Tag: christmas

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Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good… write!

A very Happy Christmas to you all from Island Writers!

Here are some sprinkles of Christmassy writing inspiration to keep you all going over the break – because you won’t have anything else to do, right?

These are of course totally optional, but I’m sure some of you would enjoy a few writing prompts to work on. Anything to get out of the washing-up!

  • Make a list of words and phrases including ‘Christmas’.
  • You or your characters are snowed-in unexpectedly on the day before Christmas Eve without some important things – gifts? food? booze? decorations? electricity? your guests? – How does Christmas turn out?
  • A present wrapped in gold.
  • A family has been invited to spend Christmas in Australia. Will they go?
  • Find something on the doorstep on Christmas morning.
  • What’s the significance/history of the items on your Christmas tree?
  • The worst gift turns out to be the best gift. Why?

Have an enjoyable Christmas and we’ll meet up in the New Year.

There’s no meeting on New Year’s Day, so the next Island Writers meeting is on Tuesday 15 Jan 2019, at Ryde Library, 7pm-9pm.

Let’s make 2019 our best writing year ever!

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Dreaming of a Write Christmas

We’ve had our last meeting before Christmas, and it was a great laugh! Good to see so many of you turned up at this busy time of year, even though some of our members are away.

We started by pulling crackers and writing a piece about one of the items we found inside. Then I asked you to write about a childhood Christmas – not necessarily your own childhood. That produced an interesting variety of poetry and prose, although a lot of you chose some rather gloomy stuff. I began to feel quite guilty that my worst Christmas problem is that advent calendars aren’t as exciting as the good old days! 

Let’s be honest, none of us experience the Hollywood idealised Christmas of rosy-cheeked carol-singers tramping through the snow, or happy children sitting beside log fires, opening beribboned parcels containing wooden toys. I doubt if anyone ever did!

The fact is, as Erica pointed out, writing about the ordinary doesn’t grab most readers’ attention. Adding conflict to the mix can create a stronger piece of writing. 

And every Christmas there are many people who don’t get the modern ‘TV advert’ equivalent either. We’ve all seen it, of course, as Mum brings in a platter of gleaming golden turkey to an appreciative gathering of family and friends. Bev’s story of homeless children in a hostel, with ham sandwiches for their Christmas dinner, showed the other side of the coin: many people are dispossessed, sad and alone.

Showing a contrast between the expected joyful feelings of the season and the negative emotions and memories it can evoke in reality works well, but can be a bit of a downer!

Fortunately for those of a more cheerful disposition, there are other ways to add contrasts to a piece of Christmas writing. Comparing the present with the past or one type of celebration with another can have just as powerful effect.

Anyway, we soon perked up again with lots of yummy Christmas food and a couple of glasses of wine!

If you have some spare time for writing over the break, I’ve scheduled some festive writing prompts to appear on this blog on 22nd December. Have a very happy Christmas, and I hope all your conflicts over the festive season are purely fictional!

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Robins and other signs of merry festive jollity

Our last meeting had a theme of Birds, and I swooped on you as soon as you arrived and challenged you to create an alphabetical list of birds. Well done Peter for getting all of them except the X – although there is one, actually: the xenops, a rainforest bird.

Next, I asked you to choose a particular bird, and we spent a few minutes focusing on how our birds moved, sounded etc. and writing useful vocabulary words and phrases which could migrate into our pieces of writing. Then I egged you on to write about a person who reminded you of that bird.

And there was I, wondering if it would be too difficult! I must have been raven mad. You didn’t get into a flap, but all flew into action and hatched some interesting descriptive writing.

Well, Christmas is fast approaching and we are feeling festive! So after our meetup for friendly drinks at Yelfs (Tue 11th December, 7pm), our next Island Writers group session (on 18th December) will have a Christmas theme, with some yummy Christmas nibbles and Christmassy writing activities – feel free to turn up in an ugly Christmas sweater, silly tinsel earrings and elf hat if you get the urge!

Our assignment for next time is to create a piece of writing which includes a robin.

It can be poetry or prose, any length, or can be included in a longer project such as a novel or blog. Lucy’s already done hers – take a look!

As always, it’s optional, but if you haven’t completed your assignment yet, you might find this list of facts about robins useful.

See you on Tuesday 18th December at Ryde Library, 7pm-9pm.

PLEASE NOTE:

After Christmas, our next meeting will be on Tue 15 January 2019 – there will be NO MEETING ON NEW YEAR’S DAY.

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Christmas Drinks at Yelf’s

A Christmas message from Heather:

 

To all Island Writers!

You are invited to Christmas drinks on Tuesday 11th December 2018.

Let’s meet at 7pm at Yelfs Hotel, Union Street, Ryde.

There’s plenty of space inside and it’s quiet enough to hear each other speak!
We are such a warm friendly group so let’s get to know each other a little better and find out about the person behind the writing!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Warm festive wishes, Heather x

PS.  I know not everyone can do this date, I was going to offer an alternative but given that lots of us aren’t on the Facebook page, it would be difficult to communicate effectively between all of us.

I have decided to stick to the Tuesday which is the night that we usually meet and the majority of people are free. To anyone who can’t come, there’s nothing to stop us going out again!

If I don’t see you on the 11th have a magical and joy filled Christmas all of you and I’ll see you in the new year 🙂 peace and love

You can find Heather’s phone number on the Facebook page, or send a message via the Contact form.