September 2026 Newsletter

The September meeting

This month’s warm-up exercise was a short critiquing practice. Everyone teamed up to read three short pieces and give constructive, specific feedback. There was a surprising degree of consensus about what worked well and what could be improved. We also decided that it would be useful to have the opportunity to re-write the prompt pieces at a future writing session – duly noted!

You can read the pieces we looked at and decide what you think. What would your critique be? How would you have written them?

For the main writing sprint, we chose the prompt word ‘Soul’. More stories will be added to the website, but you can already read some of the September responses on the September stories page. As usual, the prompt produced a wonderful variety of approaches and interpretations.

Competitions upcoming in October

As usual, we’ve put together a curated list of writing competitions closing in October. One rather unwelcome trend is becoming increasingly noticeable: entry fees are creeping up, with a good number of competitions now charging $35 or more. There are still plenty of free competitions, though, so it’s worth having a look before ruling anything out. With 26 competitions on this month’s list, there should be something to suit most writers.

Member news

Two of our members have recently been awarded their PhDs: Matt and Vesna (the latter being the writer of this newsletter). Big sighs of relief all round – and perhaps a few celebratory toasts!

Meanwhile, other members are making the rest of us green with envy with mind-expanding trips to all sorts of wonderful places, including Portugal, Egypt and, a little closer to home, the Blue Mountains. No doubt these experiences will find their way into some rich material for future stories.

Next month’s meeting

Local Customs, Adamstown, Monday 12 October 2026, 12 noon for a 12.30 pm start

For the main writing sprint, we’re planning a new format. Instead of the random word prompt, we’ll revisit the ‘Egri Character Chains’ we created in the August warmup game. We came up with some zany characters and scenarios; you can see the results on the August webpage. At the October meeting, we’ll each pick one of these prompts and develop it into a story.

We’d love to see you there!