<![CDATA[U3A Benalla - Creative Writing]]>

<![CDATA[U3A Benalla - Creative Writing]]>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 11:00:56 +1100Weebly<![CDATA[February - New members, Challenges & Discussion]]>Wed, 18 Feb 2026 09:58:07 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/february-new-members-challenges-discussionWe had a great start to our new year of writing, with new authors joining the class. As part of introducing the class, I always share two statements:

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Our challenge:
Our challenge was not really a challenge. A set of topics was provided. The class formed pairs and each member of the pair chose one of the topics and spoke with their partner on that subject. This served both to extend the introduction process and prove you always have something to say – and write.

Discussion:
One of the issues we all have is finding time to write. I shared some information from Isabel Allende. She has written 21 books. When she is ready to write a new book, she always starts on 8 January. There was also an idea from the Australian Writers’ Centre to think about the “to not do” list that takes our time away from writing. Out of this I suggested that we should allocate a specific day and time in the week to write. Nothing should be allowed to prevent writing at this time.

Some of our Stories:
The Mystery of Jose Santana was around historical research which included the Bolivian War of Independence. It was an easy read that flowed well.

The Last Straw was around a box of straws, given anthropomorphic attributes. We learn about how various straws are used until there is only one lonely straw left. Eventually someone searched for a straw – the last straw – for use in a school craft project. A lot of fun.

Everything was not where he expected it to be is a continuation from last year. It tells of how Blake, a recently released prisoner, comes to terms with a life of freedom. There is more to come around Blake in the future.

Nothing to Laugh About tells of Lily believing she has been burgled. Esme, her neighbour, watches as Lily checks her money is intact, hidden in a box disguised as a book. Esme then solves the puzzle of the intruder – rescuing a kookaburra. It was a great title.

Prompts:
We will be having a class in March, even though it is a public holiday. Our prompts for the class are:

The rail line stretched into the distance until meeting in a point at the horizon
I was starting to wonder why dad didn't want me to do a DNA test
The incessant wind kept blowing all night. It got quite violent at times, as we could hear branches being torn from trees and tin banging on the old shed

Joy Shirley
]]><![CDATA[December - some discussion then celebration of another year of writing.]]>Thu, 18 Dec 2025 13:00:00 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/december-some-discussion-then-celebration-of-another-year-of-writing“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
Discussion:
No discussion point or challenge this month. We discussed the stories written this month and then retired to a cafe for a celebration of another year of writing.

Some Stories:
Three of our stories this month were continuations of stories, at least one completing a short story manuscript written over ten months.

Another story involved what could be seen as an anthropomorphic piano. Or at least it had a mind of its own. It would not allow itself to be removed from an old house and survived undamaged when the house was totally destroyed by fire.

For “The Wild, Wild Woods”, a creature called a munchkin went on an adventure through the woods. And there was the story of the release of a prisoner after thirty years. The author is planning to continue the story of his life after release.

Prompts:
For members of the class who wish to write during the break, there are three new prompts. Others may wish to continue or complete manuscripts that are underway.

The last few years have been punishingly dry
And that was when Isabel pointed to the log
His ruminations ended with the sound of the first one.

And with another year coming to a close, we wish all our U3A colleagues a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. We are looking forward to 2026 and more writing challenges.

Joy Shirley]]><![CDATA[November - 'Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story']]>Sun, 16 Nov 2025 07:52:54 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/november-everyone-has-a-story-in-them-it-is-up-to-each-of-us-to-find-our-storyDiscussion:

Our discussion this month was on formatting of paragraphs. A question had been raised during our October class around the rules for writing paragraphs. For report and academic writing there are some strict guidelines. A paragraph needs to start with an introduction, followed by the details, and end with a summary. All the information I found states these rules do not apply for fiction!

In general, start a new paragraph when there’s a shift in focus, idea, or direction. Or you can start a new paragraph when there’s a shift in time or place. There are three principles that can help:

Paragraphs manage content
Paragraphs amplify voice
Paragraphs help generate mood

For example, short sharp paragraphs can create a sense of urgency and tension; longer paragraphs can create a more peaceful mood.

