A small class but it a good discussion on writing.

Our Discussion:
This month our discussion was around the use of the exclamation marks (!).  There are three main uses – (1) volume, (2) forceful order, and (3) intensity of emotion.  Examples are:

1. Taxi!
2. Get out!
3. Because I said so!

One major hint is that using two or more is the social equivalent of laughing at your own jokes or could be taken as rude or juvenile.  And even singly, they should not be used in formal correspondence.

Our Challenge:

The challenge was around the use of the exclamation mark.  Those who were unable to attend the class have been sent the challenge as homework!

Some of our Stories:
​
We had our two continuing stories, plus some standalone stories.  One of these was an entry into the AWC Furious Fiction competition.  The stories are:

1.Research oversight:
This has been renamed as “Phillipa’s Journey” as it follows the growth of the chief protagonist learning how to fit in with the company where she is now working.  The author took the opportunity to review the writing for areas of inconsistency and confusion and discuss these with the class.

2.Everything Part 11:
We continue to learn more about Blake, a former prisoner turning his life around.  The author has been challenged to come up with an appropriate title for the full manuscript.

3.The Worry Window:
As the protagonist relaxes reviewing the list of “ing” activities completed, she sees someone walk past her window.  Investigating, all she finds are some footprints at the back fence, soon learning it was an opportunist thief running from the police.  She adds to her list of “ing” activities things like investigating, searching etc.  This was a great way to link the end with the beginning.

4.The Lift:
A post-apocalyptic story in a dystopian world where all of mankind has died.  A lift goes through its daily maintenance routine, irrespective of the lack of humans.
 
5.Current era response to CS Lewis
This piece was a response by a modern-day schoolgirl commenting on the ideas shared by CS Lewis in 1959 in response to a question from a schoolgirl.  It picked up things like never destroying a piece of writing but putting it in a drawer as it may be useful later.  This caused our modern-day writer to query how he backed up the documents.  A lot of fun to read.
 
Prompts:

The writing task for the 12 October class is to either review, improve, or complete a previous story
OR
 Use one of the prompts previously assigned for the September class:

• We heard the approaching horses (car) and hurried further into the woods.
• I was sure that I saw someone move past the window
• I had nothing left but thanks

Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
With many absences due to the time of year etc, it was a small class for August
.
Our Discussion:
We talked about various aspects of writing.  This included thoughts about sentence length (We have covered this before).  One tip from the Australian Writers Centre was to vary sentence length.  Short sentences punch. They create urgency. But if every sentence in a paragraph is short, the effect wears off fast, and the writing starts to feel choppy.  Longer sentences do the opposite, letting an idea breathe and develop, and carries the reader through a thought at a more measured pace.

The trick is variation. A long, flowing sentence followed by a short one creates emphasis. The contrast does the work!

Our Challenge:
A simple word challenge this month.  Often you can add just one letter to the start or end of a word to create a new word. EXAMPLE: Skate on this in winter / Asian staple = ICE / RICE

Some of our Stories:
There were two continuing stories, plus a couple of standalone stories.  We also looked at two entries for the Australian Writers Centre monthly Furious Fiction competition.  The stories are:

1.Research oversight:
The start of a story covered the actions of a new employee stepping in to fill a role she was not qualified for and did not research adequately.  The continuing story is the repercussions of her actions, with an opportunity opening up which she can either accept or leave with no reference.

2.Everything Part 10:
Another chapter in the life of a former prisoner making good after release and continuing to find his place in the community.  Part 9 had a sad twist, and this continues the impacts.

3.The Secret:
A secret that is thought to be “not the end of the world” is found to be more serious.
 
4.Phone:
Another secret discovered when a message was seen on a phone.
 
Prompts:
Our prompts for our class on 14 September are:

• We heard the approaching horses (car) and hurried further into the woods.
• I was sure that I saw someone move past the window
• I had nothing left but thanks

​Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
Our Discussion:
We continued the discussion around the use of punctuation, this month talking about quotation marks.  When looking at some of the more complex usages it can a bit confusing.  The biggest problem was around the differences between British and American standards.  For the simple usage, such as dialogue or quotations, it is much more simple.
 
