Writers Bureau Competition

The Writers Bureau is open for submissions to its 2019 Autumn Flash Fiction Competition with £1722 worth of prizes.

All entrants have to do is write a story, on any theme, in less than 500 words (not including the title).

Prizes are:

1st Place - £300
2nd Place - £200
3rd Place - £100

Plus, each winner can choose a Writers Bureau course worth over £374.

Winners will be published on the competition website.

The judge is Diana Nadin - Director of Studies at The Writers Bureau. She says, "Flash fiction may seem easy but it's not. Writers have to distil everything about their plot and characters into only a handful of words - so tight writing is essential. There's no room for waffle or digression. That's the challenge.  Last time we ran this competition we received some cracking entries so I'm looking forward to reading the next set of stories."

Entry fee: £5 per submission or three entries for £10!

Closing Date: 30th November 2019

Winners will be announced by 15th January 2020

For full competition details and to read the winners of previous competitions visit their website at:

www.wbcompetition.com

 

Coming up - our first September meeting...

Can you believe September is just a few hours away meaning that our next meeting is creeping ever closer?

The 'Tales of Place' theme for our homework will be very interesting - doubtless all those writing on the subject will have fond memories or feelings for the places uppermost in their minds. 1,000 words is the upper limit for your work. The meeting takes place on Tuesday 3rd September with its usual start time of 7.30pm when the door will be locked.

Our Writeathon is progressing nicely with seven additions to the story so far and a number of members still waiting their turn to add their own take on events. If there are any Scribblers out there who haven't been asked to participate and would like to,  then please just email scribblers.1@btinternet.com to be added to the list.

Until Tuesday,

Keep Scribbling!!!

The competition meeting report

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on 20 August 2019

Present:

Beryl, Jim, Liz, Kay, Tom, Stephen, Gerry, Justin, Derek, Tony, Liliane, Rani, David, Carole, Georgina, Dave

Apologies: 

Anne, Cathy, Steve.

Business: 

Our proposed anthology as an e-book on Amazon is beginning to take shape. Already Debbie has reformulated our original document which is in the process of being checked before progressing further.

The Writeathon has begun with Hazel and Georgina providing the first two ‘episodes’ – and what a story could evolve from those beginnings. Justin is next on the list so we await his direction in the tale. Good fun!

Tom tells me that York born author Gary Kilworth, with numerous books to his name, has moved to Felixstowe and is aware of our friendly group. It is quite possible he will drop in to see us one day.

Tonight, with sixteen of us attending the meeting, Cathy was unable to attend and so a volunteer reader stepped forward to support Beryl in reading out twelve entries for Jack’s memorial trophy. That was Rani who comes along whenever she is able – Felixstowe is quite a distance from her London home. Thanks to Beryl and Rani for making such a professional job of delivering the competition entries. Great job!

Justin returned the trophy before the twelve entries for the competition were read out. Two members had other work to read after the trophy presentation.

Reading the Jack Wilkinson Memorial Trophy entries:

A holiday adventure - Carole

Birthday Billy - Justin

The Shell - Kay

Untitled - Stephen

Tommy’s Holiday Adventure - Dave

Maybe the Madman was right - Tony

Waving - Beryl

The Boy who grew a dinosaur - Derek

The Chef and Mechanic - Liz

All worthy winners but, in third place:

Fleabag - Georgina

Runner-up:

Gargo - Gerry

And the winner:

A little skin and blister - JIM.

Congratulations on the superb efforts everyone made in writing to the 7-11 theme but especially to the top three. To Jim for another brilliant tale, to Gerry for showing his great talent for writing and Georgina who is always finishes in the top three – but never on top of the pile – yet!

Yes there were one or two thoughts that a couple of stories seemed to be aimed at older children but, the consensus of opinion was that each story was viable for that age group.

After the presentation, there were two other stories read out, both excerpts from longer work, and brilliant they were too!

Liliane – Lost in the Woods

Rani – An untitled excerpt.

Next meeting:

3^rd September, when we hold the “Tales of Place” evening for stories about anywhere in the world (or galaxy for that matter). With an upper limit of 1,000 words these stories can be in any era or genre. The doors will be closed at 7.30pm when the meeting commences.

It's Jim again!

What an extraordinary meeting for this evening's Jack Wilkinson Memorial Trophy. With sixteen members present, twelve of whom entered the competition for the children's story for the 7-11 age group, you can believe what a tremendous set of entries we had.

With Cathy unable to attend due to a business commitment, Beryl was joined by Rani in sharing the delivery of the stories  -  and how professionally they did it! Rani, of course, makes only a handful of appearances a year because of living in London so we were very pleased when she offered.

The quality of the entries really was amazing and any number of them could have won. As it was, the result, in reverse order was:

3rd place: Georgina with 'Fleabag'

2nd place: Gerry with 'Gargo'

and the winner was

Jim with another stonking good tale, 'A little skin and blister.'

Jim receiving the trophy

from previous holder

Justin.

So well done Jim! and to everyone who took part.

Our next meeting is on 3rd September when we have our 'Tales of Place' meeting.

Until then, 

Keep Scribbling!!!

  

The Jack Wilkinson Memorial and an update on the Writeathon

The Jack Wilkinson Memorial meeting comes along on Tuesday next (20th) with the competition specifically for children in the 7-11 year age group. This can be a story for, or about children in this age range. The entries must be typed and no more than 1,000 words in length. No identification marks or names should appear on your entry which should be placed face down on the table in The Room at the Top. There will be two Scribblers who will read out the entries.

It is a chance to wrest the trophy from current holder Justin who will be defending it for all his worth. Good luck to you all! 

It was agreed that those members who feel unable to write on this theme may bring in a copy of a story of their own and can read them out after the presentation of the trophy to the new winner.

