WRITE BY THE SEA IN FOLKESTONE
To provide a safe, inclusive and constructive environment for local writers to share and discuss their work.
Our task for this week is to write down words you associate with Spring, then using some of them write a story in 300 or fewer words about SPRING.
These are optional tasks so if you want to share some of your own work with the group for critique or advice then please bring it along.
March already and soon be spring, thank goodness. I had a tidy up out in the garden with the sun shining, little things make me smile and appreciate that I can just walk out into the garden. There is an idea for the next article about a competition for a short story.
Faversham festival has just finished so their short story competition has now opened, you can get all details from the website.
Our next event will be on Thursday at The Grand at 7pm. If you have ever wondered how to get the book you have spent years writing on to Amazon then you need to come along. This event is open to everyone, no charge! I would suggest bringing a notebook and pen as I am sure there will be lots to remember. The doors open at 6.30 so we can have everyone seated to start at 7. There will be tea and coffee available for a donation or you can bring your own drink.
At our first meeting on the 13th of January at 6pm, we will be catching up on any news and finalising the details of our next anthology.
We will also share our stories about the photo we picked from the assortment below.
See you on the 13th
I know sometimes the holidays can get a bit boring if you are on your own or not seeing many visitors or even just missing doing what you love…….writing!
I have an exercise for the ones that would like to do something creative, this is, as always, a choice so stay calm and just write. Even if you don’t have time to edit, that’s ok as you are writing and that’s what you love to do.
These three photos are the prompts so pick one of them and write something, this can be a story, poem or prose but no more than roughly 2,000 words. If you are a planner of any sort could we see your planning when you read the story to us, this is optional but might give someone a helping hand or ideas of how they could plan a story. Or do you want to try planning? This is a good place to have a go, as I am sure we will have a good Q&A when we read the stories, which will be on the 13th January 2022.
For the illustrator’s, would you combine these photos for a book cover or just use one? Describe how you would go about doing a front cover using these pictures, you will have to make up the genre or title so we know how the cover goes with the story.
Have fun, we look forward to reading some in the new year.
It’s the last day today, what a super weekend it has been down at Hythe. We have had many authors popping along to sell their books and chat to readers. We have been selling our last anthology called GHOSTS BY THE SEA and promoting our next book that is out soon, it is available free on kindle unlimited.
Debby takes the award for best seller, for her own book and the groups books. Come along and get your free bookmark and learn about the writing group, they do say everyone has a story in them but even a poem is great plus you might see your own words in our next book.
So many great stalls, loved the Bubbly one, then you have Matthew selling cherry cider, that sounds delicious. Super tasting ice coffee and many food stalls.
Pop along and say hi 👋
Our next meeting is on the 1st July at 6pm, we are starting a bit earlier so people have time to get their drink and order food also have a catch up with other members.
Please let us know if you are attending so we can keep an eye on numbers.
What a fantastic write up in the Go Folkestone magazine this month, it’s things like this that make it all worth while.
Our photography competition for the front cover of our next book which should be out in August closes on the 1st May. Please send your pics of beach huts to the email address above. We don’t appear to have any photos yet with any huts with doors open, let’s have a last minute rush of intriguing different photos of our beach huts. The best one will be on our front cover for the anthology by Write By The Sea. The competition is open to all Folkestone residents.
Fancy winning a place at The writing academy, then this competition is the one you should enter. You can find all the details on line also in the writing magazine competition booklet.
Here are some other competitions that some of you may be interested in. Pop along to the next meeting on the 3rd September if you have any questions. We will be sharing our ghostly tales that we are writing for our first published anthology. So far we have the five tales that we used for our Advent calender and I have had one other sent to myself.
Remember we need photos and illustrations as well plus a couple of poems.
See you on the 3rd at The Hideaway, where food and drink will be available all evening.
The Hideaway – Thursday 30th July 2020
After welcoming everyone, discussing the social distancing and leaving all names plus numbers as per the recommendations from the government, then the drinks were bought with some eating as well, we then got underway. It was great to see you all after such a long time.
It was a good turnout for our first meeting since this awful pandemic started with twelve of us meeting and apologies from Debby, Matthew, Carol, Mary and John.
Tony decided that the Zoom would not work as needed someone to ‘man’ it. Facebook messenger was suggested but think that would have the same problem. Mark suggested that we film it and then put it on the website. I will talk to Hannah as she may have a suggestion.
Debby asked me to mention the Hythe Festival 25th to 27th September, Facebook page here. They are thinking a book marquee for workshops, readings and selling your books. I will update when I hear more but keep the dates free if you can.
Author events – These may be people we know or our own members giving a talk. I will chat to Charlie Gallagher as he could do a local talk. Also, our member Paul who writes children’s books offered to do one, I thought this would be good as not had a children’s author visit us. I had Andy Markwell booked to do a talk about photography for book covers in November so hopefully, that will still go ahead.
Roll-up banner – Tony met up with Roger to ask about the progress so it is still in hand and going ahead, we must remind him in a couple of weeks and see how it is progressing.
Our Anthology – Andy did some calculations so we are looking at the 5 advent calender stories, which may need a polish off by the writers. Then another 15 stories of about 1,500 to 5,000, I am thinking 2,000 is an average word count. It would be good to have a couple of poems and some illustrations or photos to mix it all up. Should we have a children’s section at the back with a story and poem in there for our young readers? The theme has always been ghostly set in Folkestone but you can mix that up into romance, comedy or anything, as you are all great writers. I can ask Andy Markwell to assist us in the cover photo. We will aim for Halloween, Christmas or Easter lol
Sharing of work – It was great to hear what everyone has been up to on their writing journeys and listening to the poems and stories we all shared.
The Wellbeing Centre – I have had to stop the storytime sessions here but if any of you would like to do something similar then please contact Sheree on Facebook messenger.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) – This will be for the month of November, I think we should all try to be involved with this, more so if we do have another lockdown as we can make a messenger group or WhatsApp group to keep everyone updated about what and how much they have written. We can support and encourage each other.
Future meetings
Meetings held at The Hideaway, 16 Bouverie Rd West,
Folkestone CT20 2SZ at 6.30 pm
3rd September – Ghostly writing to share and brainstorm
8th October – Group meeting plus ghostly writing & sharing work
12th November – Group meeting & sharing work
19th November – Andy Markwell, photography for book covers
10th December – Group meeting & Christmas meal/buffet
7th January – Group meeting
Contact: Karen 07967532899 or email: karensworld.writer.co.uk
See you all on the 3rd September at 6.30pm New members always welcome
I have attached a poster of dates so if any of you can share that it would be good as I am not putting out posters in town myself.
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