WordWatchers has been meeting monthly in Newbury, Berkshire, United Kingdom since May 2001. It was started by a group of people who had been attending a Creative Writing Class at Newbury College. We wanted to move on from weekly homework to more long-term projects.
The core of each meeting is a self-imposed target, and we report on our relative success each month. This helps us to focus on the progress of our own writing. We provide for each other a support group of other writers who are equally serious about writing, and our talk and comments are always honest and open. There’s a lot of humour too.
Each meeting has a theme. We read from our own or published work, or critique and discuss a particular piece of work by a member. We also discuss anything to do with writing, from initial inspiration to how to get published.
We vary from 6 to 12 members, and we all comfortably commit to the group and each other, because we share the same passion for writing, whatever form our own projects take. We run hotly-contested internal short story competitions twice a year, and get together occasionally with friends and partners and ex-members to celebrate and announce the winners.
We welcome writers who are serious about writing, whatever form that takes, from full-length novels in all genres, screenplays, travelogues, children’s books, local history and magazine articles.
Please visit our website at www.wordwatchers.net. It contains more information about WordWatchers as well as samples of our work. We welcome enquiries and comments, whether you’re interested in joining, or just serious about writing, like us. We would especially welcome contact from publishers eager to rush our works into print.
You can also email us at peterpheasant@aol.com
Or you can phone Jonathan Dodd on 07795 202722
Copyright© Diana Hayden 2000-2008