This month’s review has been delayed due to technical problems. Many apologies.

We were back to our regular schedule this month – the first Wednesday of the month – after last month’s change.

We had one new person this time; it was lovely to meet her. Hopefully, she’ll come back next time!

Many thanks to all who came and made it a good meeting.

Progress reports

Caity has written up her scribble chat in her novel, and is still muddling along with getting her plot back on track.

Our resident zombie guy is having a small hiatus from his zombies. Who can blame him?

We have a couple of members entering NaNoWriMo this year – we wish them luck, and we hope to hear about their success next month. Are you doing NaNoWriMo this year? If so, how are you getting on?

One of our NaNoWriMo-ers has written a bit more of her novel. It sounds like she’s making good progress.

Our newbie is writing her first screenplay, which is exciting. She’s made some decent progress so far.

Another Ely Writer is taking two unpublished novels that she’s written and running them alongside each other, but will join them up in a clever way. It’s an intriguing process.

Our other NaNoWriMo-er has started a writing a sci-fi podcast play. That’s new to us! We’re looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

Free writing

This month, the prompt was inspired by Hallowe’en, which was at the end of last month. The prompt was a single word: superstitious.

Caity wrote about a character who doesn’t believe in superstitions like walking under a ladder when there’s no one on it and you have to go into the road to avoid it. Contrarily, the character is religious, which could be argued to be a collection of superstitions. When Caity was writing this, Prosper’s lights started flickering!

We learned about the superstitions they have in America, as opposed to our British ones. For example, in Britain, it’s unlucky to put shoes on the table; in America, it’s unlucky to put hats on the bed. We clarified that the latter applies to outdoor hats only because nightcaps are supposed to be worn in bed, which could be a problem!

What are your local superstitions, and which, if any, do you believe in?

Readings

We had one reading this month – the end of the story we heard the beginning of last month. It was a great place to end, because it tied up what had come before, while leaving scope for either a sequel or for the reader to imagine what happened next.

We really love to hear your writing, although it’s strictly optional to read it out.

Discussion

Discussion was kept short this month because we had quite a bit of any other business to get through.

We wondered if zombies can see their reflections in mirrors, and what they would make of them if they could. One for our resident zombie apocalypse guy to think about. What do you reckon?

One of our attendees had a tip to share from a novelist: if you’re busy writing on your computer, and you get a bit stuck, try handwriting for a while. I guess the opposite might work, too.

Any other business

We had some exciting other business this month, and we needed some time to discuss it during the meeting.

We checked in with the status of the reviews of Artemis Writers’ last couple of workshops. One member’s review of Creative writing workshop: fundamentals of plot has been posted; another has been lost in the ether, which is a shame. None of us were able to attend Creative writing workshop: let's talk dialogue.

We have finally found a platform to share work we’d like other members of the group to give feedback on, thanks to Kate B: a private subreddit. This has been requested by some of the group, so it was great to be able to deliver this.

You must be an Ely Writer to apply to join this group, and all requests will be reviewed by a moderator. The usual rules, plus some Reddit-specific rules, apply.

Caity and Greg are going to be interviewed about Ely Writers for a podcast about all things Ely! They’re very excited, and a bit nervous, perhaps. The arrangements are yet to be made, but it should be some time soonish, probably. Watch this space!

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 6 December 2023 at 7:15 pm till 8:15 pm in Prosper. We’ll be having a vaguely Christmassy theme.

See you then?