March 2017 already! Monthly roundup..

Our March round up from Janine, kind host of yesterday’s meeting:

A huge number of attendees this month, six members and Jane. Jane comes from Caterham joined us to try us out, so to speak. Thank you for coming to Woldingham…a place without street lights!

It was great to see so many and a valiant token gentleman was amongst the vociferous ‘girls’. It was a wonderfully relaxed and fluid meeting with an organic sort of  structure.

First up for review and critique was a second draft or a very meaningful synopsis of Sophie’s novel: a fantasy story set in the British Isles with characters who have both human and elf-like qualities. The synopsis reviewed this evening is ernest as it forms part of the agent-approach pack and success and failure can, apparently, be defined by the quality, content and structure of one’s synopsis. It is rather more than the elevator pitch, one’s first hook and it forms the last hook demonstrating the resolution of the plot(s).  Who knew just how complex and unspontaneous the publishing process has become..we can’t speak to you, you don’t have an agent etc. Anyway, we had a most enjoyable tooing and froing and concluded everything was going in the right direction.

Next Robin, token man of the evening, read, beautifully, a poem that had been submitted for this month’s exercise. Well, it was powerful, emotional, clever in its construct and a most interesting interpretation of the brief. Elaine had composed the poem and she received heartfelt congratulations and a few constructive suggestions from the group. It was truly memorable.

Zsusanna then shared a verbal synopsis of the most extraordinary and clever construct for a novel. I won’t share it here as it is definitely work in progress. It has the potential to be most amusing, bemusing and intriguing story. Zsusanna’s challenge remains to resolve the plot. Suffice to say, it does involve Man’s best friend and the most remarkable transformations in a part of the world not necessarily known for magical fantasy. More to follow as this project progresses.

Jane brought along a short story that she has recently submitted to a writing competition. It was read to the group by Elaine and it has huge potential and an intriguing plot and twists. There was a lot of interaction and contribution by the group and hopefully Jane went away convinced she had written something great and with her new peers giving some generous, constructive guidance and suggestions.

Next meeting is April 14.. Venue to be notified.

Exercise agreed: 700 words from a current project or a piece on a Costume Party. please submit these by email on or by April 4 for circulation to members so they may be read prior to the meet up.

Sophie has very kindly arranged a workshop with Alice Clark-Platts on July 18. The group agreed Sophie would ask Alice to talk about plot drafting.

Finally, Sophie mentioned we now have eleven members..wouldn’t it be great if we could all be present at one meeting?!