Please note:

Following Government and Public Health England's advice of Monday 16 March 2020 all meetings of this group are suspended until further notice.

This situation will be reviewed as Government advice is updated

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Burton Monday Writers was formed in September 2000 by Maggs Payne, who saw a need for a day-time creative writing group in the area. Maggs found the perfect venue - Burton Town Centre Library. After contacting two fellow writers, Maggs launched Burton Monday Writers.

Over the years the group has produced several anthologies (latest on publications page).  Members have had their work published, won writing competitions, attended conferences, had work read on national radio, signed publishing contracts and seen their work published internationally.

We thrive on positive criticism, enthusiasm and a shared desire to enjoy creating the written and sometimes spoken word.

​We are a friendly group of people interested in producing short stories, poetry, scripts, novels and memoirs.  Over the years we have been very successful with our writing projects.

Whilst we welcome new members over the age of 19 who have an interest in creative writing , in order for our group to function efficiently  we  have to limit the number of active members to around 20. Hence, we operate a wait-list system.

If you are interested in joining our group
in the first instance please contact:

Burtonwriters@aol.com or telephone 
​01283 845532
when places become available we will contact you.

Many thanks and best wishes with your writing projects.

Outstanding Member Award 2018-19


Chairman Shelagh Wain   (left) presents Outstanding Member of the Year, Betty Cope   with the Maggs Payne Trophy.

The presentation was made at the annual dinner held in April 2019 at The Crossed Keys, Hatton
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​Obituaries
Sadly our founder and Honorary President
Maggs Payne passed away on her 83rd birthday January 17th 2018

Freda Beckett November 2017
It is with much sadness that we  report the death of one of our longstanding ​and talented members.

Please see More..tab at the top of the page  and click onto Obituaries for details

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•  Burton Monday Writers new anthology '20/20 Vision' is hot off the press now £2.50 per copy. Further details on our members' work page.

• Shelagh Wain won our recent internal short story competiton, with Olva Lloyd runner-up.  the competition was judged by author  Celia Joy Anderson, who visited us on September to deliver an interesting workshop on settings. The short stories entered in this competition should appear in our next anthology due out early 2020. 

* Shelagh Wain won 3rd prize in the recent NAWG novella competition. Her novella "Unforgiven" a Frankenstein story for the 21st century was published in 2019.  

*Ann Hodgkin has had several short stories accept and published this year in the UK Woman's Magazine market. Congratulations to Ann

* Shelagh Wain's poem was one of 40 out of 1000 entries shortlisted in the Lichfield Words Festival November 2019. 





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Writing Exercises:
Monday March 16
WEEK 1
Write the first paragraph of a novel or short story, include the setting, but remember, that it must point to the kind of story it is.
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Monday March 23
WEEK 2
Exercise 1  (You don't have to do them all)
Poetry – How do you make readers care? Do you always choose your words and images with enough care?
Write a poem that uses the verb 'to care' in as many ways as possible" I care, you cared, they will care etc. What effect can you create with repetition? Compose a poem about being too careful or caring too much. Be a worker or resident in a care home. Shine your poetic torch into every corner. What does care small like, taste like? 

Exercise 2 
Let's look on the bright side – cheer up – your theme is holidays. Write a short story, or flash fiction piece about a holiday – long awaited, holiday of a lifetime, a cruise or place you have always wanted to visit. Your holiday could be a family one or a memoir piece about a holiday when you were young.  Please no disasters on holiday unless you really must, let's try to keep this one upbeat!
Exercise 3
Are you keeping a daily diary? We are told these are unprecedented times so why not record a few lines each day? Comment on the news bulletins or perhaps what you have done today. Of course, you can have a rant if that makes you feel better.


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All meetings suspended until further notice

Monday March 30 

WEEK 3
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Exercise One – Poetry
Unity –  Did you join in the national thank you to the NHS and key workers on Thursday March 26th at 8 pm, or watch on TV. How did you react? Many people said they could feel the emotion.

1. Write a poem that uses the theme united in as many ways as possible: we joined together, we stood shoulder to shoulder…bit of a cliché but can you come up with something original? Perhaps we can be too close together?  Compose a poem about being too isolated.
2. Compose a poem about helpfulness, perhaps a short rhyming poem for children.

 
Exercise Two
Short story or memoir piece contained within one day or short space of time.
What happened? Who was involved? When? Where did it happen? How was it resolved?
This is wide open, two people meet in an air-raid shelter in WWII – did they part or did they meet again? Neighbours who have lived next to each other for years eventually meet – what brought them together? Will they remain friends?
A woman is painting her front door red – why? An alien ship has just landed in my back garden – have I lost my mind or what?

Exercise Three
How is that diary progressing? My entries get longer each day and I am writing by hand, something I haven't done for some time. If you don't want to write each day, just do a few occasional entries, especially if you want to rant about something – you don't have to share and it's not going on the internet.
 

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Monday April 6
WEEK 4
Exercise 1
Write some fan fiction about your favourite book or film. Embrace it, have fun with it, keep telling the stories of your beloved characters. (Note: if you ever want to offer the piece for sale or competition entry the original author must have been dead for 70 years ie Jane Austen is OK but Colin Dexter (died 2017) is not. Or change all the names of the characters, place names, setting etc and you might get away with it.)
Exercise 2
The conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hat wearers were right – the thing they warned about comes true, what happens? (Ideas: climate, plague, alien invasion, human organ farming, human reproduction ceases, pollution etc.)
Exercise 3
If you are not in the writing mood, how about reading? Read something outside your normal genre. Brownie points if it's a book you don't think you'll like. Don't hate-read. Read with the intent that you are going to learn something, even if the book is terrible. What can you learn from it to enhance your own writing?
 




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