Creative Writing at the BAM

I shall be leading an online creative writing session form 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. today at the BAM – Bury Art Museum. We shall be working through a variety of exercises and using some of the material from the BAM web site.

Here is a taster exercise:

The Haiku Exercise

Sit by a window in your home and look and listen for ten minutes. Make a list of what you see or hear. Or maybe even feel or smell.  Jot down a few words and phrases as you are observing. You can write down odd thoughts as well. Don’t worry if you can’t write all of the time. 

Here are some words and phrases I found earlier by looking out of my window:

TV aerial at jaunty angles, trees fluttering, old trees with TPOs, next door’s roses dancing, blotches on the brickwork, radiator creaking, clock ticking,  whoosh, grey clouds, old brick wall, warmth on my toes,  in June, Metrolink, that woman, isn’t she locked down? Some red trees, near the flats, that’s the graveyard, ping pong, an email arrives, aeroplane, are those leaves yellower? Clock on wall, satellite dish, rumble rumble, tick tock, tick tock, measuring time, PVC, plastic doors, lamppost looks like Narnia, blackbird flies   

Writing Haiku

•      A haiku is a short poem consisting of three lines.

•      The first line has five syllables

•      The second has seven syllables

•      The third has five

•      There is some sort of shift often between the second and third line. 

Some examples

•      Five syllables:

–     Old trees fluttering

•      Seven syllables

–     Are those leaves there yellower?

•      Five syllables and change

–     Trees with red leaves dance.   

old TV ariels

 stuck at jaunty angles mock

 satellite dishes

radiator creaks

clock on wall tick tock tick tock

measuring out time

Follow up work

You can write a lot of these. Some you may throw away. Some that you think work really well you can put in a notebook and collect.  It’s also fun to make them into cards, wall hangings, coffee mugs, mouse-mats, tote bags, calendars, and many other items. 

Try https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/ or https://www.cafepress.co.uk         

We’ll be working our way through six projects and having a follow up session next Wednesday form 4.00 until 5.00.

Work will be show-cased later at the BAM and on this blog.   

If you’d like join us, use the contact form here and I’ll send you the links.