I had the pleasure of visiting Chichester Writers Circle on Tuesday 4 May to judge their short story competition and talk about short stories in general. I received a very warm welcome and hopefully most gained something out of the evening. The competition was for a modern day fairy story, not an easy subject, but I am pleased to say that all the entries stuck to the brief resulting in a varied bunch of stories. What I was looking for in each story was:
1. An original idea.
2. Believeable characters.
3. Conflict.
4. Dialogue.
5. An interesting title
6. A story that had a beginning, middle and an end.
7. A story that held my interest to the end.
8 a satisfying or believing ending.
I must say the majority ticked all the boxes, but a few could have found better titles. Titles can be so difficult. Each person went away with a tip sheet on writing short stories, which I hope was useful. Well done to Chichester Writers for a most enjoyable evening. Wednesday saw me back at my desk working on my Gower book, which is almost ready for the final proofread. Thursday was a day of pleasure as I attended the SWWJ south east regional lunch at the Birch Hotel in Haywards Heath, and besides meeting up with old friends it was good to chat to two of our newer members from the Worthing area. Monday 10 May I travelled up to London for the SWWJ Council meeting, always a long day, but especially enjoyable because as membership secretary I had 18 new applicants to present to Council. The SWWJ is going from strength to strength. If you are a writer, do have a look at the Society of Women Writers and Journalists website and consider joining us. Our up-coming event is our Summer Festival which is to be held at The Royal Overseas League in London, always an enjoyable event.