Gamlingay & District Writers’ Group

Another great meeting. I went home feeling really inspired to get on and write something, & hope that everyone else did too.

1. Introductions
No introductions this month as we all know each other now.

2. Review of Targets
Still no formal targets – but we seem to be getting on well enough without them for the time being. Emma continues to make progress with her novel, and has even increased her word count titles, which is good news. Sarah has nearly finished a rewrite of her wartime novel.

3. Competition News
Details were distributed of several forthcoming fiction competitions. A few of us are also starting to enter some competitions, which is good. Two of us have had entries returned from competitions due to insufficient entries – but at least that means that we’ve got some stories all ready to be sent off.

4. Other News
A ‘proper writer’ among us The big news of the evening – one of our members has become a regular columnist for The Comet! Stanley had a double page in a recent edition, and has also got a regular slot to write about the work of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. Well done Stanley – a great achievement.

It just goes to show that it’s well worth going after our goals, because we might actually achieve them. If we don’t try, we’ll never know.

Sarah Harrison, a very successful novelist who runs Morden Writers’ Group, has offered to come and speak to us...free of charge! A date of 19 May has been set, with further details to be discussed with Sarah, who is currently on holiday.

Sarah is a very engaging and down to Earth speaker who makes her audience believe that they too can achieve something with their work, so this should be a very worthwhile and inspiring evening.

5. Discussion of Work
Lots of stories again this month – some funny, some thought provoking, some experimental. It’s always amazing how many slants we find on a single theme. Some stories were part of a bigger project, and it will be interesting to see how they slot into the larger work.

It is great to see that everyone is making an effort to stretch themselves and produce something each month. Real life and other pressures to have a nasty habit of intruding onto our writing time and inclination.

But not to worry if you’re not actively writing yet - there is an important stage of the writing process called ‘percolating’, as explained by Jenna Glatzer in her book on writing. As long as you’re thinking about writing or reading about writing or perhaps jotting down some ideas, you’re still doing some valuable work, so keep at it!

6. Break
No break this month as we were all having too much fun discussing the stories. It’s fascinating to find out where members got their ideas from and how long it took them to produce their story.

7. Aims for the coming month
Everyone is aiming to produce something for the next meeting on May 5th. The theme is, “Meal with Three People – who would you most like to have a meal with? It could be anyone, living, dead or imaginary.”

However, if anyone is working on something not connected with the theme, as ever, they are welcome to submit that instead. It would be helpful if we could circulate our work a week in advance of the meeting to allow for reading time.

Can we also remember to put our names on our stories (the Chair is the main culprit here) to avoid confusion.

8. Any Other Business?
May’s meeting will also be held at Will’s house as he has kindly volunteered to host us again. Please contact me if you need the details.

We are still investigating the feasibility of using a hall above Potton Library, and in the meantime we are very grateful to members for continuing to host the meetings.

See you all next month! Happy writing!!

Tracey