To get everyone into the Christmas spirit and help spark some ideas for their writing over the festive period, at last Monday's meeting of Watford Writers I ran a creative writing workshop, along with Helen Nicell. The idea was to have some fun with a few writing exercises designed to burn through writing blocks and get the creative juices flowing. With the ethos of there was no right or wrong way to do the exercises and that it was about exploring ideas and expanding boundaries, much fun and hilarity was had by all.
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| Tinsel on the Christmas Tree |
As always, I was awed by the talent and originality shown by the short stories and poems when they were read out to the group. It was also a lesson in what can be achieved in only ten minutes when you let it flow.
I would like to thank all of the Watford Writers who came along and participated with such good humour and who willingly gave of their writing talent and creativity.
So if you are feeling stuck and need a shove to get moving with your writing, why not settle down with a piece of paper, pen and an open mind and work through the exercises we did in the Workshop?
Please find the Workshop below:
Busting Through Your Creative Writing Blocks Workshop - Christmas Edition
If you have ever thought you were not
creative, are stuck on a piece of writing or cannot fill in the holes in your
plot line this is the evening for you.
What are we going to do in this workshop?
1) Write. It is a ‘hands-on’ writing workshop so you
will have plenty of opportunities get those words on the page.
2) There
are four separate exercises to undertake.
You will have ten minutes to complete each one, and after each will be
able to discuss and read out your work if you choose to.
3) Remember
there is no right or wrong way to approach these exercises – they are designed
to unleash your creativity.
Exercise
1:
What colour Christmas tinsel are you – red,
green, blue, silver or gold? Which of
the colours describes you best? Write a
piece of prose or a poem on the theme of your Christmas tinsel colour and why
it represents you? How does it make you
feel? What qualities do you share with
your colour? How do you reflect your colour out to the world?
Exercise
2:
You walk into Santa’s Grotto only to find it
empty apart from the headless corpse of an Elf.
Write the story of what happens next from your point of view and in the
first person.
Exercise
3:
Think of your favourite Christmas Carol or song. Write the story of the song in prose. Who are the characters? Where is the tension and conflict? Is there a moral, political, or spiritual
message that needs to be conveyed?
Exercise
4:
Think of a partner, relative or friend you
know well. Now write a story about them organising
a primary school Nativity Play from their point of view. Bring as much as you can of their character,
mannerisms and typical responses into the story.
I hope you enjoyed working through these festive writing exercises.
Happy Christmas to you all and a successful, prosperous 2017. May all your publishing dreams come true!
Tinsel on the Christmas Tree Image: By mattbuck (category) - Own work by mattbuck., CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=45902151
