For what seems like the first time in ages, I actually managed to work on three different things yesterday. I started with New Contexts: 5 and began reading through long-listed pieces to decide whether they would go in the anthology or not. Expecting it to be difficult, the process proved surprisingly easy, with me struggling to decide over a very small number. The work continues today.
I also managed to draft just a little bit of ‘Z’. It felt good to be out from the shackles of the longish episode I mentioned yesterday and back into other characters.
But the highlight of the day was the ‘Write-on Ripon’ session in the afternoon and the exercise I ran; it was called ‘Through the looking glass’. Here’s what we did:
First, on three separate cards each person wrote two things you might reasonably find in a sitting room or lounge, and one colour. Then the cards containing items and colours were shuffled into piles (there were ten of us, so 20 items and 10 colours), and people chose two items and one colour at random. It was of course possible that someone could draw one of their own cards, but that was okay.
People were then given fifteen minutes to write a piece of prose based on the scenario of them standing outside a building and looking into a sitting room through its window. They had to include both items and the colour somewhere in their narrative. There was no specification on the kind of dwelling they might be looking into.
Sound easy?
Well, because the exercise was all about practicing writing description, there were some additional rules: no characters in the piece, no dialogue, no movement, no narrative voice i.e. no ‘I’ and no judgement or emotion from the narrator. Just what was seen.
Some people managed splendidly well. Others simply couldn’t and flouted the rules – which, you might argue, rendered the exercise pointless for them. ‘Self-insertion’ was unavoidable for a few! We ended up with 10 very different pieces, a number of which read like the opening to a longer story.
The whole session was very lively and thoroughly enjoyable. I love these sessions which often take people outside their comfort zone and can give rise to some really good writing which often surprises the people who produced it!
Nothing so extravagant today however. NC:5 and ‘Z’, most likely – though you never can be sure…
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Links: (books for sale on Waterstones.com, Amazon (US), Amazon (UK), Barnes & Noble etc. Some e-books also available direct from Coverstory books.
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Ian Gouge - Writer 