Our challenge:

A quick challenge this month looked at some misheard or mistaken phrases that sound logical — but aren’t! Some of these sound the same, but when written are totally different. For example:

‘For all intensive purposes’ is actually ‘for all intents and purposes’

‘Wet your appetite’ should be ‘whet your appetite’. This is one where spoken there is no difference, but care is needed in written work.

Some Stories:

Coincidentally, with two of our stories this month, we were able to see examples where we were able to talk about how some paragraphing could help the flow of the story for the reader. Both were based on phrases from a book. One included a friend flying to Melbourne to support the eventual winner of the Melbourne Cup. The other was of a young lady heading into the dark to find her missing partner. This story was not complete, and the author has been challenged to complete the story rather than use one of the new prompts for our December class.

Another story was about automation of cars – fully self-drive with anthropomorphic characteristics. The car was a bit of a character and somehow had been involved in a bank robbery while the owner slept. The owner ended up in jail being accused of the robbery.

One contribution is a continuing story about a young widower with two children and a world renown pianist he and his children befriend. The goal is for this story to be completed for the December class.

Prompts:

There are three new prompts, but the class have also been challenged to review stories written during the year that need to be finished as an alternative.

He had to get away from the trees.
As he opened the door, everything was not where he expected it to be.
He was busy painting graffiti on a wall when he heard the car approaching.

Joy Shirley]]><![CDATA[October - 'Prepositions' and three continuing stories ...]]>Sat, 18 Oct 2025 23:56:22 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/october-prepositions-and-three-continuing-stories“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Discussion:

We had a discussion around prepositions. Prepositions are small words that describe relationships with other words in a sentence, such as where something took place (in a park) or when (at noon). Other common prepositions include under, up, below, with, around etc.

To help understand their use we looked at some examples of incorrectly used propositions. For example, “he is good in English” should read “he is good at English”. But it can always depend on context to determine what is correct. For this example, the first option would be correct if the discussion was around the behaviour of a student in an English class. No wonder it is hard to learn English as a second language!

Our challenge:

To follow up on the discussion we looked at several sentences to identify the prepositions. For example:
The puppy is beneath the table
We went from Paris to Bordeaux

Some Stories:

We had contributions for three continuing stories this month. One provided a happy ending for a young couple, with a focus on spring and flowers, having started with the smell of citrus blossom several instalments ago. Another is just starting, and we are looking forward to how this will develop.

Another story talked about the impact office politics and bias can have on opportunities for promotion and treatment of staff.

Prompts:

No specific prompts this month. Instead, the class have been asked to open a book at random and select a phrase or sentence to provide the inspiration for a story.

Joy Shirley
]]><![CDATA[September - Discussion, Challenges & Prompts ..]]>Thu, 18 Sep 2025 05:21:06 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/september-discussion-challenges-prompts“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Discussion:
We looked at a series of words that can be confused or incorrectly used either when written or spoken. These included words like Illicit and elicit. These may be used correctly when written, but sound similar when spoken. No wonder it can be difficult to learn the language! One interesting pair was disinterested and uninterested. They are often used interchangeably but do have different meanings. Disinterested means neutral or unbiased, such as a judge in a court case; uninterested means not interested.

Our challenge:
The challenge was to correct a series of phrases. Two covered were around the incorrect use of apostrophes. Examples are:
The dog lost it’s bone Q The dog lost its bone R
Its raining outside Q It’s raining outside R

Some Stories:
The favourite prompts were “Today I got the phone call” and “Eyes that green were definitely dangerous”. The calls around a phone call were:

Getting the call around a Tattslotto win the same time as receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis;
A call about the loss of a twin sister; and
A call about the death of a mother

Eyes that green stories were:

A dream about a child abduction, waking screaming to find the neighbour’s cat licking her face
A young Irish girl with green eyes that have “special abilities” initially used to protect family and friends, but ending up being recruited by MI5.

Then there was a story about a dog from hell and two continuing stories.

