In attendance: Dick, Suzy, Derek, Mairéad, Hattie, Jane, Cathy, Liliane, Beryl, Tony, Les and Dave.
Apologies were received from Carolyn, Tom, Caz, Barry and Gerry.
It was good to welcomeLes back in the fold after his illness. Also nice to welcome Cathy back after a long spell of commitments had curtailed her summer attendances.
Stormy weather and gale force winds together with the threat of local flooding failed to detract from the evening's healthy attendance. It makes us appreciate Liliane turning out to collect the key whatever the weather. Thanks Liliane.
Because of the nature of the creative writing session and the number in attendance all the words went into the hat and everyone drew out four slips of paper. With their words revealed we set off on a twenty-five minute exercise. It was interesting to see all the thoughtful looks – some almost in despair! – but those thoughts soon had their words flowing on paper, in exercise books and notepads. Everyone created their own evening’s masterpiece.
The element of the unknown words suddenly being revealed at the same time relieves some of the tension, but it is the whirring cogs in the creative minds of the writers that produce such good work.
Tonight was no exception and the talent flowed freely, the resultant stories were top rate and extremely well received. There was a plethora of offerings including comedy, science fiction and murder. Here are the words everyone drew out.
Suzy: Fetching: Fluffy: Boredom: Muse.
Jane: Booked: Coffin: Helpful: Thunder.
Mairéad: Kingdom: Infinite: Alien: Yonder.
Liliane: United: Frivolous: Scallop: Intercom.
Hattie: Flamingo: Flighty: Vase: Mercury.
Derek: Independence: Rebellion: Horrify: Lingerie.
Tony: Hope: Deemed: Forfeit: Xenophobic.
Dave: Fixation: Fruity: Dialogue: Mug.
Beryl: Oxtail: Dastardly: Cheeky: Rabbit.
Cathy: Autopsy: Lounge: Twister: Misunderstood.
Dick: Storm: Fulsome: Cleaver: Triangle.
Les: Wheelbarrow: Unbelievable: Lesson: Party.
I wonder what you could create using these words?
As there was a little time left we had quite enjoyable discussions on character building in stories and novels – how we all have our individual methods, how characters evolve with the flow of the story. As an aside the question cropped up about film and radio producers who sometimes spoil the original story by altering characters and even story lines to aid visual dramatisation. Many points of view were shared and this rounded off a really enjoyable evening.
There is a similar kind of competition to our four word creative writing sessions available at www.mashstories.com Details are on their website and entry is FREE!
Our next gathering is on Tuesday 4th November at 7.30pm in The Room at Top when the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 scary words on Ghosts, Halloween or something spooky...
Look forward to seeing you there so, until then...
Don’t look behind ya...!
Keep Scribbling!