Our Challenge:
We had a simple word challenge this month.  We needed to identify a word from the definition, with the word also being the name of a town somewhere in the world.  For example, for the definition “A type of rain boot or beef dish”, the answer was Wellington, NZ.                       
 
Some of our Stories:
Two of the class members are planning to enter the Friends of the Library writing competition.  One wrote three stories and asked for suggestions as to which one should be entered.  We looked at all the possible entries and provided feedback.  As these will be entered in the competition, I have not included details in this report.  But here are some stories we discussed.
1.Jack’s story:
This is about someone who does not like cat’s and his trials when caring for a cat while his partner is away.  The author sought ideas for how to finish the story, which was happily provided.  One idea was to add the cat’s perspective to the story.
2.The Sheep Detective and Outer Space:
Two stories, one inspired by the Sheep Detective film was a story about two lambs, hand reared and close friends.  The other was about a strange flying object hovering above the house.
3.The Singing Bus Driver:
A tour bus driver who entertains his passengers with songs when there was nothing to see or say.
4.Everything part 9:
Another chapter in the life of a former prisoner making good after release and continuing to find his place in the community.  This has a sad twist around one of his new friends.
5.Research oversight:
The start of a story about a new employee stepping into fill a role she was not qualified for and did not research the company adequately.  She pretends to have met with the owner of the company resulting in several errors in her actions.
 
Prompts:
Our prompts for our class on 10 August May are:

• I hoped they remembered the old adage, “Don’t shoot the messenger.”
• We’d never make it before dawn.
• Henry looked guilty.

​Joy Shirley

Three different, and interesting contributions for our June class.

From Andy a cleverly, and expertly written, writing lament in free verse.
From Chris, a story with a suffragette theme, interesting characters and clever attention to detail to set the scene.
From Jan, another chapter in the developing life of our protagonist, Blake as he adjusts to, and hopefully thrives in life in the country after several years in prison.

For July we will take as our prompts, the nine story starters set by the Benalla Friends of the Library for the 2026 Benalla Writing Competition.

Joy will email these or you can pick up leaflets from the library.   

Pat Treleaven.

An oblong shaped package had appeared on the writing table. Who had put it there? What could be inside? To get our creative juices flowing we had to think of different answers and many of them. As the package was slowly revealed we had to answer more questions such that by the time we had finished we had a group of characters, a set of action words, a list of objects and in putting them together we might have the start of a very interesting story.

We always have interesting stories when people share what they have written in the previous month. It might be the use of a picture cue and a specified list of words to weave a story just right for entry into the Furious Fiction competition or… writing in chapters such that we wait each month to find out what has happened to the characters we have go to know, or…exploring intergenerational relationships, and who doesn’t love a surprise ending? What about a fanciful character that you just might meet walking down Bridge St?

For next month, the prompt says: Open a book at random. Select a sentence/phrase and use this as your prompt. We had a little practice. Each person had to read the first and last sentence in a book just plucked off the bookshelf. Talk about interesting sentences?

The June session could be very interesting.                                          

​Pat Treleaven.

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
Our Discussion:
We continued the discussion around the use of punctuation, covering the little thing called a comma.  I am not sure we were not more confused afterwards.  This was because there are no hard and fast rules, but there are 10 common ways to use commas.  Some purist grammarians can be fairly strict about some uses.  Even so, some of the conventions need to be broken sometimes.  A great example is the need to include a comma in the sentence ‘Let’s eat Grandma’.  Without a comma after ‘eat’, we are planning to eat grandma!  So, we need the comma so it makes sense and reads ‘Let’s eat, Grandma’.
 
Our Challenge:
Having discussed some of the ways to use commas, we tackled a quiz on using commas correctly.  This added to the conversation as we recognised placement of a comma can depend on the context.
 
Some of our Stories:
It is always interesting when some similar themes come up in our writing.  This month a number of stories ended with an adventure about to start. 

1.I/June found the message in a bottle:
The message in a bottle was a popular topic, varying from finding the bottle in a backyard that had not been there the day before, a bottle found in the river and a bottle found at the beach.  There was also one around a large number of bottles washed up on the beach.  Here they were used to hide ‘dad jokes’ and encourage the local scouts to find them for recycling to raise funds. The scouts ended up taking over the role of cleaning up the beach after the summer visitors.

