This month the challenge was set ahead of time.  The challenge was to find a word that is not in common use, and then write a sentence that shows the meaning of the word.  A few of the words used were invigilator (an exam supervisor), panjandrum (a person who has or claims to have a lot of authority or influence), heliotropism (the directional growth of a plant in response to sunlight) and hypnagogic (relating to the state immediately before falling asleep). 

We were also treated to a couple of sentences using the Doric dialect from the north east of Scotland.  Fortunately we were also read the English translation.  We followed this with a discussion around learning and understanding a second language, and the differences in dialects and terminology between different countries – for example understanding Australian terminology by people coming from other English-speaking countries.  It is not only learning a new language that can be confusing, with some examples shared by the class members who moved to Australia.

One of the contributions was around climbing fences – not a specific occasion but touching on the different types of fences we can climb.  We concluded that as this gave a range of descriptions, it was definitely creative writing.  Further discussion also around how our writing will always be influenced by our life experiences, things we have seen and books that we have read or films we have watched. 

Our topics for 14 October are a choice between:
The bar was deserted when he entered – just the bar tender cleaning the bar
Jack was large, nearly 200 centimetres tall, a solid man, but far from overweight
Who were these people who seemed to know where they were going but had never been seen in the small town?

And remember, we are now starting our session at 2:30pm.
​
Joy Shirley

This month our starting challenge was again to fill in the blanks in the outline of a story.  This time we all found it more challenging, with some interesting takes on the sense of hiding – whether it was hiding ourselves, our face or an object.

As usual we had a choice of three prompts.  Some months, many have focussed on the same topic, but this month each of the topics was used by at least one member of the class.  There was a scam phone call, valuable jewels, missing friends or family.

After sharing our writing, we discussed how language has changed, and what this means for some of classics.  These are becoming harder to read, particularly for a younger generation where some words have moved out of use, and many others have developed in meaning.  For example, how would many younger people react to the use of the word “gay” used in a book from the late 19th century where it would mean more like joyful and bright.

Our topics for 9 September are a choice between:

• Yellow leaves crackled underfoot.
• My mother always said that it was better to ask for forgiveness than for permission
• Fences are for climbing.

We are now starting our session at 2:30pm.
​
Joy Shirley