Prompts:
The prompts for our October class are:

The piano lessons were about to start.
How was he supposed to get to the job interview?
Yesterday I would never have guessed that this could be true

Joy Shirley]]><![CDATA[Some August stories - 'The Speeding Car', 'Circumstantial Evidence' and 'Oyster Shells' ...]]>Fri, 22 Aug 2025 06:49:54 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/some-august-stories-the-speeding-car-circumstantial-evidence-and-oyster-shells“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story
and write it down.

Discussion:
We have talked in the past about starting to write, how to handle writers’ block, and how not to think our writing is not worthy of sharing. I thought it was worth reminding the class members, as well as covering these thoughts for new class members. It also encompassed the issue of using the prompts – they do not have to be used word for word. And how adding a title can strengthen the story. Another way to find what to write is to use a news headline, but it is recommended not to read the news item, but to make your own story based on the headline.

Our challenge:
The focus this year has often been on words, the building blocks of writing. This month was a very simple challenge with a list of names that can also be words in common (or not so common) use. The class had to match the names with their definitions. But to complicate slightly there were a couple of names that could have matched the same definition.

Some Stories:

The Speeding Car: There were two stories with this title. One was a young lady using speed to address her anger after finding her fiancé in bed with her sister. Her turmoil was well depicted by the speed of her driving. The other tells of police monitoring for speeding cars only to find a young couple heading to the hospital as the wife was in labour. The police helped deliver the baby on the side of the road, and the baby was named after the police.

Circumstantial Evidence: This is a great example of how a title can strengthen a story. A bottle of poison is found some time after the apparently accidental death of a grandmother in a car accident. Was the grandfather responsible for the accident, or was this coincidental? There were some great descriptions and the use of the road name as “Mount Winding Road” was used to great effect, telling the reader the nature of the road in just three words.

Oyster Shells: This is the start of a new historical “novel”, introducing the characters for the story. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

Prompts:
I have given four prompts for our September class. Here they are:

Today I got the phone call.
The jewels sparkled in the sunlight.
Eyes that green were definitely dangerous.
After four days, Jeff had had enough.

Joy Shirley

]]><![CDATA['A reminder of the prompts for August ...']]>Mon, 28 Jul 2025 22:09:05 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/a-reminder-of-the-prompts-for-augustThere was no face to face class in July - stories shared by email as usual and feedback also shared with the class via email.

A reminder of the prompts for August -

A bottle containing a rare and deadly poison was found under the sink
The car was speeding down the highway.
Next item on her to-do list – write that will.

]]><![CDATA[June - "Where do writers get their ideas?" ... and more]]>Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:44:26 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/june-17th-2025“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down."

Discussion:

The discussion this month was around inspiration for writing. In other words, where do writers get their ideas. There are several different ways this can happen. Areas we touched on are lived experience, overheard conversations, discussion with friends, seeing something that does not fit, reading, an image (maybe from a dream), memories. A major point discussed was that these could be combined to provide inspiration for a story/book.

Our challenge:

A simple word puzzle was our challenge. Two definitions given, the first word started with ‘D’, and the second word dropped the ‘D’ to make another word.
An example: Good for thirsty people/Good for skaters - Answers DRINK/RINK

Some Stories:

Lucky Nana: A mixture of lived experience and a fairy tale for children with a bit of magic.

What was the Secret of the Building: written as a travelogue describing an overseas visit and wondering about the origin of particular building.

The Tree Fell: A young couple enjoying a country drive, exploring a dirt road. Finding a deserted property, the man decides to explore. When he does not return, she searches for him, finding him having fallen through a rotten floor, she has to struggle through a fallen tree to call for help.

The Box: a mysterious box that was a puzzle to open. When eventually opened it revealed a missing weight for an old set of brass scales.

And there were two stories that were continuations of previous contributions.

Prompts:

Our July class will be run differently. Stories will be shared by email as usual, but there will be no face-to-face class. Instead, if any feedback can also be shared with the class via email. The prompts for the July class are:

The pig and dog were arguing about who was Tommy’s favourite.
Now he was 18, an adult, he realised that something needed to change.
The last thing I remember was…

Classes will return to normal in August. And for a headstart, here are the prompts for August as well:

A bottle containing a rare and deadly poison was found under the sink
The car was speeding down the highway.
Next item on her to do list – write that will.