2.How could something like that happen?:
A story about a collision at sea after crews on both ships being distracted by an aerobatic display overhead.  A second story talked about a visit to Squeaky Beach and discovering the cause of the squeak.
​
3.The hand of fate stepped in to…:
This prompt was used in a story around a dream after watching an SBS series set on a remote Scottish island.  The hand advised the protagonist that she had relation buried on the island but not in the church graveyard.
The story of the former prisoner making good after release is continuing with him continuing to find his place in the community.  And we had a brief piece around the importance of punctuation, specifically on this occasion the use of a questions mark.
 
Prompts:
Our prompts for our class on 11 May are:

• I was wandering around the Op Shop when I saw it
• Confusion reigns supreme
• The hand of fate

 
I will be away for the May class, so I have also set a ‘prompt’ for the 8 June class:

• Open a book at random.  Select a sentence/phrase and use this as your prompt. 

 

​Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
Our Discussion:
This year I am planning to spend time looking at punctuation.  For the first month we discussed apostrophes.  Those little comma-like items that cover ownership or contractions.  We even discovered there is now a term for the often-seen incorrect usage of apostrophes at a green grocers.  The way you see signs reading “banana’s $2 Kg”.  This is a plural so no apostrophe is needed, and the practice is termed a “grocer’s apostrophe”.
 
Our Challenge:
Having discussed some of the ways to use and not use apostrophes we tackled a quiz on using apostrophes correctly.
 
Some of our Stories:
Our three prompts were equally popular.
1.The rail line stretched into the distance until meeting in a point at the horizon:

1. The end of an era with remote controlled trains moving from mine site to port
2. A train accident on the line

2.I was starting to wonder why dad didn't want me to do a DNA test:

1. After wanting siblings all her life, she finds half siblings she did know about
2. Did a father did not want a DNA test because was he guilty of a crime?
3. A young man becoming suspicious as to who his mother really is when his father refused a DNA test.

3.The incessant wind kept blowing all night:

1. Comfort during a storm by thinking about childhood blanket and soft toys
2. Connecting tidying after storms as a child and now as an adult visiting his childhood home
3. A storm leading to a stream of consciousness about parenthood

And finally, we had the continuing story of a former prisoner making good after release.
 
Prompts:
Our prompts for our class on 13 April are:

• How could something like that happen?
• I/June found the message in a bottle. 
• The hand of fate stepped in to…

Joy Shirley

We had a great start to our new year of writing, with new authors joining the class.  As part of introducing the class, I always share two statements:

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
Our challenge:
Our challenge was not really a challenge.  A set of topics was provided.  The class formed pairs and each member of the pair chose one of the topics and spoke with their partner on that subject.  This served both to extend the introduction process and prove you always have something to say – and write.
 
Discussion:
One of the issues we all have is finding time to write.  I shared some information from Isabel Allende.  She has written 21 books.  When she is ready to write a new book, she always starts on 8 January.  There was also an idea from the Australian Writers’ Centre to think about the “to not do” list that takes our time away from writing.  Out of this I suggested that we should allocate a specific day and time in the week to write.  Nothing should be allowed to prevent writing at this time.
 
Some of our Stories:
The Mystery of Jose Santana was around historical research which included the Bolivian War of Independence.  It was an easy read that flowed well.

The Last Straw was around a box of straws, given anthropomorphic attributes.  We learn about how various straws are used until there is only one lonely straw left.  Eventually someone searched for a straw – the last straw – for use in a school craft project.  A lot of fun.

Everything was not where he expected it to be is a continuation from last year.  It tells of how Blake, a recently released prisoner, comes to terms with a life of freedom.  There is more to come around Blake in the future.
​
Nothing to Laugh About tells of Lily believing she has been burgled.  Esme, her neighbour, watches as Lily checks her money is intact, hidden in a box disguised as a book.  Esme then solves the puzzle of the intruder – rescuing a kookaburra.  It was a great title.
 
