We met last night at Delicious, Bangsar Village. A group of newbie writers who had "graduated" from my Getting Started - Finding the Flow Course. Most didn't know each other as they'd done the course in different venues at different times. But there was an easy camaraderie between them and new friendships were formed. We ate and chatted. And then it was down to business.
We did a couple of timed exercises from Roberta Allen's The Playful Way to Serious Writing - an excellent springboard for creativity. We alternately scribbled and then read out our work round the table. Some excellent characters and situations appeared and deserve their place in finished pieces.
It was great how at ease everyone in the group felt with each other - there was no shyness or hestitation or inner critic voice forcing apologies.
I plan to make these meetups a regular thing. I can't just get people writing and then abandon them! I have plans for more "modules" to build onto this first one now that I've seen how it works. Just need to take some time out to work on the materials.
Hope too that these new writers begin to find writing-buddies and organise their own sessions.
Thanks, Ben, for the lovely chocolates! Good luck with the Chocalicious venture! (Opening soon in Bangsar Village.)
8 comments:
congratulations!
i ditto dz! also - am thinking of joining the Birkbeck College Creative writing class either this autumn or spring. Fees not too bad for 10 weeks or so. I think i seriously need it. and reading your blog certainly inspires me.
Sharon, it felt really good to sit with a group again to write. Thank you so much for doing this.
And the Top 5 most memorable characters of the night:
1) Pot-belly 1 (the one with the Rolex)
2) Pot-belly 2
3) Sexy miss-dialer
4) Man with fat thighs and peacock short pants
5) Muscular Chest (or was it the sadistic chest-hair puller)
I'm all eyes. O_O. Say, would you accomodate someone hard-of-hearing?
Thanks dz!
Kak Teh - am jealous of course! I may teach but I also want to do courses! do you have a website for that course so I can drool at leisure??
Fiona - there were some great characters set free to roam the world last night. The best moment was when the Mat Salleh man turned to stare at Rajika reading out her naughty bits!
Yvonne - hard of hearing is not a problem. I really hope you can join us before long.
We should do it more often! Man with fat thighs in short pants revealing a peacock tattoo doesn't happen at home, somehow. These kind of characters lurks at public places, waiting for someone to adopt them!
sharon I believe this is the link:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/ce/subjects/creativewriting/creativewritingcd
failing that go to www.bbk.ac.uk and look at the short courses on offer. there's also one online course. (not that u need it!)
Oshun - and don't forget - the muse works best in crowds. Did you notice the way that images from each other's writing hopped from notebook to notebook? In time you guys are gonna organise your own meet-ups because provided you have a prompt or two in your hands, you don't need me anymore.
Redundancy is the best gift a teacher can have. ;-D
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