Joy Shirley

]]><![CDATA[May's most popular prompt ... 'The pie was a big surprise']]>Sat, 17 May 2025 18:29:22 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/mays-most-popular-topic-the-surprise-pie“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Discussion:

We had a brief discussion around what is called "Point of View". This is writing in either 1st, 2nd or 3rd person. And there are even two ways of writing in 3rd person. I plan to revisit the topic in more detail in the future.

Our challenge:

Our challenge this month was a simple word puzzle. We were given definitions of words containing “may” (as the month is May) to find the correct word. The following are three examples.
DEFINITION:

Chaos (6)
Town leader (5)
Mexican civilisation who built pyramids (5)

ANSWERs:

Mayhem
Mayor
Mayan

Some of our Stories:

The most popular topic this month was the surprise pie, with four stories shared.

The Pie: This was a quirky story about a family of power and wealth who had been driven out by anarchists to a far north-west corner of Tasmania. With a play on names like Chas, Cammy, Bill etc this was based on the royal family.

Four and Twenty: Another quirky story, along the lines of Animal Farm, with an underlying message. A baker (a pig) is harvesting magpies with the help of Wiley Fox to make into pies eaten by introduced feral species. When the magpies become scarce due to over harvesting, they move onto Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. Eventually help is sought from the wise old owl, and the story ends with the humans harvesting ferals for making into pies for bush walkers. Do you see the message?

There was also a story about a café which had young girls helping in it. One introduces pies into the options which become popular. And the final pie story was about how an eccentric rich man shows how his will is to be distributed by a large pie, divided into different sized pieces, depicting how the estate would be divided. If they did not accept their share, it would go to the grandson who had the biggest piece already. The final twist is that the grandson inheriting the most was adopted.

Other stories involved canoes and kayaks –an attempt to incorporate them into the training regime for recruits which went dramatically wrong; another a talented pianist realising kayaking was not the right thing to do when she needed protect her hands.

Prompts:

The prompts for the June class are:

I found it in the second-hand shop
What was the secret of this building?
The tree lent over then slowly fell, crushing the fence

Joy Shirley
May 2025]]><![CDATA["You don't have to be great to start..."]]>Sun, 20 Apr 2025 02:47:24 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/you-dont-have-to-be-great-to-start“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Discussion: The building blocks of writing are words. As we learnt in school, there are different types of words. We discussed some of the more common of these: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctives. Our discussion included talking about how the usage of words and construction of sentences have changed over the years.

Our challenge: To further the understanding of the different types of words, we each wrote a sentence of what we had done during the day, and then analysed these to determine which were nouns, verbs etc.

Some of our Stories:
The Sale: A small incident that created a big picture, showing the contrast between country life and the big city. It involved a story by an older lady of her visit to the bargain basement in sale time. It contrasted her experience with the old style service at home – the city people were not her type of people.
My Kind of People: A story from two perspectives. Two friends tell of their meeting, their early lives, and how one was able to rescue her friends from a coercive sect – not really her type of people.
Autumn: A character experiencing Autumn, his favourite season, after receiving unwelcome news about a cancer diagnosis that meant this would be his last Autumn. After thinking about his relationships, family and friends, came acceptance and a decision to take each day as a bonus and enjoy what was left.
The Lake Visit: The reminiscences after the loss of a long-time friend, visiting one of their regular meeting places by the lake. A beautiful setting was well defined, as were the experiences they had enjoyed during their lives.
A Marvelous Night: The story about a chance encounter and how it evolved. He was an arrogant opportunist; she was a young professional. He invites her to an AFL game, treats her to a fast food hamburger. All these things she would not normally do. The author talked about how the story took its own path, not how he had planned, with him finding he did not like the girl at all.

Prompts:
Our prompts for our April class are:

The pie was a big surprise.
Surely kayaking was easy. I was sure I could make the distance – or so I thought.

Painting the graffiti was the easy part – not getting caught was the challenge.

