Gamlingay & District Writers’ Group
A quick re-cap of our recent meeting...

1. Introductions
We had two new members this month – Emma who is in the throes of getting to .grips with her first novel, and Will who is hoping to move onto bigger and better things with his writing. A warm welcome to you both!

2. Review of Targets
It didn’t take long to run through the targets set in December – because we didn’t set any!

3. Competition News
Details were distributed of several forthcoming competitions which members were keen to try. Tracey has entered a ‘First Chapter’ competition with two novels, and also a ‘First paragraph of a novel’ competition with one of them.

The main rule to remember with respect to competitions is...you can’t win it if you’re not in it, so let’s all get entering”

4. Other News
No writing related events had been found by the chair; however interest was expressed in tracking down a writers’ conference, which will be done in time for the next meeting.

5. Discussion of Work
Members put forward various items for discussion. Two members had successfully completed their first ever short stories – so well done to Emrys & Stanley. Are you sure you haven’t done this before??

It really is so helpful to have someone else’s perspective on work, to see how it could be made even better.

6. Break
We enjoyed a break for refreshments, giving a chance to chat with other members. Writing can be a lonely business, making it doubly important to be able to talk to other like-minded people.

7. Aims for the coming month
Everyone is aiming to produce something for the next meeting on February 3rd. The theme is Travel Writing - tell us about somewhere you’ve already visited – or somewhere you’d like to visit? Or make up a holiday destination – the moon, for example?

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.

It would also be fantastic if everyone could aim to register on the website, http://www.gamlingaywriters.org.uk/forum, and make a post of some description. Write a post, reply to a post, whatever you want – anything to stop the site looking lonely and unloved! Now that we’ve got it, we might as well use it!

8. Any Other Business?
* Advertisements for the group were given out for members to distribute.
* A grant from Gamlingay Council has been sought to pay for start-up costs for the website and for group membership of the National Association of Writers’ Groups.
* Members selected items from the group’s small library of writing self-help books.

See you all next month! Happy writing!!