- 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
- 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
- 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”.
Joy Shirley