Final May Open Workshop Day - Hurrah!

[normsk1963]

I think to write you have to face some demons. I am sure I have read that often in writers interviews. Fortunately I think it is in the Geordie personality to be unnervingly honest.

I hadn't thought about this photo in the way I described and it has been a eye opener to me to view it this way. A useful exercise in many ways.

Thanks Brett.

[Keith exD]

I will have to follow up on this in a couple a days, sorry about that. It's getting a bit late for me (22.05 EST) and I need to be up early tomorrow for a long day.

I'll have to do a voice/voices reflecting on the photo since I don't remember it being taken.

Finishing off the description my cousin is a girl and she's two years older than me. She is standing behind me. We're in front of a typical Victorian Sussex flint-faced cottage. It's Black and white and my mum or dad chopped our feet off in the photo, and it's a bit squiffy. Standard Kodak box snap.

Be back in a day or two, in the meantime let me say thanks Brett, it was a very good set of exercises and I have two poems out of it, one of which I definitely mean to polish and post on GW (Mumbai)

Cheers
Keith

[Brett]

Yes, Norm, I think demons do have to be faced at times. I hope the exercise was of some use and that over the last few nights you feel you have a piece or two to work on at a later date.

Keith - no worries, just glad you have taken part previously and still show interest. Right, got an image in my head (it won't be the photograph naturally but will serve).
I'm glad you have taken something from the exercises.

I've enjoyed this, I hope someone else fancies posting another workshop (I can join in then ) any takers?

All the best to all who took part from Thursday on.

Diolch yn fawr

Brett

[Sue]

The photo I'd use is of my grand-daughter, taken by my brother at my daughter's wedding. It's a sunny day and she is laughing at the camera, and wearing a white lacy hat.

Sue

[Brett]

Hi Sue,

And could anything come of that regards the exercise do you think?
I would never choose any wedding photos as I am usually to be seen somewhere wearing some poor lady's hat

Cheers

Brett

[Sue]

Oh yes, I think so. Just deciding who the voices should be.

[Brett]

Looking forward to it.

Cheers

Brett

[silvershoes]

Hey Brett; I failed miserably on the challenge last night - but was very interesting idea. I'm blaming my poor choice of image, rather than lack of imagination!

Have really enjoyed following these. I'm going to have a go at this one (I had a few ideas for the first but haven't really scribbled much down).

The image that immediately sprung to mind when I read the start of this is an old slide of of me and my sister. I guess I'm about 2-and-a-half t three and my sister about one. I'm riding a plastic tractor in the garden, and my sister, whose all round and chubby and prob only crawling is sat in the trailer that hooks on the back clearly chortling away at being pulled along. Only by some miracle either my mum (or more likely my dad) has taken the picture just as her leaning back in the trailer has caused it to unhook. You can it unlinked, and the clear air between them. We used to love looking at it as kids. And hearing the carnage that followed - my sister crashing backwards on her head and screaming the place down while I carried on my steady process round the garden on a plastic tractor!

I think for dialogue it's hard to convey - as obviously people in the photo are only just talking or pre-speech. But it might be interesting to do from those outside the frame?! Is that allowed.

Emma x

[Brett]

Hello Emma,

Yes - the exercise did state that the dialogue could be by those reflecting on the photo at a later date, so please scribble away.

Cheers

Brett

[Sue]

I tried to do this dialogue with no clues as to who the speakers are, just the speeches themselves.



The White Hat

• Do you remember when this one was taken? It looks like it was a beautiful sunny day. And I love the hat.
  
• I had to wear the hat because my hair was only just growing back. It was so my head wouldn't get sunburned.
  
• Who took the picture? Was it your granny?
  
• Perhaps. I don't remember. It was Mummy and Daddy's wedding and we all had special cameras that Mummy bought. I had one by my plate and I used it all up, and then everybody let me finish off their cameras too.
  
• Have you still got those pictures?
  
• Photographs! Silly billy! I think they might be in a box downstairs. Mummy says you could tell which ones were mine because they were all looking up people's noses.
  
• Who else was there? I bet you can't remember who you played with.
  
• I can! My friend Cody was there. He has glasses. He had a suit with trousers he could walk on the ends of, and a red tie, and we walked up to the front together with flowers and red ribbons for Mummy and Daddy.
  
• I bet you two looked very sweet.
  
• Mummy said we were terminally cute. I took lots of photographs of him. I liked Cody, but I don't see him much any more. Mummy and Daddy and me, we bought a new house and I think his Mummy doesn't know where we live.
  
• That's a shame.
  
• Well, it's all right really, because I play with Caitlin and Fion now, sometimes. They go to my school. And Cerys. Cerys lost her hair too, so we both looked the same. Except I lost mine twice and now it's growing back aGAIN, and she still hasn't got any hair. But I miss Cody.
  
• How about drawing a picture of Cerys?
  
• No.
  
• And then we'll write a story about you and Cerys playing?
  
• No, I don't want to, not really.
  
• Are you tired? We can stop for a while, and you can have one of these biscuits Mummy left for you.
  
• I don't want one. Thank you.
  
• Or a drink of milk?
  
• No. I'm not hungry.
  
• How many biscuits are there in the tin, then? Have a look and count them.
  
• There are four. Mummy always leaves four.
  
• If we share them, how many will we have each?
  
• Two. That's a baby question, we do it every week. I'm going to copy this photograph now, and write about it. I'm going to say I'm better, like I was in the picture, and I'm not going to be poorly ever again. Do you think if I do that, perhaps Cody will come to see me?