P.W.G minutes of the meeting 08/02/18 Venue Neos Sports Club, Pegeia.

Present :

John Goodwin Rich Palmer Caroline Harman Smith

Beryl Lowe Jennie Rook Maurice Holloway Nikki Burrows

Sharon Whitehouse and new member Gill Ainsworth.

Greetings scribes, nice to see some familiar faces at the meeting and a better attendance including one new member.

John invited Gill to introduced herself to the group.

She is into poetry and short stories some of which have been published.

She prefers to write Horror and Science Fiction and likes Stephen King.

Also Gill has edited a magazine in the USA.

Readings :

Beryl story Beryl's writing anniversary

Caroline story Death on Proxima

Nikki story Excerpt from 'Zeus Factor'

Rich story Tobie the roadie

Coffee break 11.0.am to 11.15.am

Maurice story Titus

Maurice story Titus two

John story Jeffrey and the Chief

Gill story The Bonsai tree

A discussion on 'What creates a good opening' followed.

• Short, punchy first sentence

• Attention-grabbing first 5 lines

• Compelling first paragraph

• Connection with characters and place

• Descriptive narrative

• Convincing imagery

• For non-fiction: Astonishing facts – described simply

This week’s writing prompt: Write the opening of a story or article around 500 to 1000 words Incorporating as many of the bullet points above as possible.

Thanks to all who attended, next meeting Thursday 15th, February at Neos.