Dead Good

Our YouTube video featuring the theme tune of ITV police drama Taggart has seen its popularity grow once more.

The film, which was created to celebrate programme creator Glenn Chandler's visits to Norwich Writers' Circle in October and December 2010, has now been watched over 2,500 times.

To view the video please go here.

2011/12 Programme

Our full 2011/12 programme is now available online.

Norwich Writers' Circle will meet again on the 20th September for one of ever-popular free Open Evenings. Highlights for the following weeks include an evening with horror writer Joseph Freeman and a visit from best-selling author Louis de Bernières.

Along with welcoming other authors to our ever-growing writing group, we will also be hosting our popular Manuscript Evenings and holding several in-house competitions.

Our first meeting, on 20th September, will be an Open Evening. The free evening will be a chance for the Circle to introduce themselves to new members and visitors.

Further details of the programme can be seen here.

We look forward to seeing you at The Assembly House.

Murder City

The popularity of our YouTube video featuring the theme tune of ITV police drama Taggart has continued to grow.

The short film, created to celebrate programme creator Glenn Chandler's visits to Norwich Writers' Circle in October and December 2010, has now been watched over 2,000 times.

To view the video please go here.

Visiting Writers Celebration

Our YouTube channel has been updated to include a video featuring all the visiting writers from our most recent programme.

Amongst the writers featured in the short film are Martin Figura, Paeony Lewis and Glenn Chandler.

To watch the film please go here.

Programme Start

The beginning of our 2011/12 programme has been announced.

Norwich Writers' Circle will meet again on the 20th September for one of ever-popular free Open Evenings. In the weeks that follow we will be holding a evening with horror writer Joseph Freeman and welcoming best-selling author Louis de Bernières, along with a lot more to be announced.

Details of our complete programme will appear here during our annual Summer break. Watch this space for more details.

Open Poetry 2012

Our 2012 Open Poetry Competition has been launched.

The competition - Norwich Writers' Circle's 41st - has the following prizes in the Open Category:

1st

£300.00

2nd

£150.00

3rd 

£75.00

In addition to the main prizes, we also have sponsored ones for Minimalist and Humorous poetry, plus another on The Family.

The competition closes on the 21st February 2012, and this year, as previously announced, will be judged by Helen Ivory.

A prizegiving evening, featuring adjudications and readings, will then take place on the 17th April 2012 at The Assembly House. This evening also sees the launch of the Competition's Anthology, which will be able to be purchased from the night onwards.

To read the Competition rules and much more, please visit the dedicated section of our main website by going here.

Forthcoming Attractions

Norwich Writers' Circle is currently on its annual Summer break. Our writing group will meet again in September, when our 2011/12 programme starts.

In the meantime, this Blog will be updated and include information on forthcoming meetings, along with all our regular member news, and the launch of our annual Open Poetry Competition. The OPC launch will also be complimented by Norwich Writers' first online poetry season.

Watch this space for all the latest NWC news.

Writing The Image

This evening Norwich Writers' Circle welcomed Claire Hamburger, who gave us a workshop on Writing The Image.

During the meeting  the writer, tutor and visual artist gave us a several tasks to inspire us including writing a piece of prose or poem based on a random she had brought along. We also played The Metaphor Game which was designed to spark of ideas in our heads. The tasks were given to do by Claire then lead to various discussions within our group.

We next meet on Saturday 25th June in St Anne's Church Hall on Colman Road, for our annual Summer Social.

Hope to see you then.

Taggart

Following the recent announcement of the show's demise, our YouTube video featuring the theme tune of police drama Taggart has now been viewed over 1,000 times.

This video was created to celebrate Glenn Chandler's - the creator of long-running programme - visits to Norwich Writers' Circle in October and December 2010.

To view the video please go here.

In The Mix

Visitors to our popular YouTube channel can now watch a mix of all our uploaded videos to date.

To watch the video playlist, simply click here.

Poetry People

Our popular YouTube channel has been updated to include a film featuring a series of images from our recent Open Poetry Competition Prize-Giving Evening.

Please go here to view the short film.

Paeony Lewis Returns

Norwich Writer's Circle welcomed back Paeony Lewis tonight to adjudicate our In-House Competition Four.

Competition Four required Circle members to write the text for a Picture Book in no more than 500 words.

The successful children's author and tutor that she thoroughly enjoyed reading the 13 competition entries, relating them to her golden writing rules.

Paeony golden writing rules are that stories:

• feature writing that flows
• do not feature pedestrian language
• aimed at the correct audience
• must be child-friendly and centred
• include characters we care about
• have a clear story structure
• have an awareness of the illustrations
• include emotions expressed through actions
• feature clear language

The winners of the competition were:

1st
Only Joking
by Cathy Rushworth

2nd
The Big Surprise
by Mickie Dann

3rd
Rocky's Twango
by Maureen Nisbet

Commended
Listen, Can You Hear Me?
by Thelma MacFarlane

The meeting concluded, when a packed Sexton Room heard a variety of entertaining competition entries, including the winners. We were also then lucky enough to enjoy an interesting discussion with the visiting writer on the process involved in publishing a picture book.

We next meet on 17th May when we will be holding one of popular Manuscript Evenings. Please feel free to come along and join in.

Poetry Prize-Giving

At The Assembly House this evening we held the prize giving for our Annual Open Poetry Competition.

