Thursday 10 May 2012

Use Your Experience: Bead Roberts at the Lindum Scribes 2012

In August 2009 I was lucky enough to attend a workshop run by Bead Roberts,  see my write up at:  http://theonlyconsequence.blogspot.co.uk/2009/08/bead-roberts-at-lindum-scribes.html  so jumped at the chance to attend another workshop run by her.

This workshop - organised by The Lindum Scribes - was great for getting attendees to think of ideas for their writing. 

Bead started with the premise that all stories / novels require: Experience / Observation / Imagination and she asked us all to delve into our personal lives / memories and come up with tales to tell, which can then be used as the basis for a wider story.

The wealth of experience / imagination within The Lindum Scribes was, as usual, amazing.  We heard stories of 'Mattress Alley', beloved childhoods, wealthy upbringings and not so rich home lives.  We were treated to some wonderful images of the houses that people had lived in and the stories behind them.  It was great to have a variety of ages in attendance as it showed how things have changed over the last few decades.  We went from post war living right up to the present day.

As usual we were reminded of the need to include all 5 senses; which was good as this is something I do need to be reminded about!

Previous to the workshop I had already put together a list of 'Resources'; a breakdown of items that could be used to spark off ideas.  This includes all information stored in the loft; which includes most of the letters that anyone has ever sent me (still hoping an ex will become mega famous so I can spill the beans!), diaries I wrote while at college, information collected from previous jobs and studies, books on a million subjects, scrap books, not to mention my collection of 'writing' resources, as well as a mountain of photograph albums which always bring back old memories!!

Recently I saw a competition for a 400 word story.  The workshop certainly sparked off a number of ideas and I hope to have time to put together something to take to the next meeting of the Scribes in June.

The Lindum Scribes website also has a write up of the evening at: http://www.lindumscribes.org/EVENTS.htm

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