For our Creative Writing class, we have continued writing using a selection of prompts to choose from and sharing our work.  This time though we have shared with the whole class via email.  The class members have been encouraged to share feedback with the authors to help us develop our writing skills.  Our first attempt at this was on 13 April.  The prompts were:
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• There was a secret meeting in the morning and she had to be there.
• For months I had been crying myself to sleep every night.
• It came in the mail.
  

“It came in the mail” was the most popular topic.  While they were very different, some of these stories tended towards the theme of unknown relations making contact.  Some were not happy stories with tragic or sad endings, but others had a happy or quirky ending.  One has left us hanging to know what will happen next.
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I now plan to review the process with the class and look at what changes could be made to refine the process.

Joy Shirley

The topics to select from for our 9 March class were:

• 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
• They had been best friends for ever.
• The rail line stretched into the distance until meeting in a point at the horizon

 
As usual we had a wide range of interpretations around use of the different topics.  The favourite topic seemed to be “They had been best friends for ever”, with others using the storm scene.  The stories ranged from an attempted kidnapping of a dog after a relationship break down, best friends getting back together and forming a family, concern about telling a best friend about a wayward husband, and a holiday with a best friend.  The storms covered a missing wife and another kidnapping.
We have tried something new for our classes in 2020.  This month we workshopped Andrew’s story about best friends in more detail.  The story told of two ideas being sent to a planet as “humans” to try to save the planet, giving them opposite appearance, skills and personalities.  There was discussion about whether the story was Science Fiction or Supernatural, and whether there is any difference.  Andrew found the feedback on his story very valuable, and we will explore how to continue the option for deeper work shopping a story in future classes.
Some of the class also prepared a story covering the March Furious Fiction competition criteria:

• The story had to take place in a park
• The story had to include a mirror
• The story had to have someone in a disguise

For our next class the topics are:

• There was a secret meeting in the morning and she had to be there.
• For months I had been crying myself to sleep every night.
• It came in the mail

To keep us writing while we are unable to meet let’s do the following:

• Send your story to the rest of the class BEFORE the scheduled time for our next class on 13 April (so need to send the story by 12 April)
• Spend the scheduled time on 13 April reading the stories
• Share your feedback with the class on 13 April
• On 14 April I will send out a new set of topics for a May “class”.

I have suggested using our scheduled class times to provide a bit of discipline as well as certainty as to when to expect the stories and the feedback.
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Joy Shirley

Given the indoor U3A classes have now been officially cancelled, the only option we have for continuing our writing class is in line with the approach I suggested the other day.  I have not heard from everyone, but the responses I have received have been positive.  It is important that over the next weeks we all look after ourselves, and by keeping up our writing and keeping in touch with people will help us not feel too isolated.  
 
Let’s go ahead with the following process, and refine if necessary:

• Send your story to the class BEFORE the scheduled time for our class (the next class would be 13 April, so need to send the story by 12 April at the latest using reply all from the email relating to this message or the list of email addresses sent with it)
• Spend the scheduled time on 13 April reading the stories
• Share your feedback with the class, again using a reply all option in email, as soon as possible, preferably on 13 April
• On 14 April I will send out a new set of topics for a May “class”

 
I have suggested using our scheduled class times to provide a bit of discipline as well as certainty as to when to expect the stories and the feedback.  Personally, I need to have some sort of routine to help remember the day of the week now that most of my normal activities have been cancelled, and maybe others could feel that way too.
 
And as a reminder, the topics that we have for 13 April are:

• There was a secret meeting in the morning and she had to be there.
• For months I had been crying myself to sleep every night.
• It came in the mail

 
The workshop process document is available below as I think this may help focus our thoughts in providing feedback to the class.  As with the work-shopping process, we should keep the feedback positive – positive comments overall plus thoughts for improvement, not what is wrong.  I don’t want the task to become too onerous and stop people from participating, so perhaps keep the feedback succinct.
 
Now for some other thoughts about keeping active with your writing.  Remember Furious Fiction will have their new topic out on 3 April.  If you write something, you could perhaps share that as well.  Also the Australian Writers Centre do have a number of on-line courses available.  They can be a bit pricey, but I have done a couple of the less expensive ones and found them valuable.  Thinking about publishing your work? I see the Australian Writers Centre have an on-line course around how to pitch your book to publishers that I think is under $200.
 
All for now.  I hope to received a few stories by 12 April.
 
Joy
0417 065 351

​I have been thinking about the future of our Creative Writing Class under the current circumstances.  At the moment I would be quite happy to continue the classes, even reinstating the Monday 13 April class as my other commitment has been cancelled.  But I understand that for some this may not be desirable...and things are changing daily anyway.  So I have been thinking about an alternative that keeps us all writing and receiving feedback on our stories.  This is my suggestion:
 

• I will continue to provide topics to choose from for the month
• Written stories can then be distributed to each member of the class by the due date for our class (for April this will be 13 April)
• Each member should schedule the time of our class as a time to read the stories
• After reading each contribution, each member will provide feedback for the author (the ideas sheet we used for workshopping stories can help this).

 
The distribution process may need some refinement.  At the moment I see this as involving my sharing everyone’s email address with the full class (most of you have already agreed with this anyway).  It also means a lot more emails heading around – you need to send your comments to everyone and everyone receives multiple emails.  An alternative of course is that everything comes to me and I send it on to everyone (not my preferred approach but may mean less email traffic overall for everyone else).
 
The value I see in this approach is that we are all still encouraged to keep writing.  We still receive feedback on what we have written.  We still have contact with others in the worst case scenario that we are in a more regulated lockdown situation.  And it means no-one misses a class!  So please tell me what you think.  If I don’t hear from you, I will assume that you agree with the suggestion and will proceed along these lines.
 
And as a reminder, the topics that we have for 13 April are:

• There was a secret meeting in the morning and she had to be there.
• For months I had been crying myself to sleep every night.
• It came in the mail

 
I hope to hear from you soon and will get back to you with a final decision and detailed process within a few days.
 
Joy
0417 065 351