RENEGADE WRITERS GROUP, STOKE

Nell and I attended the Renegade Writers Group in Stoke yesterday evening (every Wednesday night, 19.30 at the Jolly Potter pub – the house white ain’t bad either) and had a GREAT time. I think the success of any Rees outing is directly proportional to the amount of conversation in the car afterwards and believe me the 40 minute trip back to Derby seemed to fly by.



Renegade Writers 1 (or 4, but you know what I mean!)


The biggest frustration I have is that each and every one of the pieces read gave me loads and loads of ideas and the bugger is I’m so committed to finishing The Demi-Monde: Summer (the 3rd book in the series) I ain’t got time to digress and explore them. I really loved Tim's (I missed your surname Tim, apologies) sex-o-drama, though I think it could bear a little ‘pushing’. The anti-heroine needs to be made more conniving and the ‘hero’ more visceral, but overall there’s a great story in there. I liked Jan’s ideas too: I’d be inclined to lean harder on the glass/light motif to make it a more strident metaphor for Bekki's (?) fractured personality. Very interesting though.

Renegade Writers 2

The best thing about attending the meeting (other than the intelligent company which is quite rare these days) was that it made me think about writing styles other than the one I’ve adopted for The Demi-Monde. Seeds have been sown.

I read part of the Prologue from DM1 which was good experience tho' I find reading aloud really shows up the flaws in your work...I should have made the Prologue leaner and meaner. Damn! I’m gonna take the opening chapter from DM3 to the next meeting – having a little early criticism will, I think, be good for the soul...and the syntax.

Many thanks to Peter Coleborn for organising a very worthwhile meet. It’s highly recommended folks!