Joy Shirley
]]><![CDATA["Everyone has a story in them ..."]]>Sun, 16 Mar 2025 20:35:59 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/everyone-has-a-story-in-them“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

With the long weekend and several late apologies due to health and caring commitments, it was a small class this month. I decided to skip the discussion and challenge and will cover them in April.

Some of our Stories:

The Dawn Ride: an updated version of the Lady Godiva story. This time phone calls brought in several other riders to protect her from view. What they did not predict was someone up a tree with a camera – the film went viral.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: An old man was accused of stealing several hens of different breeds. He pleaded not guilty saying he had gone to the poultry farm for a couple of eggs. The hens like him and had followed him home. He had planned to return them the following day. The magistrate decided there was no value in a custodial sentence, so he walked free. Watching from her window she saw him ride off with the same number and breeds of hens following him.

Henry Looked Guilty: Arriving at an airport in Asia he took a taxi, supposedly to his hotel. When another man got in the taxi, he became concerned. When the driver stopped, he became afraid, but they had stopped to tie the boot closed. He felt guilty about misjudging them…until he saw one of the men had a knife. Was his original judgment of the men correct?

Bill Looked Up: A family story, that included two men caught in fog when out fishing. They headed back to shore in the direction they hoped was right. When the fog lifted, they found they were close to shore, but looking back they saw two large tankers. What if they had been in the way of the tankers?

Chapter 4: this was the closure of an ongoing story where shots heard were actually dynamite explosions as two men were illegally exploring what they hoped was a gold seam. They were arrested for various crimes.

Helena Reined in her Horse: A ride and an escape from a bushfire with good tension as the escape unfolded.

Prompts:

Our prompts for our April class are:

They were not her people. Helen realized she was lucky to still be alive.
We didn’t know it would be our last sunset at the lake.
Yellow leaves crackled underfoot.

Joy Shirley]]><![CDATA["A great start to our new year of writing..."]]>Sat, 15 Feb 2025 01:21:55 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/a-great-start-to-our-new-year-of-writingWe had a great start to our new year of writing, with new authors also joining the class. As part of introducing the class, I always share two statements:

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Our challenge:
Our challenge was not very easy but followed on from the second statement above. Everyone was asked to write down two ideas for a story. These may be used as prompts in the future, but the goal was to reinforce that we all have multiple stories we could write.

Discussion:
One of the issues we all have is finding time to write. I shared some information from Isabel Allende. She has written 21 books. When she is ready to write a new book, she always starts on 8 January. There was also an idea from the Australian Writers’ Centre to think about the “to not do” list that takes our time away from writing. Out of this I suggested that we should allocate a specific day and time in the week to write. Nothing will be allowed to prevent writing at this time.

Some of our Stories:
It was great to catch up on all the new stories. These are just a few of them.
The Elopement: This was my story used to point out good and bad aspects of writing. A young library assistant was tricked into helping with what she thought was an elopement but was really a planned kidnapping – fortunately it was prevented. Issues such as a good flow and an ending that wraps up the story were discussed.
Not to be Budged: Two budgies planning an escape which did not happen because it was too hot
Pie in the Sky: An elderly couple on a trip discover a quaint café and end up buying it
Pumpkins: A powerful story about the conflict between the mind and the physical capability for an elderly lady who could not do anything for herself.

Prompts:
Our prompts for our March class are:

Henry looked guilty.
Bill looked up at the flag to check the wind.
Helena reined her horse back to a walk. She needed time to think.

Joy Shirley
]]><![CDATA[December ... "He was digging in the garden when he found it..."]]>Fri, 20 Dec 2024 14:18:09 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/december-he-was-digging-in-the-garden-when-he-found-it The numbers were down for our December class, with many people caught up in end of year activities. There was no challenge or discussion point this month. Our plan was for quick discussion around our stories then a visit to a café for a celebration of our year of writing.

Some of our Stories:
Most of our stories used the same prompt – “He was digging in the garden when he found it”. There were two that used one of the other prompts.

Homelands was about a young man planning to visit his grandparents’ homeland in Belarus after hearing stories of the war and their experiences. He was trying to learn the language in preparation.

