Copywriting

Sharing Experience at Slough Writers

At Slough Writers we don’t set out to teach writing – we develop as writers through sharing writing skills and writing experiences.

An excellent example of this approach occurred at a workshop led jointly by SW members Lorraine Forrest-Turner and Neil Dickenson on Monday 27th March. Both Neil and Lorraine are experienced copywriters and they shared their professional knowledge in this field with the group. Lorraine is a freelance copywriter and teacher, and Neil has had a varied career and now specialises in medical areas. Both writers talked about their professional careers and emphasised that sticking to deadlines and understanding the detail of a brief were vitally important. We learnt that creativity is key although clients often needed to be lead gently into doing the right thing.

Lorraine Forrest-Turner (L) and Neil Dickenson (R)

The presenters complimented each other and shared details of the copywriter’s daily life as well as many examples of successful campaigns. The evening finished with an exercise in which small groups of SW members suggested and brain-stormed ideas to create an advertisement for a very challenging client - Slough Writers.

It was an evening where we glimpsed the life of a professional writer and learned about the many areas where a productive cross-over existed between business writing and fiction – not least the four important elements of any campaign:  Grab the attention; build interest and involve the reader; create a desire and finally, make a clear call to action. One final piece of advice – avoid bullshit copy.

Sounds like good advice for any author.

(Report and action photos – Mike Pearcy. Lorraine’s headshot copyright Lorraine Forrest-Turner. Lorraine’s headshot courrtesy of Andrea MacLeod)

Guest Speaker - Geoffrey Gudgion

Geoffrey Gudgion gave us a fascinating talk which gave us insights into the world of publishing and self-publishing, as well as his own writing journey. 

After moving from a career in the Royal Navy, business and consultancy, Geoffrey had decided to devote himself to writing full time. He described his attempts to find an agent and how lucky he was to find someone who was both loyal and supportive.

Geoffrey described how the publishing business was now almost totally dominated by Amazon, though books are themselves only a relatively small part of their business. The influence of Amazon has meant that they effectively structure the market. If your books aren’t deemed to ‘fit’ their business model, which divides the market by genres, and Geoffrey’s didn’t, however good your work you can find yourself sidelined. Geoffrey had learned that he needed to find a way to sell his ‘cross-over’ novels (part historical fiction, part sci-fi, part supernatural) and this had led him, via his agent, to work with different publishers having alternative business models, such as the digital house Bookouture.

He told us that around 450k books were published per year, of which 420k were self-published, most of the latter, in his view, of dubious quality.

The evening ended with Geoffrey describing his writing day (no internet, no ‘phone) and then reading an extract from his latest novel, Hammer of Fate, the first of what will be at least a trilogy, featuring, in his own words ‘a kick-ass, cross-dressing medieval nun’.

2022 Article Competition Results

Jonathan Pagden delivering the results

Jonathan Pagden, radio presenter and voice-over artist, judged our article competition, the brief of which was to write a review of a song.

I don’t know what the collective term for Christmas jumpers is

The evening was informative, and the varied entries received detailed feedback about their analysis/appraisals of their chosen works.

Worryingly, there was also a trend towards festivities and Christmas jumpers, which in future must clearly be crushed.

The winners were:

First place: Lorraine Forrest-Turner with “You Found That Fruitful Feeling”

Second place: Edward Harte with “Kyiv”

Third place: Neil Dickinson with “The Year of the Cat”

The winners, from left to right - Edward (3rd), Jonathan (the judge), Lorraine (1st), Neil (2nd)

Summer Monologue Competition

Tony Earnshaw (right) giving his opinions on the entires.

Tony Earnshaw of “Damn Cheek Productions” visited Slough Writers to deliver the results of the summer monologue competition, which was themed on “The Gift”.

The results were:

1 - Lorraine Forrest-Turner with “Half Life Day”

2.- Robert Kibble with “Happy Birthday”

3 - John Brown with “Teapot”

Also highly commended were Mike Pearcy’s “Number One” and Lee Taylor’s “Releasing the Joy”.

Proud winner Lorraine with the Summer Competition Trophy

All the placed and commended entries: from left to right Lee Taylor, Lorraine Forrest-Turner (winner), Tony Earnshaw (judge), Robert Kibble (2nd place), John Brown (3rd place), Michael Pearcy.

Scary Plays (The Return)

The Burnham Amateur Dramatic Society kindly agreed to read out another batch of our previous competition’s “Scary Plays”.

