Third Prompt

At the meeting last night we discussed possible content for future meetings, including many things that will hopefully be of interest to many of you who were unable to attend; such as setting out a plot, drawing word clusters and of course constructive criticism. These will all be things that are looked at in the future.

To this end the ‘assignment’ for this month (deadline for posting stories is 7th April) is in two parts:

Part 1: Constructive Criticism


Select the stories written by the next member alphabetically (see the list below) Writers’ Group and write a constructive review of them. Of course, some of you may find that you only have one story on which to write any criticism.

This critique doesn’t have to follow any set format, but the following might help: What did you like? Why? What didn’t you like? Why? How do you think that this could have been improved? What do you enjoy about reading this story? What do you feel was unnecessary to the plot? Do you feel that the story was well put together?

Essentially look at the story through the eyes of a reader and most importantly, be honest. There is no point in saying that something is good if you didn’t think that at all. Of course, the most important thing to remember in writing constructive criticism is that it is intended to HELP the writer, not upset them or leave them totally demotivated. Inspire them to write more by giving them a gentle push (not off a cliff!) with encouragement as well as advice.

As I know that everyone is busy, but I really want to encourage you to give more than just “I like this” or “This was really well done” as feedback, take a maximum of 15 minutes on writing constructive criticism for each of your two stories (so a total of 30 minutes). If the writer you are reviewing only has one story then use the whole 30 minutes to think and write about it.

Part of the meeting next month will be taken up with giving this feedback – it is after all one of the things we all want.

Reviewing sheet (1 reviews 2, 2 reviews 3 etc until we get back to 1 again)
1. Keith Abbott
2. Sarah Johnson
3. Kerry Laundon
4. Jenny Ng
5. Nicola O'Brien
6. Kate Osborne
7. Jon Peacock
8. Emily Pears
9. Rachel Richardson
10. Carole Richmond
11. Sam Turner
12. Susan Turner
13. Megan Varilly

~*~

Part 2: The Story

Write a story. Yes, I know that this is easier said than done, which is why I am going to set a theme again. This time the theme is:

What happens after the happily ever after?

Select one of the following 6 characters from Fairy Tales: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog

Use one of the following (or a combination of two) tones: Satirical, Morose, Hyperactive, Soppily romantic, Cynical, Bitter.

Without drawing upon the many (in most cases dreadful) sequels penned by over-eager money-spinners at Disney, write a ‘what happened next’ story. For this exercise you have 45 minutes...