Prompts:
We will be having a class in March, even though it is a public holiday.  Our prompts for the class are:

• The rail line stretched into the distance until meeting in a point at the horizon
• I was starting to wonder why dad didn't want me to do a DNA test
• The incessant wind kept blowing all night.  It got quite violent at times, as we could hear branches being torn from trees and tin banging on the old shed

​Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
Discussion:
No discussion point or challenge this month.  We discussed the stories written this month and then retired to a cafe for a celebration of another year of writing.

Some Stories:
Three of our stories this month were continuations of stories, at least one completing a short story manuscript written over ten months.

Another story involved what could be seen as an anthropomorphic piano.  Or at least it had a mind of its own.  It would not allow itself to be removed from an old house and survived undamaged when the house was totally destroyed by fire.

For “The Wild, Wild Woods”, a creature called a munchkin went on an adventure through the woods.  And there was the story of the release of a prisoner after thirty years.  The author is planning to continue the story of his life after release.
 
Prompts:
For members of the class who wish to write during the break, there are three new prompts.  Others may wish to continue or complete manuscripts that are underway.

• The last few years have been punishingly dry
• And that was when Isabel pointed to the log
• His ruminations ended with the sound of the first one.

 
And with another year coming to a close, we wish all our U3A colleagues a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.  We are looking forward to 2026 and more writing challenges. 

​Joy Shirley

​Discussion:

Our discussion this month was on formatting of paragraphs.  A question had been raised during our October class around the rules for writing paragraphs.  For report and academic writing there are some strict guidelines.  A paragraph needs to start with an introduction, followed by the details, and end with a summary.  All the information I found states these rules do not apply for fiction!

In general, start a new paragraph when there’s a shift in focus, idea, or direction.  Or you can start a new paragraph when there’s a shift in time or place.  There are three principles that can help:

1. Paragraphs manage content
2. Paragraphs amplify voice
3. Paragraphs help generate mood

For example, short sharp paragraphs can create a sense of urgency and tension; longer paragraphs can create a more peaceful mood.

Our challenge:

A quick challenge this month looked at some misheard or mistaken phrases that sound logical — but aren’t!  Some of these sound the same, but when written are totally different.  For example:

‘For all intensive purposes’ is actually ‘for all intents and purposes’
 
​‘Wet your appetite’ should be ‘whet your appetite’.  This is one where spoken there is no difference, but care is needed in written work.

Some Stories:

Coincidentally, with two of our stories this month, we were able to see examples where we were able to talk about how some paragraphing could help the flow of the story for the reader.  Both were based on phrases from a book.  One included a friend flying to Melbourne to support the eventual winner of the Melbourne Cup.  The other was of a young lady heading into the dark to find her missing partner.  This story was not complete, and the author has been challenged to complete the story rather than use one of the new prompts for our December class.

Another story was about automation of cars – fully self-drive with anthropomorphic characteristics.  The car was a bit of a character and somehow had been involved in a bank robbery while the owner slept.  The owner ended up in jail being accused of the robbery.

One contribution is a continuing story about a young widower with two children and a world renown pianist he and his children befriend.  The goal is for this story to be completed for the December class.

Prompts:
​
There are three new prompts, but the class have also been challenged to review stories written during the year that need to be finished as an alternative.

1. He had to get away from the trees.
2. As he opened the door, everything was not where he expected it to be.
3. He was busy painting graffiti on a wall when he heard the car approaching.

 
​Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
Discussion:

We had a discussion around prepositions.  Prepositions are small words that describe relationships with other words in a sentence, such as where something took place (in a park) or when (at noon).  Other common prepositions include under, up, below, with, around etc.

To help understand their use we looked at some examples of incorrectly used propositions.  For example, “he is good in English” should read “he is good at English”.  But it can always depend on context to determine what is correct.  For this example, the first option would be correct if the discussion was around the behaviour of a student in an English class.  No wonder it is hard to learn English as a second language!
 
Our challenge:

To follow up on the discussion we looked at several sentences to identify the prepositions.  For example:
The puppy is beneath the table
We went from Paris to Bordeaux
 
Some Stories:

We had contributions for three continuing stories this month.  One provided a happy ending for a young couple, with a focus on spring and flowers, having started with the smell of citrus blossom several instalments ago.  Another is just starting, and we are looking forward to how this will develop.

Another story talked about the impact office politics and bias can have on opportunities for promotion and treatment of staff.
 
