Last night was the tenth and last meeting of my Wordplay class -- and what fun it's been! The students have written to prompts of taste, touch, smell, sound, and sight, as well as situational prompts -- a family gathering, a significant loss, an unexpected fork in life's road. They've written pieces that began with a dictated sentence: "Looking back, ___realized that he/she should never have . . ." or "If only . . ." And the writing has been consistently good. Funny, touching, insightful -- amazing what got produced in brief (5, 10, or 15 minutes) bursts of writing.
Last night they each brought in a prompt for the class. They were all good but one of the most unusual was this. Write a story in 26 sentences. The first sentence begins with A, the second with B, and so on.
I couldn't believe how well the resulting stories flowed. I doubt that anyone reading them would have noticed the pattern if they hadn't been told of it.
Dialogue worked quite well: For example: "Again I tell you, I'll do it!" "But you never-" "Can't you hear me saying I'll do it?" "Don't promise something you can't carry out." "Extra effort is all it'll take -- that and a little luck." "Foolish to count on luck . . ." "Great, thanks for the vote of confidence, pal." If you keep on, it turns into a story. There were some hilarious ones. Folks said they enjoyed the class -- the spontaneity, the lack of homework or stress. One noted that it was good practice in reading your stuff aloud -- something that's difficult for some folks but this good humored, non-critical gang was a great place for a shy reader to gain confidence. Great Smokies Writing Program has asked me to offer a 5 week version of the class this summer. (Information HERE.) I'm looking forward to it!