The Find was about some recent retirees volunteering to clean up the yard of an old school in preparation for extending a rescue shelter. They find an old Time Capsule buried in late 1950s.

The Cream Bottle held a prediction of an upcoming adventure. The bottle had been buried as a joke by the twin girls next door.

Love’s Labour’s Lost was about digging up a damp spot in the yard and finding a buried box. It was never opened as it was dropped back in the hole and the walls of the hole collapsed. The centre of the story went back to Shakespeare’s time when he had buried a play that was considered too dangerous to perform. Was the find the missing play?

Another story on “digging in the garden” was around a young man who had moved to Sydney and set up in his own home for the first time. We were left hanging as to what he had found when digging in the garden the class discussion shared various ideas as to what it could have been. Was it a new career path because he enjoyed working in the garden? Or is there another chapter to be written? We will wait and see.

Prompts:
We will continue writing over the break, so three new prompts were provided. We plan to share these stories in January, when new prompts will be provided for our first 2025 class in February.

He must have been seeing things. There were no such things as ghosts – or was there?
She watched nervously as her partner opened the door of the café for their first day of business.
He wiped the drop off his face and looked up, seeing the damp spot on the ceiling.

Joy Shirley
]]><![CDATA['It is always interesting when we have similar stories from different writers ...']]>Wed, 20 Nov 2024 13:19:06 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/its-always-interesting-when-we-have-similar-stories-from-different-writersOur challenge/Discussion:

Over the last few months, we have focussed on the use of different words. After a brief discussion about the value of this exercise, we had a quick challenge to identify a word from a range of clues. It was not as easy a challenge as I had expected.

Some of our Stories:

From Alpha to Omega: A very clever piece with pairs of people with the same initial at tables in a café identified by the initial. For example, Euripides and George Eliot were seated at table E, descending into a quarrel about who was the most popular author of his/her time.

The Winter Wind and Ash Wednesday: Both these stories involved young wives during the second world war and their lives while their husbands were away. They both receive news of their husband’s death, but in different ways and with different endings. Added to this, they were on different sides of the war. It is always interesting when we have similar stories from different writers.

The Graveyard Shift: A young man is in a graveyard before midnight on Halloween because of a bet. He meets a woman who says she scavenges items dropped in the graveyard. Her name is Eve Hallows!

Two Friends, Two Lives: Based on a news item about two male penguins who had made friends and incubated a neglected egg. It was watched by a couple. The husband, now a grandfather, is overcome by guilt about hiding his homosexuality for years and admits to his wife who responds she has known since they first met. A lovely story of understanding and empathy.

Prompts:

The prompts for the final class for the year on 9 December are:

He was digging in the garden when he found it.
The plans for his overseas holiday were almost complete. All that was left was to find the right app for learning the language.
The work at the rescue shelter was stimulating, but excruciatingly sad.

Joy Shirley

]]><![CDATA["Elderly men featured in various contexts..." in October]]>Mon, 21 Oct 2024 18:51:20 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/elderly-men-featured-in-various-contexts-in-octoberThe Creative Writing Group, as you might imagine, loves words. We had a lot of fun with gems such as hurdle durkle, kakistocracy, lethologica and dysania* to name but a few.

Our writing prompts this month were two different paragraphs giving us a character, an action and some ideal of location. By virtue of the prompts, elderly men featured in various contexts - running away from home, having traumatic days, reflective days, taking wrong turns, being ignored by emergency workers.

Two members were able to share excerpts from their on going novels and memoir writing, giving us an insight into some fine character writing.

The prompts for our November session are:
1. “Moon Base Omega failed to report, sir.”
2. Low battery. Exactly the two words l didn’t want to see right now.
3. The winter wind rattled the windows.

*dysania - strong urge to go back to sleep, sleep inertia or fatigue.