Prompts:

No specific prompts this month.  Instead, the class have been asked to open a book at random and select a phrase or sentence to provide the inspiration for a story.


Joy Shirley

Discussion:
We have talked in the past about starting to write, how to handle writers’ block, and how not to think our writing is not worthy of sharing.  I thought it was worth reminding the class members, as well as covering these thoughts for new class members.  It also encompassed the issue of using the prompts – they do not have to be used word for word.  And how adding a title can strengthen the story.  Another way to find what to write is to use a news headline, but it is recommended not to read the news item, but to make your own story based on the headline.
 
Our challenge:
The focus this year has often been on words, the building blocks of writing.  This month was a very simple challenge with a list of names that can also be words in common (or not so common) use.  The class had to match the names with their definitions.  But to complicate slightly there were a couple of names that could have matched the same definition.
 
Some Stories:

The Speeding Car: There were two stories with this title.  One was a young lady using speed to address her anger after finding her fiancé in bed with her sister.  Her turmoil was well depicted by the speed of her driving.  The other tells of police monitoring for speeding cars only to find a young couple heading to the hospital as the wife was in labour.  The police helped deliver the baby on the side of the road, and the baby was named after the police.

Circumstantial Evidence: This is a great example of how a title can strengthen a story.  A bottle of poison is found some time after the apparently accidental death of a grandmother in a car accident.  Was the grandfather responsible for the accident, or was this coincidental?  There were some great descriptions and the use of the road name as “Mount Winding Road” was used to great effect, telling the reader the nature of the road in just three words.

Oyster Shells:  This is the start of a new historical “novel”, introducing the characters for the story.  It will be interesting to see how this develops.
 
Prompts:
I have given four prompts for our September class.  Here they are:

• Today I got the phone call.
• The jewels sparkled in the sunlight.
• Eyes that green were definitely dangerous.
• After four days, Jeff had had enough.

​Joy Shirley

Discussion:

The discussion this month was around inspiration for writing.  In other words, where do writers get their ideas.  There are several different ways this can happen.  Areas we touched on are lived experience, overheard conversations, discussion with friends, seeing something that does not fit, reading, an image (maybe from a dream), memories.  A major point discussed was that these could be combined to provide inspiration for a story/book.

Our challenge:

A simple word puzzle was our challenge.  Two definitions given, the first word started with ‘D’, and the second word dropped the ‘D’ to make another word. 
An example:  Good for thirsty people/Good for skaters -  Answers  DRINK/RINK

Some Stories:

Lucky Nana: A mixture of lived experience and a fairy tale for children with a bit of magic.

What was the Secret of the Building: written as a travelogue describing an overseas visit and wondering about the origin of particular building.

The Tree Fell: A young couple enjoying a country drive, exploring a dirt road.  Finding a deserted property, the man decides to explore.  When he does not return, she searches for him, finding him having fallen through a rotten floor, she has to struggle through a fallen tree to call for help.

The Box: a mysterious box that was a puzzle to open.  When eventually opened it revealed a missing weight for an old set of brass scales.

And there were two stories that were continuations of previous contributions.

Prompts:

Our July class will be run differently.  Stories will be shared by email as usual, but there will be no face-to-face class.  Instead, if any feedback can also be shared with the class via email.  The prompts for the July class are:

• The pig and dog were arguing about who was Tommy’s favourite.
• Now he was 18, an adult, he realised that something needed to change.
• The last thing I remember was…

 
Classes will return to normal in August.  And for a headstart, here are the prompts for August as well:

• A bottle containing a rare and deadly poison was found under the sink
• The car was speeding down the highway.
• Next item on her to do list – write that will.

​Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Discussion:

We had a brief discussion around what is called "Point of View".  This is writing in either 1st, 2nd or 3rd person.  And there are even two ways of writing in 3rd person.  I plan to revisit the topic in more detail in the future.

Our challenge:

Our challenge this month was a simple word puzzle. We were given definitions of words containing “may” (as the month is May) to find the correct word.  The following are three examples.
DEFINITION:

1. Chaos (6)            
2. Town leader (5)
3. Mexican civilisation who built pyramids (5)

ANSWERs:

1. Mayhem
2. Mayor
3. Mayan

Some of our Stories:

The most popular topic this month was the surprise pie, with four stories shared.
 