The news of the Writeathon is that we have had the opening two submissions from Hazel and Georgina and the story is currently with Justin. I wonder what twists and turns will take place in future instalments? I'm sure they will be many fold.

Until Tuesday,

Keep Scribbling!!!

Dave

Meeting Report AND the 2019 Writeathon...

Minutes of Scribblers meeting held on 6 August 2019

Present:

Dave, Tony, Liliane, Beryl, David, Carole, Georgina, Steve, Kay, Derek, Jim, Gerry, Justin, Hazel, Cathy

Apologies: 

Anne, Liz.

Business: 

Dave reported that Caz bought two anthologies and made a donation. Also that Morag plans to return to meetings when she finally retires from work.

Could our anthology be an ebook on Amazon? Agreed it would be worth trying it. Debbie will work with Dave on this.

Debbie’s book ‘You don’t have to say you love me’ – our feedback. Cathy suggested (and it was agreed) that each of us who reads the book makes our own notes; once we’ve all read it, then we can share and give joint feedback to Debbie.

Writeathon – going ahead with this. Dave’s explanatory attachment will follows below. Anybody who’s been absent when the discussions have taken place can let Dave know if they’d like to be involved, and he will add them to the list of those already taking part.

Reading of homework:

Topic was ‘Over the hill’. As usual, the range of work was amazing.

Steve – Over the hill

Liliane – We made it over all the hills

Jim – Lollipop man

Hazel – Over the hill

Derek – Me and Me

Kay – Who’s over the hill?

Dave – Embezzlement

Georgina – Over the hill

Carole – Moira Lewis figures it out

Tony – Gently, tenderly and softly softly

David – The band of brothers

Beryl – Friendship

Justin – God’s waiting room

Cathy – Tiger’s eye

Next meeting:

20 August, when it is the Jack Wilkinson competition. A story for children aged 7 – 11, 1000 words, no identifiers on the entries. Anyone who doesn’t want to write for the competition is welcome to write a story which involves children in some way – these stories will be read out after the competition is completed.

Felixstowe Scribblers 2019 Writeathon.

Should we throw open the Writeathon to ex-members, especially those who submitted work to our anthology? Altogether there are potentially thirty participants if everyone agreed to take part.

Wouldn’t that be excellent! However there is a downside when you think about it. With each person providing 250 words, the further down the list you go, the more you must read before adding your slant to the story!

If everyone joins in and provides the maximum 250 words we will have some seven and a half thousand words in total!

In reality not everyone will wish to take part but those who do will, I’m sure, enjoy the experience.

The basic rules will be that the first on the list, Hazel, will start the ball rolling with 250 words. She will email it to me (Dave) at scribblers.1@btinternet.com  I will then forward that to the next on the list, Georgina, who will add her words to the story. This will be sent to me and then I will forward it to the next on the list and so on. Although no time limit has been set, it would be nice if all additions to the Writeathon could be completed in about seven days.

It is difficult to put this in writing but essentially it carries on until everyone involved has added to the story.

What is the ultimate aim of the writeathon? Well it could be included in our next anthology in 2021 – it might take that long to finish it anyway!

Those having agreed so far are, in order,             

1.    Hazel

2.    Georgina

3.    Justin

4.    Liliane

5.    Jim

6.    Carole

7.    Beryl

8.    Cathy

9.    Tony

10. Dave

11. Steve

12. Derek

13. Kay

I hope it all makes sense but if you have any questions, then please email me.

Dave

Scribblers.1@btinternet.com

Oh what a night!

It was almost a full house with fifteen in attendance for the "Over the hill" meeting. What it proved was, that despite our varying ages, none of us are over the hill writing wise. There were many terrific stories - in fact every story was tremendous in it's own way. Everyone absorbed the words and appreciated the fantastic efforts everyone had made. Well done everyone for providing another thoroughly uplifting evening.

We now have just five anthologies left on hand for sale whilst two others have been reserved. It is tremendous that we have managed a virtual sell-out in such a short time so, Felixstowe Scribblers, thank you for your support.

As promised many a long moon ago, we are now beginning a new Writeathon. Rules are being drawn up and details of the sequence of writers involved will be forwarded on very soon. It is confirmed that Hazel will open the story with 250 words and forward it to the Scribblers. More details later! Distant and former Scribblers will be invited to join in the fun! The aim may be to include the story in our next anthology... if we finish in time!  

When time permits we will pursue our aim of an e-book copy of the anthology on Amazon and will keep you posted.

Our next meeting is for the Jack Wilkinson Memorial Trophy which is currently held by Justin. This competition is slightly different to previous ones as it is aimed at the 7-11 year old age range and may prove to be something of a challenge to some of us! 

In order that we are all involved, it was agreed that only the stories meeting the criteria will be entered into the competition. Anyone feeling unable to write for this age group are welcome to produce a story of their choice, preferably with children in mind, but will not be included in the competition.

The meeting will take place on Tuesday 20th August so, until then...

Keep Scribbling!!!

Meal - meeting - miscellany.

For the fourteen of us who attended the White Horse for our summer meal - I can say that those who didn't come along missed a very good opportunity to enjoy some excellent food, and wonderful company in a great venue. Thanks to Liz (Anon in the anthology!) for the organisation and for reminding people like Steve about what they had ordered! All in all a very good evening.

I met up with Caz (poor Jack's mother) today for a coffee and to sell some anthologies which ended with a nice little donation too. She passed on her wishes to the Scribblers and, who knows, might even make an appearance in the not too distant future.

Talking anthologies we actually have 11 copies left. Potentially that's another £55 - anyone like another copy (or two) ???

As you will know our next gathering is on Tuesday August 6th August with a homework theme of "Over the hill..."

Looking forward to the meeting! Until then,

Keep Scribbling!!!