Nice November

For this month's session, three of our members brought some items which kick-started the group's imagination and inspired them to write poems and stories. These items were collected from India, the Philippines and the UK. They include:

~ a figurine of the Taj Mahal
~ a real peacock feather
~ a figurine of an Indian goddess
~ a booklet of Tagalog instructions of how to pray with a Rosary
~ a bottle of eucalyptus-scented oil
~ an oyster shell
~ a charm bracelet from the 1940s
~ a piece of broken pottery found in a beach
~ and some horse brasses

Our members came up with different and interesting drafts. We had a poem about a potter, a poem about letting go and moving on, an interesting piece about a man who goes to church to 'cleanse' himself, a piece about the beauty of a peacock, and many more.

We definitely had a great time writing and we hope to post some of our finished works here soon. Watch out for that! :-)

May 10th Session & May Writing Task

For our May session, our member Eileen led a lesson about how to write the ‘Poetry of Emotion.’

We started out with the basics; brainstorming as many emotions as we could. Sometimes it’s easy to think all emotive poetry is about love because there is so much of it around! But there are actually a lot of different emotions which a poet can use. The only problem is that once you’ve chosen an emotion to write about, how do you describe it?

We each chose an emotion and used it in an exercise where we asked the following questions:

-          What colour is the emotion?

-          What does it taste like?

-          What does it smell like?

-          What does it look like?

-          What does it sound like?

-          What does it feel like?

This really helped us get under the skin of our chosen emotion by using different senses to bring it to life. It can be difficult to assign a taste, smell or sound to an emotion!

Here’s an example:

Guilt is a lingering putrid yellow

that tastes like acid reflux.

It smells like an urban underpass on Sunday morning,

looks like a peeling carcass,

and sounds like a constant drone of insects.

It feels like dragging a rock, the frayed rope ribboning scars into your palms.

We’ve now got a starting point for an interesting poem about emotion!

For our next exercise, we looked at simile and metaphor.

A SIMILE is where you say something IS LIKE something else.

e.g. as green as grass, as dark as night, sharp like a knife

A METAPHOR is when you say something IS something else.

e.g. Her old hand was a withered leaf

Using these way of describing things, we tried to think of metaphors and similes for different emotions. Here’s some for guilt again, and also for love:

<Simile> Guilt feels like your conscience is caught in a trouser press.

Love is like honey being poured over your life.

<Metaphor> Guilt is woodworm; corrosive, picking holes in you, and weakening your structural integrity.

Love is honey being poured over your life.

Simile and metaphor are really good devices for making your reader understand exactly what you meant in your writing. Therefore they’re really useful when talking about emotion, because if you’re trying to describe an emotion to your reader, you should liken it to something they can relate to.

We tried to write a poem using metaphor and simile.

Serenity is undisturbed leaves on the forest floor,

blades of grass, warm underfoot,

and sinking into the sound of waves.

Serenity is a fluttering drape flashing views of a sunny day.

an untouched glass of milk, fresh from the fridge and smooth as an opal.

Serenity is walking into sunbeams, blinded but footsure,

alone in engulfing yellow light.

May Writing Task

Our writing task this month is to pick an emotion and produce a poem using either (or both) of the techniques we learned.

March 8th Session & March Writing Task

In our session on Saturday 8^th March, Cherry held a session about how to look for inspiration for writing, and how to develop ideas into the starting point for a piece of writing or poetry.

We explored how to use all 5 senses to observe what’s around us, including reading the news, eavesdropping (discreetly!) and keeping a diary to refer back to.

Everyone tried their hand at ‘freewriting’, which can be a bit daunting if you haven’t tried it! We then expanded ideas using the ‘clustering’ technique which uses word association to bring out images to put into your writing.

Another method we used to set up an idea was based on the old party game Mad Libs. We started with a sentence:

(Who) clutched the (What) and ran (How) through the (When) (Where).

Then we each picked out words randomly for each ‘missing’ section: Who, What, How, When and Where. The idea was to end up with a surreal sentence and use a short story to explain the ‘Why.’

You end up with some hilarious sentences this way!

 Santa Claus clutched the cat and ran angrily through the prehistoric pig farm.

Lionel Richie clutched the Bible and ran lazily through the Tudor steam room.

A small child clutched the stereo and ran in terror through the post-war holiday camp.

Hints & Tips

There are some key things we covered to help us in time when we feel uninspired. Try the following to get the creative juices flowing:

Ø      Write as often as possible – it will get you into the habit of producing drafts to look back over. Just remember not everything you write has to be ‘finished’ – even a freewrite can open up inspiration.

Ø      Go through the motions – doing exercises like the ones listed here can bring up surprising results. Even if you don’t feel it’s worth it at the time, you might get a spark of inspiration, either now or in the future if you read back through them.

Ø      Surf the net – there are lots of websites such as http://writingexercises.co.uk/index.php which provide prompts to give you inspiration.

Ø      Join a writing website – a great way to get feedback on your work, and some of them run contests to get you inspired.

Ø      Find competitions – even if you don’t want to enter, the themes might give you some ideas. Check out http://www.poetrylibrary.org.uk/competitions

Ø      Keep a writer’s notebook - having a notepad to hand means that you can scribble down things you see while out and about, write and re-write drafts, and experiment with your writing. 

Writing task

Our writing task this month is to practice using these techniques to create a poem or short story. There are two options:

Option 1: Use a word from your observations of what’s around you, or one of the following prompts to create a freewrite or a spider diagram (clustering), which you can expand into a poem of up to 20 lines,  or short story of up to 500 words.

Ø      Autumn

Ø      Tokyo

Ø      The weather

Ø      Chocolate

Ø      Coral reef

Option 2: Compile your own list of ‘Who-What-When-Where-How’ words, or use these. Pick some at random to populate this sentence, and use it as the opening for a short story of up to 500 words.

Speaking (How) in the (Where), (Who) gestured at the (When) (What).

Complete this for next month’s meeting on April 12^th, where we’ll meet at 10:45 to go through these before our guest speaker, Jack Edwards, arrives. Have fun guys!   

Who-What-When-Where-How list

Here’s a list of words you can use if you’re playing the Who-What-When-Where-How game for inspiration. Print them out and cut them up to pick randomly, then populate into the sentences below as an opening to a short story. The words give you the Who, What, When, Where and How. Your aim is to explain the Why in your story.

Who

The princess

David Cameron

Batman

Lionel Richie

A small child

The evil count

A tiger

A pack of wolves

Mystic Meg

Santa Claus

What

Skirt

Stereo

Cat

Bible

Concert tickets

Ransom note

Popcorn

Tin of beans

Fishing Rod

When

Ancient Egyptian

Victorian

Gregorian

1920s

Post-war

Prehistoric

30^th Century

Roman

Tudor

Jurassic

Where

Beach

Cattle market

Swamp

Pig farm

Garden shed

Board room

Monastery

Drafty barn

Holiday camp

Steam room

How

In terror

Angrily

Lazily

Enthusiastically

Joyfully

In despair

Nervously

Noisily

Quietly

In a panic

The sentences we used were:

(Who) clutched the (What) and ran (How) through the (When) (Where).

and

Speaking (How) in the (Where), (Who) gestured at the (When) (What).

Have fun!