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Ideas for a writing group?
Weve started a writing group at Uni. (Hooray!). Weve had an introduction meeting and the first session is on Tuesday for two hours. I agreed to be second in command, so to speak but the boss is away at a book signing so Im in charge for a few weeks. (The boss is a mature student and had his own company at one point. He is also a professional ghost writers with I believe three books under his belt including a biography.)
The plan was to have one hour reading a text book and doing the exercises and then one hour reviewing each others work. We didnt realise how long each chapter was or that there was only a five minute exercise per chapter. This means we have an hour gap in which were not sure what to do. Weve already done introductions and know each others names and aims. Were planning to whizz over the chapter and then just sit there talking but really we want something more
creative?
Does anyone have any ideas what we can do as a group to fill the hour gap?
Comments
In our little group, usually 4 -6, we each read a piece of work, a short story or a bit of a longer work, then do a verbal critique. You can only do this with a small group, obviously.
Glad to see you're getting involved and settling in. You were a bit apprehensive as I recall.
(Any progress on the chick front?)
Try Googling writing exercises - but SM is right, there is no point in doing exercises if no feedback is given and you don't discuss how to improve on what has been written.
I'm confused, you mean there are textbooks for writing?
At the moment were going to skim read through the first chapter (subject :notebooks and diaries) and complete the exercises. That will take us about ten minutes and then were going to review each others answers. Then we have a gap of about forty minutes in which were not sure what to do. After a ten minute break were each submitting a short story and then reading it and reviewing it for an hour, ten minutes feedback for each piece
The feedback for the exercises wont that that long so were at a loss what to do. I agree with what has been said so far, perhaps find another exercise to do. I shall Google that now.
You could do something in the study of different literary movements/theories. Like, one session you could look at surrealism, another session you could look at romaniticism (if you study poetry as well) and so on. That's sure to broaden minds.
Most writers circles are populated, mainly, by surreal people, so it's just a matter of observation, rather than formal study.
e.g.Beforehand, on separate small pieces of card write down a variety characters (e.g doctor, mother, lunatic), places (cupboard under the stairs, outer space, the kitchen) and emotions (anger, love, surprise). Different colour card for each set. Shuffle up each set and hand out one of each colour each. Have a short time (10 mins?) for each person to write something inspired by their three cards and read them all out. (but don't force anyone if they don't want to.)
Or print out some interesting photos and do the same.
Absolutely not, lots of quick ideas are to be found in a textbook. No one person or even group of people, certainly students, could hope to contain the wisdom, experience and knowledge of good exercises to create and inspire some writing than could be found in a well-written textbook on the subject .
The exercise is just the catalyst - the creative spark that realises the idea is clearly not going to be defeated by taking the initial idea from a book.
Put a key on the table and ask them to write about the room/place/box that the key opens.
Tell them there's a lone shoe lying in the road - how/why did it get there?
Just give them a start sentence such as: There was a rustling sound in the bushes...
Ask them to write (first person) about a time when they were very very uncontrollably angry - and then rewrite the piece in third person.
You could swap jam making recipes.
Or you could try an alternative on some of the comments above ie one thing I've tried is
a) everybody writes three names of characters including ages on three small pieces of paper then puts them in a pile in the centre of the table
b) everybody writes three occupations which could be a job or a pastime eg hairdresser, or pianist on three small pieces of paper then puts them in a pile in the centre of the table
c) everybody writes three locations on three small pieces of paper then puts them in a pile in the centre of the table
(so you now have three piles of paper and the leader shuffles them all up within their piles)
d) everybody takes one from each pile
e) you have 10/15 minutes to write an opening of a story using those three prompts.