16th September: The Magic Dungbeetle

It was a while since I'd updated my business blog, Cam Poetic License, and I decided that it would be best to have a separate blog specifically for the group.

With that in mind, I'll write an update:

We now have quite a few members! Members are... Tannice, Stefan, Cheryl, Sean, Penny, Kate, Sophie, Nick and Lucy.

Absent this week, with apologies: Sean and Cheryl.

Nick and Lucy joined us for the first time (welcome!), and Stefan was new to the group last time we met.

This week we discussed our submissions for 'A Ghost Story' - a story of 1,000 words (+/- 150 words).

The story had to include the words 'The window was open'.

The calibre of the submissions was extremely high, as I have come to expect from my members. Excellent work, everyone!

Penny's work, 'The Visit', was, as described by one member, 'the beauty of the interrupted routine' - her main character, a widow, found herself startled by her open window. Who was it? That was up to the reader to decide.

Stefan's story, 'The Ethereal Smile', told of a stranded mechanic's encounter with a beautiful girl, desperate for attention after 30 years of solitude. Just who was she, and why did she haunt an abandoned hut?

Kate chose to set her story in the driving rain of some school grounds, just across from the library her character was studying. Kat, a student of history, finds herself immersed in history herself when she encounters Mr. Toddick, who seems to be stuck in a time warp. But did she imagine it? The lingering aroma of coal seems to say otherwise.

Sophie's protagonist finds himself reawakened by a house he inherited from estranged Uncle Vladimir. A rich investor, Samuel finds himself thoroughly creeped out when he sees the ghostly figure of his dead Uncle.

Tannice's story was written from the ghost's perspective. A love story, rather than horror, my unnamed character finds himself conscious and well, other than the fact that he's dead. Still very much in love with the woman in his life, he becomes an unlikely, loving poltergeist.

NEXT WEEK: ESCWW is doing Children's Stories! With a word limit of 500 words, and a ban on magic and dragons (magic or not - this was the source of some dispute).
However, there is one exception: Sophie is allowed to use magic: ONLY if she writes her story about a magic dungbeetle (which is, apparently, a form of dragon). More on that next time.

STOP PRESS: I've forgotten to mention that next week, we have an author joining us to tell us all about being an author, where her inspiration comes from, how she deals with writer's block and anything else we can think of to ask her!

30th September, the Bull's Head, Reigate High St (or the Church next door, if possible!)

Meeting 3: It Changed Me

(Originally posted 11th August, 2009)

'It changed me': non-fiction article

Write an article of around 500 words about an experience in your life that changed your perspective in some way.

• It could be you learnt something new that changed your attitude, or maybe your view of someone... maybe someone surprised or even disappointed you? That's not an exhaustive list: anything that changed your mind or perspective or broadened your horizons fits into this exercise.

• Keep it factual (though you may change names if you wish).

Writing facts doesn't mean you have to change your style: it can retain some features of narrative story-telling if that's what you want. However, if you want to write the article in the style of a newspaper story, in the third person, then please do. It's entirely up to you!

• Remember to write what happened, what you thought about it, why it sticks in your mind and how it changed you, your perspective or views, and even how that's affected you in the long-term (what you've learned from it - about yourself, life, people, or even what the moral of the story is...)

When critiquing

It changed me: subject matter criticism

It's hard to critique without some framework.. so think carefully about the aim of this piece.

The aim is to inform the reader about an experience that changed them, their life or a small part of their mindset in some way.

Do you get that from the piece? How did it change the writer? What effect did the change have? Is there a moral to the story?

Style analysis

• How does the writer convey the change and how it affected them? Does the style fit the topic? If not, what do you think might work better? How about the language? What phrases and sentences do you like? Why? Which ones don't work? How do you think they could be improved?

Nit-picking

• Have they stuck to the word count? If not, what should they remove? Any punctuation or spelling nits? If so, don't be afraid to point them out too.