This year's competition, which had over 500 entries, was adjudicated by Martin Figura. The Joy Of Six member commented on the variety of the poems entered, plus also how much he enjoyed judging the competition.

After the compeition prize-winners were announced, a selection of poems from the Anthology were read aloud by the poets to a packed, and very appreciative, Kent Room.

The main competiton winners were:

1st - £300.00

The Explosion

by Howard Wright

2nd - £200.00

Growing Hippastrum

by Gill McEvoy

3rd - £100.00

The Yare At Rockland

by Melissa Collin

In additon to the above, the OPC's sponsored prizes were also announced. The winners in these catergories were as follows:

Family - H G Powell - £35.00

Just Jacaranda

by Wendy Klein

Humorous - John Coleridge - £15.00

For The Good Of Her Health

by Bob Sheed

Minimalist - John Lewis (token) - £10.00

Early Snow

by Tim Lenton

All the winning poems are now featured in our competition's 40th Anniversary Anthology, which was also launched this evening.

The popular Winners' Anthology is also now available to purchase via our website, by going here.

Please visit norwichwriters.org.uk to see the full list of winners.

Traveller's Tales

This evening Norwich Writers' Circle welcomed Laurence Mitchell.

The local author and travel writer discussed his career to date, and well as launching our In-House Competition Five.

During the evening Laurence discussed his travels to date, and how his keen interest to see the world resulted in a career. We were also some photos from a recent trip to Calcutta and given information on writing for the travel market.

Laurence also informed us what he would be looking for in our witty competition entries. The visiting writers main points were:

• Show don't tell
• Have a beginning, middle and end
• Have an opionion
• Use culturally relevant metaphors
• Feature (a) local character(s)

We next meet on 19th April, for the Open Poetry Competition Adjudication and Prize-Giving Meeting. This evening will be hosted by the Competition adjudicator Martin Figura.

New NWC Trailer

Our ever-popular YouTube channel has now been updated to feature another short film.

To watch our latest Norwich Writers' Circle trailer, please go here.

Jean Fullerton's POV

This evening Norwich Writers' Circle's 2010/11 programme continued with a visit from Jean Fullerton.

The successful saga writer, who first visited us in December 2009, returned to give us a workshop on Characterisation & Viewpoint.

During the evening the visiting writer discussed the importance of characters within our chosen narrative. Jean also highlighted to us that it is vital to give each of our characters their own distinctive voice for our stories to have an impact.

The meeting proved popular with a lot of members as we were regularly given opportunities to offer our feedback, along with being able to discuss with Jean Fullerton any points of interest.

We next meet on the 5th April when Laurence Mitchell will be giving us a talk on Travel Writing.

Jarrolds Literary Lunch

On Monday 4th April at 12.30pm Jarrolds will be holding a Literary Lunch, at Norwich City Football Club.

This lunchtime event, which takes place at The Top Of The Terrace Restaurant, features a chance to meet popular authors M R Hall, Elly Girffiths and Wilbur Smith, who will be discussing their writing and promoting their latest books.

To purchase your tickets, which also includes a 2 course meal, please call 01603 660661, or visit the store.

Neil Storey's Ghost Stories

Following his visit to us in October last year, Neil Storey returned to Norwich Writers' Circle this evening to adjudicate our Ghost Story Competition.

The popular author and historian commended all 16 entries in the competition, citing that he was impressed with the humanity of the characters featured and some of the descriptive passages featured in the short stories.

The winners were then announced as:

1st
Going Home
by Mickie Dann

2nd
Local Hero
by Paul Taylor

3rd
The Ghostly Badger
by Barré Funnell

We then heard all 3 winning entries, plus a spooky short story selection, featuring some of the runners-up.

At our next meeting we will be welcoming back Jean Fullerton who will be giving us a workshop on Characterisation & Viewpoint. We hope to see you then.

Paeony Lewis

Norwich Writer's Circle's 2010/11 programme continued tonight as we welcomed tutor and children's author Paeony Lewis to our popular writing group.

To a packed Sexton Room, full of new and familiar faces, Paeony discussed her writing career to date, along with holding a workshop on creating child characters.

During the workshop, everyone in the room collectively discussed the differences in children's attitudes in several age-groups including Under 5s, 7 to 9, and 11 to 13. We then had in fill a detailed character sheet for our fictional child.

Both the above exercises lead to several humorous responses, whilst Paeony pointed out to us what we were learning from completing each of them.

In addition to the above, the visiting author also launched our In-House Competition Four. This competition requires Writers' Circle members to write a Picture-Book Story Text of no longer than 500 words.

Paeony's recommendations for the competion were as follows:

• To think globally - many publishers seek with a worldwide audience, as it provides them with a good return.
• Do not have a cliched attitude towards children - each child is different, and to be very aware of this fact.
• Make the character stand out by being larger than life and 'in your face'.
• Be truthful in your tale.
• Give your story a happy ending.

On 1st February Lucy McCarraher will returning to the Circle once more, to judge our Novel Outline competition.

We hope to see you next time.

Box Office Now Open

The box office is now open for recent visiting writer Glenn Chandler's new musical Cleveland Street.

The show which has been described as a wicked and bawdy Victorian tale of sex, lies, hypocrisy and cover-ups that threatened to bring down the Government.

To purchase your tickets for this interesting new show, which runs from 26th April to 29th May 2011 at London's The Above The Stag Theatre, please ring 020 8932 4747.

Check out clevelandstreetthemusical.com for more info.