Harrogate Writers Circle

Our meeting of 23th Oct 2024 was the adjudication of the short story competition.

Denise announced she was on a longlist for a flash fiction piece.

Peter announced that his letter to Radio Times about Ludwig was published.Helen then started talking about writing crime short stories in general.

She said that in a crime short story it is difficult to get all the clues and red herrings into the word count.

She then gave some ideas about writing crime stories.

Most crime stories have a murder in them but it is possible to have different types of crime and this might make the story stand out.

Different types of crime include theft, blackmail, fraud, arson and identity theft. Also be aware that there are many subgenres: Police Procedural, Cosy Crime, Psychological Thrillers, Historical Crime, Legal Thrillers.

She then went on to endings.

Crime doesn't pay, or does it? The writer can play with who he wants the reader to sympathise with.She then went on to the judgments.

Her overall report said that she enjoyed reading them all. She then went through the entries and gave specific comments.

She announced the runner up as Peter with 'Body of Evidence' and the winner was Joan with 'Brief Encounter'.

The members then read out winning entries. Peter read 'Body of Evidence' Then Joan read 'Brief Encounter.'

Denise read 'Heading Home' and then Susanna read 'More Cake Dear'. The members then talked about what inspired them to write their stories and talked about how difficult they found writing their short stories.

Our next meeting on 6th Nov is a manuscript evening.

Details of our programme can be found online at https://harrogatewriterscircle.weebly.com. If you want to improve your writing then why don't you pop into the next meeting.