Telling their story

It is my second and newest creative writing group this afternoon; I know two of them can’t come so there will only be four of them so I have to think of plenty to do to occupy the two hours we are together. I don’t know them well enough yet to be able to know what their particular interests are, and where they want to go with their writing so I must make sure I have plenty to stimulate thought and discussion, and also promote some writing for our meeting next time.

I have used this photograph of a Victorian works’ outing before and was amazed at the stories my other group produced… so it will be interesting to see what is forthcoming this afternoon. I shan’t tell them anything about the photo (not that I know that much) but I will ask them to look at the photo for a couple of moments and maybe jot down some thoughts about who these people are, where they are, and why they are there. Then when we have shared that I will pick out some of the characters and ask the group to think of some biographical details, names, ages, backgrounds, relationships with others in the group… friends, sisters, husband and wife? This obviously won’t take very long, but then we’ll talk about how this might stimulate some creative response and what that response might be.

Then at the end, which might seem a back to front way of doing things, I shall suggest to them that all sorts of things can be a stimulation to write… it could be a fleeting expression on someone’s face, an overheard conversation, a what if thought after an incident has been observed. That inspiration can then be transferred… so the look on the face of the man on the right of the picture could be a stimulus to write about a twenty-first century teacher in a staffroom, a commuter on a train, a guest at a party… it doesn’t have to be a story of a Victorian gentleman out with his workmates on a day trip somewhere on the Lancashire coast… he can be anyone and anywhere that they want… he can even be a she, it’s the expression which intrigues!