Glenn Chandler's Crime Time

Following his visit to us earlier in the year, author and screenwriter Glenn Chandler returned to Norwich Writers' Circle this evening to adjudicate our Radio Script Competition.

Glenn, who is best known for creating the long-running ITV1 police drama Taggart, commented to a packed Sexton Room, that he was immensely impressed with all 17 competition entries.

The BAFTA award-winner also noted that he was also impressed with the inventive of our scripts, plus the variety of murder methods featured within them. Glenn also said that due to the quality of our writing, he would feature 3 commended entries, along with a joint 3rd place.

The winning entries were:

1st
Safe Hands
by Mickie Dann

2nd
Switch Over Beethoven
by Phyllida Scrivens

Joint 3rd
A Bit Of A Shock
by Doreen Rosser

Joint 3rd
The Female Searcher
by Diana Wilson

Commended
Brute Force
by Lyn Fountain

Commended
Serial Killer
by Andrew Heron

Commended
Intuition
by Cathy Rushbrook

The top two prize-winning entries will be broadcast as part of Maggie Secker's popular Sunday afternoon BBC Radio Norfolk show. Watch this space for more information.

We next meet on the 14th December, in The Assembly House's Pierce Room, for our annual Christmas Celebration.

We hope to you can celebrate Christmas with us.

Glenn Chandler's Crime Scene

Our 2010/2011 programme continued this evening with a visit from author and screenwriter Glenn Chandler.

The evening featured Glenn discussing his varied writing career to date. Along with creating the long-running ITV police series Taggart, the Scottish author has also written for the theatre and cinema, plus several fiction and non-fiction books.

This meeting saw the launch of our In-House Competition One. This competition is the writing of a Murder Mystery Radio Script, which features a maximum of 2 characters and has a length of no longer than 750 words. This competition will be adjudicated by tonight's visiting writer.

In addition to the above, some of the winning entries will be featured on Maggie Secker's Sunday afternoon BBC Radio Norfolk programme. The winnners' scripts will be aired during the popular county-wide radio show on 12th December.

It was recommended to us by Glenn Chandler that our competition entries:

• Grab your attention in the first line.
• Do not cheat the reader.
• Include early clues that benefit the story later.

It was also suggested to us that our scripts are well constructed with a beginning, middle and end. Glenn also said that we must consider subplots and try to take the focus away from the murderer. We must also think of our tale as a journey.

We next meet on the 19th October, where we will be welcoming Neil Storey to NWC. During this meeting, the author and historian with be discussing Writing Ghosts and History.

Hope to see you then.