In June some of the libraries organise “The month of writing”. For the children they have afternoons where they’ll read them stories, Coderdojo where they teach older children different programming languages and many other writing related events.
Last friday I joined a writing workshop in Muiden by Martine Winkel. A group of six writers eager to learn how to use your creativity and tell a compelling story.
The introduction of yourself was the first assignment. Pick one thing you brought with you, describe it to the others and use it to tell something about you.
As the youngest of the group they might not have been too surprised when I picked my phone.
It is my connection to the world, my friends and it holds all the music I could ever listen to. But it is also one of my biggest distractions, waste of time and best procrastination partner.
And even though it often keeps me from what I planned to do it also helps my writing and creativity.
I love playing these interactive stories where you read a book as if you are the main character and get to “choose” her path. In the end you know it follows the original book so the outcome will be mostly the same. Still it taught me about plot, continuation and character arcs.
After we all read our introductions she placed postcards on the table and we had to pick one that spoke to us.
Mine was Pat and Mat (buurman en buurman), two neighbours and best friends, who try and improve their houses together. They stood in front of a green screen holding a cooker.
She wanted us to start describing the picture and feel/see where that would lead our writing too. I ended up writing about my dreams and wishes for my future kitchen. That I feel like that is my domain. The place where I take care of my home, my husband and what I believe is the heart of a home.
Time flew by and to be honest what is two and a half hour? In the end she got out the story cubes for some quick rounds of making up stories/fairy tales together by completing 6 sentences:
1. Once upon a time…
2. Every day…
3. Untill one day…
4. Because of that…
5. Because of that…
6. Untill eventually…
And they lived happily ever after
This was a lot of fun as I love fairy tales. Crazy ogres destroying villages just to get to a magical beer mug or injured people on the street miraculously healed.
All in all it was a wonderful morning. I had a lot of fun with the assignments. It did pull me out of my comfort zone as I had to write about myself where as normally I write fiction. The tasks brought out more that I’d expect a seemingly simple assignment would do. It brought depth and emotions into the story and that made the story a compelling one we can all relate to.
