Gamlingay & District Writers’ Group

Our busiest meeting yet... lots of new members, lots to catch up on and lots of stories to review. There was a real buzz throughout, so thank you everyone for your enthusiasm and participation.

1. Introductions
We were very pleased to welcome a number of faces this month. Joan, Gillian, Jean, Lesley and Angela all joined us for the first time. It was great to see you, and we very much hope that you’ll come back next month.

We are going to continue our policy of removing people from the e-mail distribution list if we haven’t heard from them for three months. That way, we’re not harassing people if they’ve decided that they need a well-earned break from writing.

2. Review of Targets
Our two novelists are making progress. Jackie has sadly had to return to gainful employment, which is eating into her writing time. However, she has joined the national ‘Write a Novel’ month – which as the name suggests challenges participants to write a novel in a month. We look forward to hearing how you get on.

Emma is re-using some earlier work, which shows that you should never throw any writing away as it might come in handy at some stage.

The Chair has now rewritten over 50% of her first novel and is trying to string together novel number 5 from a collection of short stories.

Madeleine is going to try to finish her intriguing story about an artist, and Lesley is aiming to finish her very promising Phoenician coin story.

3. Competition News
Sarah sent one of her novels to a publisher but was not successful on this occasion. Their loss really as the rest of us love your work.

Jackie has entered a competition on the topic ‘Seven Deadly Sins’, and was also shortlisted in a flash fiction competition, eventually coming third.

Well done, Jackie! The competition was particularly difficult as entries had to be submitted within half an hour of the topic being announced.

Since the meeting, the Chair has sent the ‘Back into Hell’ story to a second competition and is hoping to enter another competition or two before the next meeting.

From her experience of judging competitions, the Chair would strongly encourage all members to do some entries. The standard of work does vary enormously, and everyone in the Group is producing work which would put them comfortably ahead of most typical entrants!

4. Other News
Teresa Benison – Stanley (who attends one of her writing classes) is making contact with Teresa as we are hoping to book her to speak to us. Thank you Stanley – much appreciated. The idea is to give ourselves an event to look forward to as winter approaches.

Writers’ News – we have finally managed to get our act together and have a group photo taken for the Writers’ News... and the Chair has also managed to get the magazine’s name right! The Chair will forward the photo and some details about the group to the magazine and we will be starring in a future issue.

Will’s novel – is coming out in a week or two! We’re all very excited for you, Will. What an achievement!

5. Discussion of Work
This month, we had to incorporate a politician, a lake and a Phoenician coin into our work, and only two members managed to fulfil the brief, including one of our newest members. Well done, Sarah and Lesley!

There were some really intriguing submissions. Everyone is developing their own unique and individual styles. Several items had enough depth and intrigue to be developed into novels, and each story was entertaining or thought provoking in its own way.

A reminder – there are two members who submitted their work but who could not be with us. The first is Emrys, who we think is in France now. He submitted an amended script about a Pools win, and has spent a lot of effort rewriting it. The second is Valerie, who took the trouble to send a short item despite being in the throes of a PhD.

Can we all take a moment to send Emrys and Valerie our comments to ensure that they still feel part of the group?

6. Break
No break this month as there was a lot to talk about. In fact, maybe we should abandon the break as we never seem to fit it in! Which is a good thing really as it shows that we really get the most out of every minute of our meetings.

7. Aims for the coming month
Everyone is aiming to produce something for the next meeting on November 3rd. We have chosen 2 sentences, and the challenge is to include either one or both of them somewhere in our work. They could be the first line, the last line, or be slotted in somewhere in the middle.

The lines are as follows:
1. ‘Is that it?’
2. ‘Perhaps it wasn’t as bad as it looked.’

However, if anyone is working on something not connected with the theme, as ever, they are welcome to submit that instead. At this month’s meeting, it was pleasing that members felt able to bring some work that wasn’t fully completed, in order to get some ideas on how to finish. That’s what we’re here for – to give support and encouragement at all stages of the creative process, from the first germination of an idea to the polishing of the finished article.

8. Any Other Business?
Will has kindly offered to host the meeting again so we will be meeting at 7 o’clock at his house.

See you all next month! Happy writing!!

Tracey