WriteNight

Colchester WriteNight meet on the fourth Monday of each month, 7.30pm, at FirstSite, Colchester. They are a ‘gathering of creative writers from all walks of life’ and are a talented, friendly and diverse bunch who write together, support each other’s writing and invite guest writers to speak.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the August meeting to talk about my Fish prize story ‘Clippings’ with Emma K Pey. She immediately put me at my ease, and it was an informal and hugely enjoyable occasion. I read some of the story, discussed characters and themes, and how I developed them and answered questions. I even sold (and signed) some copies of the Fish Anthology. This signing business was a first for me, and it felt odd but also a real achievement!

Later, I led the writing activity (which is a regular WriteNight occurrence). Taking the opening and last sentence of one short story from the anthology, I challenged the group to write the missing middle part (in about fifteen minutes) – which they managed to an incredibly high standard as I discovered, when some people read out their writing. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole evening and am looking forward to returning to future WriteNights as a participant.

Follow them on twitter at @ColWriteNight, or find them on facebook.