A great set of stories again this month. We had three prompts to choose from:
We started with a quick challenge identifying collective nouns for a range of animals. Some were well known, such as a swarm of bees. Others were less familiar – a stand of flamingos. We finished the exercise with sharing some ideas for a collective noun for a group of caravans. Some ideas were more creative than others – nuisance, lumbering, blockage, chaos – but also ideas such as caravan (of caravans) and convoy.
We talked about the concept of “white space” – creating space between paragraphs – and length of sentences – not too long and varying the length. Without these practices a story can be very hard to read.
Stories ranged from descriptive to whimsical. Feedback was always positive, even when it was providing ideas for improvement, such as overuse of the same word in a paragraph or adding an ending that was not necessary. Overall the stories were interesting, varied and appreciated.
The topics for April are:
I am eager to see what the new topics bring for our next class on 11 April. Happy writing everyone!
Joy Shirley
- She stood on the balcony
- The reflections on the still water of the lake, did not reveal what lay beneath
- The hotel was deserted. Salt and pepper shakers sat on the dust covered tables.
We started with a quick challenge identifying collective nouns for a range of animals. Some were well known, such as a swarm of bees. Others were less familiar – a stand of flamingos. We finished the exercise with sharing some ideas for a collective noun for a group of caravans. Some ideas were more creative than others – nuisance, lumbering, blockage, chaos – but also ideas such as caravan (of caravans) and convoy.
We talked about the concept of “white space” – creating space between paragraphs – and length of sentences – not too long and varying the length. Without these practices a story can be very hard to read.
Stories ranged from descriptive to whimsical. Feedback was always positive, even when it was providing ideas for improvement, such as overuse of the same word in a paragraph or adding an ending that was not necessary. Overall the stories were interesting, varied and appreciated.
The topics for April are:
- She pushed the strands of wet hair from her face.
- He could see the greedy look in {insert name} eyes
- She bolted out the door like a bat out of hell
I am eager to see what the new topics bring for our next class on 11 April. Happy writing everyone!
Joy Shirley
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