May - 'Just then an alpaca stuck it's head out the window' ...

Another month of great creativity, with lots of imagination.  It is always interesting to see how differently we interpret the various prompts.
 
Our writing challenge this month was called a word ladder.  We start with one word, and progressively change one letter at a time to create another word.  We started with the word ‘writer’ and after nine changes ended up with ‘billed’.  To make it easier, each change did have a clue.  Some of the class found the clues did not help much, but eventually we found the final word.
 
One of the points that is often made about writing is the concept of “show, don’t tell”.  Some early classics use a lot more telling than is generally expected in current writing.  An example of the difference is:

• She was cranky and angry
• She slammed down the phone.  “I never want to talk to her again.”

The second point leaves the interpretation to the reader – the author does not provide a judgement, but the reader gets a picture of someone who is angry.
 
For our written work to share with the class there were three prompts:

• Just then an alpaca stuck its head out of the window
• Don’t go mistaking paradise for that home across the road
• They crouched in the ditch not daring to breathe until the footsteps faded into the distance

 
The Alpaca prompt was very popular.  We had an escape artist alpaca, an alpaca used to destroy a floral competition entry, an alpaca used to identify a fleeing van.  There was even a ‘ghost’ alpaca encouraging an alcoholic to stop drinking.  The ditch prompt had a couple of young boys hiding from bullies in the ditch while planning their revenge.  And a thought about envying the owners of a large house as ‘a home is determined by what goes on inside’.
 
The topics for June are:

• Mind the gap
• Appearances are often deceiving
• The sound of shattering glass

 
We will be having a class on 13 June even though it is a public holiday.  

​Joy Shirley