The Pie: This was a quirky story about a family of power and wealth who had been driven out by anarchists to a far north-west corner of Tasmania.  With a play on names like Chas, Cammy, Bill etc this was based on the royal family.

Four and Twenty: Another quirky story, along the lines of Animal Farm, with an underlying message.  A baker (a pig) is harvesting magpies with the help of Wiley Fox to make into pies eaten by introduced feral species.  When the magpies become scarce due to over harvesting, they move onto Sulphur Crested Cockatoos.  Eventually help is sought from the wise old owl, and the story ends with the humans harvesting ferals for making into pies for bush walkers.  Do you see the message?

There was also a story about a café which had young girls helping in it.  One introduces pies into the options which become popular.  And the final pie story was about how an eccentric rich man shows how his will is to be distributed by a large pie, divided into different sized pieces, depicting how the estate would be divided.  If they did not accept their share, it would go to the grandson who had the biggest piece already.  The final twist is that the grandson inheriting the most was adopted.

Other stories involved canoes and kayaks –an attempt to incorporate them into the training regime for recruits which went dramatically wrong; another a talented pianist realising kayaking was not the right thing to do when she needed protect her hands.

Prompts:

The prompts for the June class are:
 

• I found it in the second-hand shop
• What was the secret of this building?
• The tree lent over then slowly fell, crushing the fence

Joy Shirley
May 2025

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
​
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.

Discussion:   The building blocks of writing are words.  As we learnt in school, there are different types of words.  We discussed some of the more common of these: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctives.  Our discussion included talking about how the usage of words and construction of sentences have changed over the years.

Our challenge:   To further the understanding of the different types of words, we each wrote a sentence of what we had done during the day, and then analysed these to determine which were nouns, verbs etc.
 
Some of our Stories:
The Sale: A small incident that created a big picture, showing the contrast between country life and the big city.  It involved a story by an older lady of her visit to the bargain basement in sale time.  It contrasted her experience with the old style service at home – the city people were not her type of people.
My Kind of People: A story from two perspectives.  Two friends tell of their meeting, their early lives, and how one was able to rescue her friends from a coercive sect – not really her type of people.
Autumn: A character experiencing Autumn, his favourite season, after receiving unwelcome news about a cancer diagnosis that meant this would be his last Autumn.  After thinking about his relationships, family and friends, came acceptance and a decision to take each day as a bonus and enjoy what was left.
The Lake Visit: The reminiscences after the loss of a long-time friend, visiting one of their regular meeting places by the lake.  A beautiful setting was well defined, as were the experiences they had enjoyed during their lives.
A Marvelous Night: The story about a chance encounter and how it evolved.  He was an arrogant opportunist; she was a young professional.  He invites her to an AFL game, treats her to a fast food hamburger.  All these things she would not normally do.  The author talked about how the story took its own path, not how he had planned, with him finding he did not like the girl at all.
 
Prompts:
Our prompts for our April class are:

• The pie was a big surprise.
• Surely kayaking was easy.  I was sure I could make the distance – or so I thought.

• Painting the graffiti was the easy part – not getting caught was the challenge.

Joy Shirley

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar
Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
With the long weekend and several late apologies due to health and caring commitments, it was a small class this month.  I decided to skip the discussion and challenge and will cover them in April.
 
Some of our Stories:

The Dawn Ride: an updated version of the Lady Godiva story.  This time phone calls brought in several other riders to protect her from view.  What they did not predict was someone up a tree with a camera – the film went viral.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: An old man was accused of stealing several hens of different breeds.  He pleaded not guilty saying he had gone to the poultry farm for a couple of eggs.  The hens like him and had followed him home.  He had planned to return them the following day.  The magistrate decided there was no value in a custodial sentence, so he walked free.  Watching from her window she saw him ride off with the same number and breeds of hens following him.

Henry Looked Guilty: Arriving at an airport in Asia he took a taxi, supposedly to his hotel.  When another man got in the taxi, he became concerned.  When the driver stopped, he became afraid, but they had stopped to tie the boot closed.  He felt guilty about misjudging them…until he saw one of the men had a knife.  Was his original judgment of the men correct?

