MARGARET JOHNSON'S WRITING GROUP~~~4th June 2015
Today we visited Norwich city to attend a creative writing group organised by a published author Margaret Johnson. We used our car to drive to Norwich and parked at the Park-and-Ride centre situated at Norwich airport. We then took a bus to the city centre and took a short walk along Prince of Wales road to the office where the writing session was to take place. After signing in we met our tutor who proved to have a very pleasant personality and spent a few minutes showing us the facilities and we were able to make ourselves a hot drink. After some small talk and a few minutes our fellow students began to arrive. We were introduced to four other budding authors, as far as I can remember Joy sat next to me and there was one other male on the course Etienne, also a lady named Melanie and another lady who introduced herself as Rita.
We were paired off with the person sitting next to us and we were asked to get to know them by finding out two objects that they could not live without. Joy came up with a garden trug used to push her tools around the garden and her business diary. My choices were my computer which I class as essential and my garden spade that I use daily on the allotment. We were also asked to find out exactly what we wanted to get out of the course. Everyone then revealed the results of the conversations to the rest of the group. The differences were fascinating and everyone was more relaxed with each other at the end of this exercise.
Margaret, the tutor then produced a large box of buttons and spread them out on a cloth in the middle of the table. We were asked to select a button with the person who we had conversed with in mind and present the button to them, we were asked to write a few words on the button when it was given to us.
Then Horror of Horrors ~ I accidentally tipped a glass of water all over the table and there was a short interlude where a clear-up operation went ahead. My cool was dented, but certainly not shattered.
I received a bundle of seventeen buttons and my first thought was how good they would look on my sports shirt. I continued to write my thoughts and when it came to my turn to read my thoughts aloud, I was very pleased with the response I received. We were then treated to a surprising variation of interesting thoughts on various shaped and coloured buttons.
Margaret then read a list of famous writers negative thoughts on the writing process, we were asked to write down our own personal negative thoughts on the writing exercise. I had difficulty with this as my only problem is finding time to devote to writing.
We were the introduced to something called the "Reticular Activating System", this is where you turn a negative thought into a positive thought and repetitively twist the negative reaction into a positive reaction. I was advised to set a boundary and stick to the times daily. This was a fascinating piece of psychological mind altering and could prove very useful in many other areas. For a further example when you get a negative thought such as, I can't do this ~ replace the can't with a can. Another great piece of advice was to someone who worried about their spelling. Employ someone who can spell to check the work! Obvious but it generated a ripple of assent.
We then had a short break for refreshment and on our return to the classroom, Margaret laid out a selection of an amazing variety of hats on the table. We were then asked to select a hat and write about the person who would wear it. I chose a deerstalker variation of hat and wrote my thoughts on a man who worked on a large estate, possibly a gamekeeper. Having read our conclusions out to the rest of the group and marvelled at the wonderful responses people came up with, we were then asked to write about our individual from their perspective starting with the word "I". My personal offering was pretty bland even to the point of my Margaret terming it slightly boring as there was not enough character built into the character. In other words there were not enough blood and guts, just a story. I defended my character by responding. "It's early days yet". We were then presented with a homework assignment in the form of a selection of questions to be used to build a character.
Today we visited Norwich city to attend a creative writing group organised by a published author Margaret Johnson. We used our car to drive to Norwich and parked at the Park-and-Ride centre situated at Norwich airport. We then took a bus to the city centre and took a short walk along Prince of Wales road to the office where the writing session was to take place. After signing in we met our tutor who proved to have a very pleasant personality and spent a few minutes showing us the facilities and we were able to make ourselves a hot drink. After some small talk and a few minutes our fellow students began to arrive. We were introduced to four other budding authors, as far as I can remember Joy sat next to me and there was one other male on the course Etienne, also a lady named Melanie and another lady who introduced herself as Rita.
We were paired off with the person sitting next to us and we were asked to get to know them by finding out two objects that they could not live without. Joy came up with a garden trug used to push her tools around the garden and her business diary. My choices were my computer which I class as essential and my garden spade that I use daily on the allotment. We were also asked to find out exactly what we wanted to get out of the course. Everyone then revealed the results of the conversations to the rest of the group. The differences were fascinating and everyone was more relaxed with each other at the end of this exercise.
Margaret, the tutor then produced a large box of buttons and spread them out on a cloth in the middle of the table. We were asked to select a button with the person who we had conversed with in mind and present the button to them, we were asked to write a few words on the button when it was given to us.
Then Horror of Horrors ~ I accidentally tipped a glass of water all over the table and there was a short interlude where a clear-up operation went ahead. My cool was dented, but certainly not shattered.
I received a bundle of seventeen buttons and my first thought was how good they would look on my sports shirt. I continued to write my thoughts and when it came to my turn to read my thoughts aloud, I was very pleased with the response I received. We were then treated to a surprising variation of interesting thoughts on various shaped and coloured buttons.
Margaret then read a list of famous writers negative thoughts on the writing process, we were asked to write down our own personal negative thoughts on the writing exercise. I had difficulty with this as my only problem is finding time to devote to writing.
We were the introduced to something called the "Reticular Activating System", this is where you turn a negative thought into a positive thought and repetitively twist the negative reaction into a positive reaction. I was advised to set a boundary and stick to the times daily. This was a fascinating piece of psychological mind altering and could prove very useful in many other areas. For a further example when you get a negative thought such as, I can't do this ~ replace the can't with a can. Another great piece of advice was to someone who worried about their spelling. Employ someone who can spell to check the work! Obvious but it generated a ripple of assent.
We then had a short break for refreshment and on our return to the classroom, Margaret laid out a selection of an amazing variety of hats on the table. We were then asked to select a hat and write about the person who would wear it. I chose a deerstalker variation of hat and wrote my thoughts on a man who worked on a large estate, possibly a gamekeeper. Having read our conclusions out to the rest of the group and marvelled at the wonderful responses people came up with, we were then asked to write about our individual from their perspective starting with the word "I". My personal offering was pretty bland even to the point of my Margaret terming it slightly boring as there was not enough character built into the character. In other words there were not enough blood and guts, just a story. I defended my character by responding. "It's early days yet". We were then presented with a homework assignment in the form of a selection of questions to be used to build a character.
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