Pat Treleaven]]><![CDATA['A more challenging start to September's class and a new approach to prompts for October's class']]>Sat, 21 Sep 2024 14:46:35 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/a-more-challenging-start-to-septembers-class-and-a-new-approach-to-prompts-for-octobers-classOur challenge/Discussion:

We had a more challenging start to the class this month. There are a lot of words that are not in common use. Should we use these to enrich our writing? What are the pitfalls in doing this? In general it can be a problem if we use very strange words as this interrupts the flow of reading. But if we frame the sentence so the meaning is obvious, then it can be a bonus. So each class member was given a word at random, with its meaning, and asked to write a sentence that would make the meaning obvious. This led to identifying some words that could be used in the future, and others that should be avoided.

Some of our Stories:

Mrs Peters: A mysterious woman arrives, becomes known but remains a mystery, then leaves after someone comes looking for her. Why was she hiding – we are left to make up our own minds.

Miss Bossy Boots: An older sister arrives, believing her sister needs her but turns her sister’s life upside-down until a plan is set up to give her a new focus.

Citrus Blossom story part 6: A possible motive for murder is revealed, but is this the one? Tension is built, but the reader is still left questioning.

The White Shell: A single scene around a spy picking up a message but identified by the opposite side. Will she survive?

A Matter of Time: A mischievous toddler, a storm, a rescue, a local myth and full circle back to mischief.

Dreams Fulfilled: The end of a family saga post WWII, with dreams evolving and finally fulfilled.

Prompts:

We have a different approach for our prompts for the 14 October class. For this month there are two short paragraphs to choose from. Each of these has a character, a location and some action. The challenge to is to create a story starting with one of the two paragraphs. If anyone is interested in giving this try, let me know and I will send you the paragraphs.

Class members have been asked to bring along a sentence using a little used word and challenging the class to identify the meaning. Did the sentence achieve this?

Joy Shirley
]]><![CDATA[August - 'Three continuing stories and three using prompts ...']]>Fri, 23 Aug 2024 01:01:31 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/august-three-continuing-stories-and-three-using-promptsOur challenge:

Another simple challenge this month. We had two definitions for a single colour, all with a French origin. We had to select the correct description. Two examples:

BEIGE = a) light sand b) pale green
ECRU = a) pale brown b) olive green

Discussion:

Some of the colours were not familiar to everyone. This led to a discussion around using words that are not familiar and when this is good and not so good. This is a topic we have discussed on other occasions but is always worth revisiting. .A former primary school teacher shared some experiences about using/teaching words that were not familiar.

Some of our Stories:

The first three stories below are continuing stories. The remaining are new ideas using the prompts.

Citrus Blossom Part 5: A mystery around a sudden death, being treated by police as murder. Why? Who? How? All questions still to be answered.
Resolution Pt3: Another continuing story about how finding some photos led to reconciliation, finding old letters, and the writing of an historical novel.
Slow Getaway: A continuing story of suspected corruption in several local councils.
The Marvellous Toy: Based on the Tom Paxton song, but suggesting the toy had been a spy from another planet. It also touched a little on addiction.
A Right Royal Mess: An interesting story with a twist where bad luck turned out to be good luck. Cooking for a royal meal, dropping a pavlova and discovering salt had been used instead of sugar, and having to start all over again.
The Wooing of Cindy: Cooking a new recipe to impress a young lady but reversing quantities and ending up with an inedible spicy dish.

Prompts:

The prompts for our 9 September class are:

It’s not unusual to find odd bits of paper tucked into library books for a bookmark, but this time it was a letter.
Sunsets will never be the same again.
Jasmine held the small shell, looking at it closely for a moment before putting it carefully in her pocket.

Joy Shirley

]]><![CDATA[July - 'Ways to address writer's block' and more...]]>Mon, 15 Jul 2024 14:28:16 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/july-ways-to-address-writers-block-and-moreDiscussion::

We reviewed a topic covered previously – ways to address writer’s block. This included:

Change your environment – sometimes a new setting can spark creativity.
Explore books or articles relating to your subject.
Have your character drop something – it means the character needs to move, perhaps looking under a bed and finding something unexpected that leads to new ideas for the story.
Discuss your ideas with a friend.

The last point led to a discussion around the value of the class in providing an audience to discuss problems encountered in writing.

