Writing Workshop – The girl and the jam jars

Posted by Josie on Oct 24, 2011 in Creative Writing, Writing, Writing Workshop | 7 comments

She sat in front of two jam jars, one smelling faintly of pickled onions and the other so old she couldn’t even remember what had been in it. With looped lines she wrote two labels and stuck them on, one on each: Missing and Found. And then she sat with the pen in the end of her mouth and thought hard.

With a sigh, it was easy to write the first one, her hand moving to fetch a slip of paper she had cut, writing in careful, neat capital letters, folding the paper to drop it into the Missing jar. Best to get that one out the way, and no need to dwell, was there really. Those thoughts had been thought before. She could bury it under other things missing, to help forget about it for a while. And after all, she doubted that particular aspect of her life would be missing for that long. “You’re just in there temporarily, okay?” she said aloud, reaching for another slip of paper. Right, what else was missing? She prodded the word in her head, but found it unbudging. Words sometimes like to take on the character of resistant old toads, she had found, so she shrugged, fair enough, we’ll come back to that one then.

Writing Workshop: Collected Glances

Posted by Josie on Oct 10, 2011 in Creative Writing, Writing, Writing Workshop | 9 comments

I am a natural collector, a hoarder of treasures. Not things that usually cost much, thankfully, but buttons and old keys and things I find on the pavement. I can’t walk past conkers without picking them up, or especially vibrant leaves, or pebbles or snail shells – my pockets are always full, the top of my piano always a shrine to my wanderings about. Mostly I love things that look like they have a story.

With my space to myself I’m becoming a braver collector.  I dream of shelves of mis-matched tea cups, walls full of old frames with nothing in them, glass jars filled to the top with whatever I’ve thought to put in them. I want to fill my house with stories.

But if I could collect anything, if such things were possible, I would collect glances.

You know, those brief looks that people throw when they think no-one is looking. Each one a whole story in itself. And in a way, I do collect them. I watch for them and my little internal camera goes click. Some are slow and dawdling, others move so fast you would miss them to blink. You see them in the eyes of people gazing out their car windows in long queues of traffic, some vacant, lost somewhere else far away, fingers idly tapping on the steering wheels, others riddled with frowns and frustration with clenched grips at lateness and deadlines and don’t get so close, will you? You catch one in the sudden confused pause of a woman in the supermarket as she tries to remember what on earth she came in for. Another caught as a girl walks along the pavement with her arms folded around her thin chest, eyes to the floor, earphones plugged in when suddenly her eyes lift to the sky, in sudden response to the surge of a song or the line of a lyric as she flashes a smile, her whole face changing.

Writing Workshop Prompts – Collections

Posted by Josie on Oct 5, 2011 in Writing, Writing Prompts, Writing Workshop | 2 comments

I know, late again. My unpredictable timekeeping makes me interesting and enigmatic though, right? Definitely NOT annoying? You can blame the Fibro for Monday’s lateness (Josie swallowed by a post-MADS black hole, urgh) and THIS for yesterday’s (SO EXCITED) but look, I’m here I’m here!

So then. What are we going to be writing about this week?

(For anyone unfamiliar with my Writing Workshop, have a read all about it and browse old workshops here, or if you’re an old hand at this you can started.)

Prompt

This week I want to hear about your collections. (no prizes for guessing where that idea came from)

Tell me about what you hoard, what you collect. Describe it to us, what is it about the things you collect that you love and that draws you to them? Tell us stories behind the things you’ve collected. Where did they come from? Do you know their history? Describe one item, or five, or ten, or whatever you want. What would you collect if you had the spare cash? 

Writing Workshop Prompts – What Today Meant

Posted by Josie on Jul 4, 2011 in Moments, Writing, Writing Prompts, Writing Workshop | 1 comment

Morning you lot. Hope you’ve all had a good weekend. I have a small, naked pirate on my lap as I type and something smells funny in my kitchen, so all normal here.

While I go and have a read of all your entries from last week, it’s time for you to start thinking about your next one – this week’s workshop is going to be based on a post I wrote yesterday about finding beauty…

(For anyone unfamiliar with my Writing Workshop, have a read all about it and browse old workshops here, or if you’re an old hand at this you can carry on straight to the prompt.)

Prompts

What made you feel alive today? What made today mean something?

Write about a moment, a thought, something you did, something that happened to you, something somebody said to you, that made you stop for a moment. It doesn’t have to big or impressive, just one thing that left you different because of it. Something that felt significant, beautiful, or that just made you feel something. It doesn’t have to have made you feel good, not all days bring us that, but it needs to have touched you.

Try and capture it and pin it down with the words you use.