Visit from Alis Hawkins

Alis Hawkins grew up on a dairy farm in Cardiganshire. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd and, frankly, if she had, she might have been published sooner. As it was, three years reading English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience which saw her train as a Speech and Language Therapist. She has spent the subsequent three decades variously bringing up two sons, working with children and young people on the autism spectrum and writing fiction, non-fiction and plays. She writes the kind of books she likes to read: character-driven historical crime and mystery fiction with what might be called literary production values.

She kindly paid a zoom visit to Slough Writers and there was a lively discussion about writing, how difficult it is to make a living, and what drives us on. You can find Alis on Twitter @Alis_Hawkins

You can watch the video of her time with the writers here: VIDEO (apologies - it’s too long to embed in the site, so you’d have to download it, and it’s 1Gb, so be warned!)

Despite being almost a throwback to The Dark Times, the Slough Writers very much enjoyed the discussions with Alis, and her insights into the publishing world. And no one started throwing darts, which is a win.

An Inspirational Success

We don’t normally put up the stories of individual successes on this site, but this one… well, you’ll see.

Neil Dickinson has written two books, the first being “Scotch the Scare-Go” (you can find them at https://www.scotchbooks.com) intended to help young children through anxiety. And he recently got this feedback.

A happy customer for Scotch the Scare-go

I recently received this email from a lady who bought my books for her children during the summer. I often get really positive feedback, but this is certainly one of the best.

Good Evening,
Both of my children love the Scotch books so much that my youngest little boy holds the little pieces of Tartan as he falls asleep.
Sadly; my children have been through a family break up recently so these books have really helped them.
My little boy takes the tartan pieces with him when he stays at his dad's to help him sleep. He recently fell off his bike and the books and tartan pieces helped him settle that night! (I've attached a photo!)
I was wondering if there was any way we could purchase the tartan pieces in case one gets lost or left behind?
Thank you,
Jenny

(We did get permission to use this picture)

2022 Poetry Competition Results

Winners left-to-right Sally Clarke (2nd), Nazalee Raja (1st), Lee Taylor (3rd)

In a packed field of 13 entrants, the poetry competition, judged by local writer David Rudd Mitchell (who sadly couldn’t make it on the night), gave insightful commentary to all the poems, and the results were as follows:

1st Place - Nazalee Raja with “When You Came Back To Life”

2nd Place - Sally Clarke with “For Nana”

3rd Place - Lee Taylor with “Self-Assessment”

The winners reading out their poems.

2022 AGM

Terry (L) having delivered his annual address, passing over to Edward giving the treasurer’s report.

Having made it his mission to keep the group going through the pandemic, our chairman Terry (chair for 32 years now!) gave his annual state-of-the-group speech in person for the first time in three years, excited at how the group has survived and grown and settled into our new venue.

The traditional four awards were handed out.

Newcomer of the Year (the Dobbin award) went to Ian Carty.

The Endeavour Award went to Nazalee Raja.

With his finalist place in the Kenneth Brannagh drama award in Windsor, the Writer of the Year award was a shoo-in for Mike Pearcy.

And for services to the group, stepping up to the plate whenever required in whatever capacity, Lee Taylor won the coveted “too big to actually carry” award.

Left to right - Mike Pearcy (Writer of the Year), Nazalee Raja (Endeavour Award),
Lee Taylor (Services to the Group), and Ian Carty (Newcome of the year)

Summer Barbeque

After a few years off (I think something may have been happening in the world) the Slough Writers finally managed to arrange a Summer Barbeque again. With huge thanks to Merle and Danny for the use of their garden (and pool!).

Inspirational Out & About Night

Every year Slough Writers has an evening walk to inspire poetry or prose, ideally to be read out the next week at the accompanying manuscript night. This year we went round Burnham starting and finishing at our current venue (Burnham Working Men’s Club) and discovering the history of Burnham, including old meat hooks (see picture top-right), passages for pigs to be driven down, old coaching inns, a pub named after the 1864 visit of General Garibaldi, and even a Prime Minister involved in the abolition of the slave trade. The guided walk was provided thanks to Burnham and District Heritage Society. You can find their facebook group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2228945880542762/

Horror Play Readthrough

This was an opportunity to hear several of the ten minute ‘horror’ plays that were submitted in our recent competition. The plays were to be set on a ‘black’ stage (no or very limited props).

We welcomed local actors from the Burnham Amateur Dramatic Society and two ex-members of a Windsor Theatre group. Our thanks are very much due to them for their participation. We also finally managed to make good use of the stage area at our current venue.

The plays performed were as follows:.

Nazalee’s play “Cliveden Haunting”, was the story of a romantic weekend that had an extra and, for the man, most unwelcome participant.

Lorraine’s play “Congenital Defects”, was the story of a man helping out a young woman following a car crash. He wanders, unsuspecting, into an Arkansas family whose unusual domestic circumstances become more horrifying by the minute.