Bill Looked Up: A family story, that included two men caught in fog when out fishing.  They headed back to shore in the direction they hoped was right.  When the fog lifted, they found they were close to shore, but looking back they saw two large tankers.  What if they had been in the way of the tankers?

Chapter 4: this was the closure of an ongoing story where shots heard were actually dynamite explosions as two men were illegally exploring what they hoped was a gold seam.  They were arrested for various crimes.

Helena Reined in her Horse: A ride and an escape from a bushfire with good tension as the escape unfolded.
 
Prompts:
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Our prompts for our April class are:

• They were not her people. Helen realized she was lucky to still be alive.
• We didn’t know it would be our last sunset at the lake.
• Yellow leaves crackled underfoot.

Joy Shirley

We had a great start to our new year of writing, with new authors also joining the class.  As part of introducing the class, I always share two statements:

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar

Everyone has a story in them; it is up to each of us to find our story and write it down.
 
Our challenge:
Our challenge was not very easy but followed on from the second statement above.  Everyone was asked to write down two ideas for a story.  These may be used as prompts in the future, but the goal was to reinforce that we all have multiple stories we could write.
 
Discussion:
One of the issues we all have is finding time to write.  I shared some information from Isabel Allende.  She has written 21 books.  When she is ready to write a new book, she always starts on 8 January.  There was also an idea from the Australian Writers’ Centre to think about the “to not do” list that takes our time away from writing.  Out of this I suggested that we should allocate a specific day and time in the week to write.  Nothing will be allowed to prevent writing at this time.
 
Some of our Stories:
It was great to catch up on all the new stories.  These are just a few of them.
The Elopement: This was my story used to point out good and bad aspects of writing.  A young library assistant was tricked into helping with what she thought was an elopement but was really a planned kidnapping – fortunately it was prevented.  Issues such as a good flow and an ending that wraps up the story were discussed.
Not to be Budged: Two budgies planning an escape which did not happen because it was too hot
Pie in the Sky: An elderly couple on a trip discover a quaint café and end up buying it
Pumpkins: A powerful story about the conflict between the mind and the physical capability for an elderly lady who could not do anything for herself.
 
Prompts:
Our prompts for our March class are:

• Henry looked guilty.
• Bill looked up at the flag to check the wind.
• Helena reined her horse back to a walk. She needed time to think.

Joy Shirley

 The numbers were down for our December class, with many people caught up in end of year activities.  There was no challenge or discussion point this month.  Our plan was for quick discussion around our stories then a visit to a café for a celebration of our year of writing.
 
Some of our Stories:
Most of our stories used the same prompt – “He was digging in the garden when he found it”.  There were two that used one of the other prompts.
 
Homelands was about a young man planning to visit his grandparents’ homeland in Belarus after hearing stories of the war and their experiences.  He was trying to learn the language in preparation.
 
The Find was about some recent retirees volunteering to clean up the yard of an old school in preparation for extending a rescue shelter.  They find an old Time Capsule buried in late 1950s.
 
The Cream Bottle held a prediction of an upcoming adventure.  The bottle had been buried as a joke by the twin girls next door. 
 
Love’s Labour’s Lost was about digging up a damp spot in the yard and finding a buried box.  It was never opened as it was dropped back in the hole and the walls of the hole collapsed.  The centre of the story went back to Shakespeare’s time when he had buried a play that was considered too dangerous to perform.  Was the find the missing play?
 
Another story on “digging in the garden” was around a young man who had moved to Sydney and set up in his own home for the first time.  We were left hanging as to what he had found when digging in the garden  the class discussion shared various ideas as to what it could have been.  Was it a new career path because he enjoyed working in the garden?  Or is there another chapter to be written?  We will wait and see.
 
 
Prompts:
We will continue writing over the break, so three new prompts were provided.  We plan to share these stories in January, when new prompts will be provided for our first 2025 class in February.

• He must have been seeing things.  There were no such things as ghosts – or was there?
• She watched nervously as her partner opened the door of the café for their first day of business.
• He wiped the drop off his face and looked up, seeing the damp spot on the ceiling.

​Joy Shirley