The Writers’ Nook is a place where we, as a group, can provide a safe and positive environment in which to encourage one another and hone our own writing skills.
Christmas
This meeting will be a continuation of our session on practicing and evaluating our Presentation Skills. THIS WILL BE FOLLOWED BY our Christmas Party.
The Challenge over Christmas, should you be inclined, is to write a story, essay, or poem; truth or fiction; beginning with a title that contains one, or more, of the following words:
Beyond a doubt the
most unusual Christmas
episode
that anyone from a sheltered life
such as mine could
imagine.
Or give it a title that contains the antonym of one or more of these words, above.
Responses and Stories
My Magic Christmas by Siv Pettersson
Over and Off, a wee story by Karen Lesli
Siv, My Magic Christmas: Excellent writing! This is a very strong story. I suspect that one reason it’s so strong is because you were forced to keep the number of adjectives and adverbs down to a minimum because you were forced to keep it to a maximum of 300 words, which made every word important. Another reason it’s so strong is because you pulled at our heartstrings. That makes it dramatic and you pulled us right in. (By the way, this is a great introduction to the theme of our next meeting which is exemplary use of adverbs and adjectives. Not overdone — well done!)
Karen, Over and Off: Did you ever read Yann Martel’s short story about a head. It was already off, and was being served on a platter. It’s as crazy as this one, and written with just as much finesse. Very crazy. I love it. The only suggestion I would have is the words “at least no noticeably” seem like they should be “at least not noticeably”. Well done, this wee story.