around a family of 4, the
children have different father and possibly with a comedic theme.
Feedback
Barabara – ‘In Deep Water’.
Amusing short around a gentleman who recognises an Olympic swimmer on TV
– whilst shopping in the middle of Curry’s - and tells a shop assistant how
that swimmer saved his life when his car crashed into a body of water. Lovely twist at end – the car crashed after a
no-show blind date (hence distracted driving resulting in accident) – who
turned out to be the shop assistant he was regaling. We laughed at that and commented on how fun
it was – and very much like a Tales of the Unexpected! For anyone reading this who can remember those…
David – Read his maypole story (set around WW1 ?), with
ladies dancing and a lovely touch on how the graveyards of the church were
empty as their young men lay buried in a foreign field, and not home. Comments were that it was quite touching and
poignant. Side discussion followed on
the demise of social/community events like these, so it created a picture for
us. Also re-read the story of the food market experience in France. He withheld the info that this was an abridged this version of a previous story
he’d fed back. We did pick up on that,
to say how it had improved the flow of it and allowed you to concentrate more
on the main theme – that there was a (comical, friendly) process to be followed
when shopping at that particular market!
Writing Challenge
for June / July
Elections (again..) and festivals – as we’re moving into
July..
Any other Business
None
Meeting closed: DONM: 8 July 2024
