Bev began our October by recommending a chapter from a memoir which a pediatric doctor described as "Excoriatingly beautiful and a punch in the guts at the same time.', Titled 'The Heaviest Pain in the World', the chapter was published recently in 'The Times' in the UK.  We spoke about how our general principle of being protective of ourselves in deciding what to share in class, but noted that this doesn't mean that we should never write about profound and deeply personal experiences.

October's icebreaker involved chatting with another person about memories of trains in our lives, a topic inspired by this photograph of the Flinders Street Clocks during our Melbourne (or visiting Melbourne) childhoods.  Ray's memories of incidents involving trains and childhood friends at the Villa Maria Children's Home in Ballarat were quite delightful!

A delicious range of ‘This (…….) Life‘ stories were on October's menu - 'This (Virtual) Life', 'This (Fortunate) Life', 'This (Nomadic) Life', 'This (Dangerous) Life', 'This (Retirement) Life', 'This (King and I) Life' ,  'This (Number 13) Life', 'This (Reading) Life' and 'This (Long) Life'.   Thank you, everyone, for serving up such intriguing and engaging stories for our shared delectation!

In his story, 'The Sky's the Limit', Barry described the overwhelming response of the Swanpool community to the opportunity to host 'The Bald Archy's' and the outcomes they achieved over a six year period before moving on the design and deliver the enormously successful SCRAP Art Exhibition.   Marg Nelson also shared a most engaging story describing her long anticipated achievement of a 'Bucket List' item in visiting the Grand Canyon in the USA.  

Coming up in November – ‘Triggers’ - Our task for our last session for the year is to keep a notebook close by in which we note any ‘triggers’ which lead us to reminisce about a time in our lives.   We may be talking to someone, watching television or a film, driving somewhere, reading a book.   We are to choose one to three of these and write about the memories evoked – keeping the total words to 500 – 750 words.   

The alternative topic, or perhaps one to keep for December, is ‘One Moment This Year’, The brief -  ‘Looking back on this year, what single moment stands out for you?  Whether it be loss, love, discovery or disappointment, share your unforgettable moment.’


Bev Lee

I promised to get back to you with the Benalla Festival's writing competition topic for 2022 - it has taken time to eventually discover that it's not on the Festival program this year.  This is such a pity, as although only a few of the group usually enter, it is a wonderful avenue for adult writers, also for the young people and children in our schools.   Perhaps next year!

Given a large air show is a feature of the Benalla Festival in 2022, also that a new course  'The Sky's the Limit' is being offered in 2023 to reflect Benalla's long association with aviation, our second topic is a repeat of the brief set for the 2016 Festival competition, 'The Sky's the Limit', prior to the world gliding championships in January 2017.  

"As part of the 2016 Benalla Festival, budding writers in Benalla Rural City are invited to enter a poem or a piece of prose on the topic ‘The Sky is the limit!’ This topic is based on this year’s Benalla Festival theme which celebrates Benalla’s long association with aviation. Your piece might be: 

• a bird’s eye view of our beautiful part of North East Victoria.
• about gliding in Benalla and the World Gliding Championships. 
• about our fascination with all forms of flight. 
• about the future possibilities with space travel. 
• about a time when you or someone else excelled at school, work or on the sporting arena. 
• about a time when your achievements exceeded expectations. 
• about someone who inspires you or has inspired you to always do your best. (This might be your mum, dad, grandparent, next door neighbour, teacher or sporting coach). 
• about organisations that help create a better community.

The possibilities are unlimited. The sky really is the limit!"

I've already received some stories for 'This (....) Life'!    The Brief:  “Create and develop a concept for a story drawing on something which is happening now or reflects on memories from the past”, for example,  ‘This (Downsizing) Life’ by an 80+ year old about planning to farewell loved home; ‘This (Number 8) Life’ about growing up as ‘Number 8’ in a family of nine children.  Stories ‘This (Adventurous) Life’ and ‘This (Fear of Heights) Life’ are among those written last year.

Finally, a reminder  to check out the ‘brief bio’ on your ‘Our Stories’ page to see if you would like to change it to better reflect your reason for writing stories, your intended audience, etc.  


Bev