Our challenge:

A simple challenge this month. We had two definitions for a single word, even sometimes pronounce differently. Two examples:

Under most cities + makes clothes by hand – SEWER
To practise something + rail transport - TRAIN

Some of our Stories:

The Lost Dog: a sweet story about a couple finding a lost dog and ending up giving it a home.
I Understand Triage: a confronting story about a car causing carnage in a city street. Use of short sentences created the atmosphere and reinforced the protagonist’s confusion.
The Mismatch: A mismatch between a quiet woman and her more outgoing guardian angel. When she has a fall, she thinks the guardian angel has deserted her only to find it was the guardian angel who had convinced Heaven not to take her.
Memories: A mysterious letter appeared on his computer screen telling him about a granddaughter, initiating memories of a long-ago relationship. A strange Instagram message is sent to the granddaughter about a grandfather.

Prompts:

The prompts for our August class are:

The last key on the keyring did not fit any lock in their new house.
It was such a simple recipe so why had it turned out inedible?
The box on the step had no identifying markings.
It was the middle of the day, but the sky was black.

Joy Shirley]]><![CDATA[June - "Tyres screeched. I turned and ran down the alley"...]]>Sun, 23 Jun 2024 03:13:08 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/june-tyres-screeched-i-turned-and-ran-down-the-alleyOur class fell on the public holiday in June, so numbers were lower than usual.

Discussion:

We reviewed some of our previous discussions. The use of the five senses enriches the pictures we create with our writing. For example, “we closed the windows of the car because of the smoke” compared with “The acrid smoke filled the air, so we needed to close the car windows”.

And we noted the value of a title for our stories. This could help set the scene, or if more cryptic could intrigue and encourage to reader to read on.

Our challenge:

A simple challenge this month, with a set of clues to words all containing “MAY”. One example is:

What a pilot tries to avoid saying. (6 letters) MAYday

Some of our Stories:

We had four stories all using the same prompt – “Tyres screeched. I turned and ran down the alley”. It was interesting that two involved a dream and the other two had a level of crossover – both included implication of criminal activity being found out by the protagonist. One of these discovered it was a film shoot, and the other could lead to an extra “chapter” around the nature of the criminal activity.

Prompts:

The prompts for our 8 July class are:

They were strangers, stuck in the lift.
Sandy saw it first, the sad dirty dog walking towards them.
The day had started well, so why had it all gone so wrong.
The memories came thick and fast.

Joy Shirley]]><![CDATA['Who's that woman in the photo'...May's most popular topic]]>Fri, 24 May 2024 17:12:21 GMThttps://u3abenalla.weebly.com/creative-writing/whos-that-woman-in-the-photomays-most-popular-topicHints:

This month we talked about the use of apostrophes. Compared to our early training it appears that they are often used incorrectly today. BUT is this due to ‘natural evolution’ in language? Or is it just wrong? For us it is totally wrong. But whichever it is, if in doubt, DON’T use them.

Our challenge:

Our brief challenge was on homophones – words that sound the same but are spelt differently and mean something different. For example, TOW and TOE. We had a list of somewhat cryptic clues to identify the words. Two of the clues were:

Escape the hopping insect. Break the clue into two. Escape – flee; hopping insect – flea.
This gold statue is not moving. Break in two. Gold statue – idol; not moving – idle.

We actually found this quite difficult, I suspect due to the cryptic nature of the clues.

Some of our Stories:

The most popular topic was “Who’s that woman in the photo?” Some interesting stories came out of the prompt.

A much-prized photo got lost, but after spending time with a number of other people, all wondering about who she was, it found its way home.
Researching a photo found in an historical collection.
A photo of a spirit in front of an old cottage – was it a spirit? Disappointingly I was just a double exposure.

The corgis told of a little boy in the crowd watching the late Queen’s funeral, but he was focussed on her corgis as they stood to attention when the coffin passed. We also had a story merging three Rosemarys – an aged doll, a strict member of a retirement village, and a Rosemary bush.

Prompts:

We will be having a class on 10 June, even though it is a public holiday. The prompts for the class are:

Tyres screeched. I turned and ran down the alley.
We all felt the cold before he entered the hall.
“Have you seen this?”

Joy Shirley
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