My Attempts At Creative Writing
During the first lockdown I enrolled in a virtual creative writing course run by the University of Bristol. Until then all my writing had been just me writing without any formal instruction since I studied English at school.
It is true I have always loved English literature & love a good book. Writing one might be another thing all together.
Getting it Down on Paper
It was great to listen to the tutor describe the various methods that you could use to write a story. I had not realised that such exercises existed & it was interesting to see how a group of people approached the same task.
Coffee is a great way to fire up the brain when sitting down to write I have discovered. It certainly seemed to help keep the fingers tapping on the keyboard during the long lockdown hours.
I must admit I felt a little intimidated by the others on the course as they all seemed to be far more accomplished writers.
Arguably the story of my life really as I never feel a little intimidated in new groups. Still they turned out to be really nice people & I found I did learn quite a lot from them.
Short Stories
Surprisingly I have had two short stories published in the past. The first as runner up in a newspaper competition and the second in a national women’s magazine. I won first prize in their competition.
The submission was a 600 word piece and I chose to use one of the exercises which involved writing about inanimate objects as part of the course as a starting point. The following was what emerged having given free rein to my pen as it were.
Use link to view or read pdf copy of the story