Neil’s play, “The Chair”, depicted what seemed to be the job interview from hell. Four people enter the interview room, only one emerges.

Rob’s play, “Scary Play (Draft) Version One (a)” was a surreal piece of theatre in which the actors were unsure why they were appearing and the eerie, threatening, offstage presence of the author kept them in the dark.

Pleasingly, two of the writers had never written plays before - a sign both of the talent in Slough Writers, and the willingness to push people out of their comfort zones.

David Bullock visits Slough Writers

David Bullock, who has researched and written on Jack the Ripper (including "The Man Who Would Be Jack") came to visit the group and provided an enlightening evening on publishing, crime, and introducing children to the world of the police with PC Ben

Results of Ted Jones Short Story Competition 2022

The visiting judges from Wokingham Writers (Keith Sheppard and Heather Boncey) gave an insight into how they judged the stories, and then a paragraph of commentary on each one. They praised the overall quality of the stories, and were impressed how differently the theme of “Then the stranger arrived” was interpreted by all the entries.

Keith Sheppard and Heather Boncey with the Ted Jones Cup

The results were:

1st: Philip Kavvadias The Hero Battalion

2nd: Carol Breuer Monkey Shoulder

3rd: Rob Kibble Mondago Twenty-Five

Terry (chairman, left), handing the trophy to Philip (centre, winner), while Rob looks on with envious eyes (right, 3rd place)

500-Word One-Night Competition

From left to right, Lee (joint 3rd), Terry (2nd), Elaine (joint 3rd), Rob (1st) with the extravagant cup.

For the first time since Covid hit, the group hosted a one-night flash fiction competition, judged on the night both by the members present and those who had read the stories in advance. Every one of the eleven entries got at least one 1st, 2nd or 3rd place.

Rob won with the story “One Bar, Four Percent Charge”, a tiny piece about a woman trapped underground.

Terry came second with “Breath of Love”, the story of a dragon struggling with dating.

Elaine and Lee came joint third, with “Bearing Witness” and “What is a Life”, respectively.

John Webb visits Slough Writers

John Webb discussing his thrillers.

When lockdown hit, John Webb found himself at a loss for what to do, so dived in and wrote a series of thriller novels, calling on his experience with the police to craft a series. In a lively evening he explained something about his process and inspirations, and discussed how to turn fact into fiction.

Find more about his work at https://www.jo-calman.com/books

Book Signing - Always Popular in a Writers’ Group!

John Webb (pen name Jo Calman) with both thrillers and the fact/fiction hybrid Viktor, a book set in the closing days of the cold war.

Launch of the Ted Jones Short Story Competition 2022

Due to Omicron, Slough Writers reverted to Zoom for the night.

We were joined by members of Wokingham Writers who will be judging the Ted Jones Short Story Competition.

The theme of the competition was announced - see the competitions page for details - along with what Wokingham Writers will be looking for.

There was then a round-table about the range of writing experience within each group, and we all hoped that we would meet up again soon, although hopefully in person next time.

Article Competition Results

The winners of the competition. Left to right: Mike Pearcy (2nd), Terry Adlam (chairman), Lee Taylor (1st), Paul Stimpson (3rd).

The 2021 Article competition had the theme “Forgotten Heroes”, and was judged by Jean Anderson, editor of the local magazine “Round and About” since 1989, and whose journalistic career goes back to Autumn 1973 on the Slough Express, also becoming sub-editor of the Slough Observer for many years.

The results were:

1st: The Man With The Bag - Lee Taylor

2nd: Stokenchurch Hero.- Mike Pearcy

3rd: Thinking Inside The Box - Paul Stimpson

Summer Competition Results

The results of a challenging brief to write a short (roughly 10 minutes) scary play set in a “black box” environment were announced on Monday 15th by Luke Burton, Studio Theatre Company Manager at South Hill Park Arts Centre.

The results were:

• Winner: 'Scary Play (Draft) Version One (a)' by Robert Kibble

• 2nd Place: 'Over' by Terry Adlam

• 3rd 'Congenital Defect' by Lorraine Forrest-Turner

• Commended - 'The Ghost of Bagram' – Vinay Vyas

Luke Burton - Competition Judge

Left to Right - Robert Kibble (Winner), Luke Burton (Judge), Terry Adlam (Second Place)

Lorraine Forrest-Turner, Third Place

Vinay Vyas, Commended

A well-attended Slough Writers meeting to hear the results.

Slough Writers’ New Location

A good turn-out welcomes Slough Writers to our new location

An introduction to why we chose our new home

---