Beginnings

‘ You better not never tell nobody but God.’– The Color Purple –  Alice Walker

‘ Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone…’ – Funeral Blues – W. H. Auden

“After I killed him, I dropped the gun in the Thames, washed the residue off me hands in the bathroom of a Burger King, and walked home to await instructions.” – In Bruges – Martin McDonah
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Yes – the next meeting we will be talking about beginnings and opening lines. What are your favourite opening lines and beginnings? Bring them with you if you can attend and for our First Drafters elsewhere in the world or unable to make it post them below – everything counts – fiction, non-fiction, poetry, play or screenplay and of course most importantly what about your own! (opening lines, 1st paragraphs / stanzas)

We are talking about the different types of opening lines, what makes them great, whether they are as important as we have been told they are and maybe look at our own openings (said the actress) in a new light.

Alternatively – What are the worst opening lines/beginnings you have ever heard/read? Did the work ever redeem itself for you?

I look forward to seeing Drafters at the meeting and reading the discussion below!

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Thursday 2nd June

Hi Everyone,

 

It was a quiet but interesting meet on Thursday.

Because we were only few, I abandoned the original workshop idea I was going to go for and instead we had the pleasure of listening to some great works in progress.

We discussed briefly the new Dropbox facility which I’m slowly learning my way around. I’ll do a post a little bit later on about critiquing and expected etiquette. I think it will be a fantastic help with any critiquing requests in the future, as I’m sure you’ll agree sometimes being able to see something on the page and read it yourself allows for much better insight.

Please let me know if there is something in particular you want to take place at the meets. I’m very keen for First Draft to be a social group with a view to us becoming a bit of a collective later on. More about that in the upcoming months!

Until next time!

A Fantastic Meet and Great Big Thank you!

A little bit late in coming but nonetheless very heartfelt thanks goes to Sue Moorcroft who very kindly attended our meet on 05 May.

Everyone I have spoken to who attended has told me how much they enjoyed this fascinating evening. Sue gave a us lots of her time and very insightful and interesting answers to the questions she was asked.

It was extremely interesting for me to hear about the relationships a writer develops with their agents and editors and what an important role they play, not only in the editorial and publishing process but in a writers day to day life.

We’re very grateful to Sue for her generosity, time and encouragement.

Also as a personal aside, thank you to Mark West , who also attended on the evening and gave me some very good advice about my own writing and focus.

 

May 5th – Award Winner Sue Moorcroft Speaks

First Draft is delighted to announce that Sue Moorcroft award winning author of contemporary woman’s fiction will be attending our meeting on the 5th May for a Q & A session about writing, being a writer and getting published.

Award-winning author Sue Moorcroft writes contemporary women’s fiction with occasionally unexpected themes. The Wedding Proposal, Dream a Little Dream and Is this Love? were all nominated for Readers’ Best Romantic Read Awards. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. The Wedding Proposal reached #1 in the UK Kindle Contemporary Romance chart and Sue has been listed as a top author in the UK iBooks store.

A Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner, a past vice chair of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and editor of its two anthologies, Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles and writing ‘how to’.

Sue has written courses for the London School of Journalism and DigitalSea and worked with students via the University of Leicester Northampton Centre, Adult Education Northants, Writing East Midlands, Writers’ News Home Study and the London School of Journalism. She’s delivered workshops at a host of conferences in the UK and US, writers’ groups, libraries and residential courses in Italy and France.

Sue’s next book: The Christmas Promise

 Find out more about Sue or join her on social media:

Website: http://www.suemoorcroft.com/.

Blog: https://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sue.moorcroft.3

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/SueMoorcroftAuthor

I’m really looking forward to our next session! As usual it will take place at the marvellous NN Café, subs are the usual £3.00 a head and we start at 1930hrs.

 

 

 

April 7th 2016

I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting on the 7^th April. We were a small but perfectly formed group and the breadth and quality of work was fantastic.

At our latest meet we concentrated on what work people were doing and their plans in taking that forward. We had a lovely moment when three of our newest attendees were strong armed by Kevin into reading the first 10 pages of his script.

It was possibly a baptism by fire but it was fantastic to hear the newest play in progress read aloud.

With some very interesting novels in progress and some gorgeous poetry and the fantastic opportunity to chat and get to know each other after, I once again left feeling inspired and uplifted.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings!

Keep an eye out for some exciting news regarding the next meet. I look forward to seeing you all there.