12 January 2025
Posted by Alice Flynn
We're Building A Town!
Today we started a new semester in our online group Writing for Page and Stage and we’re building a town, no planning permission needed!
After getting to know each other a little bit and sharing what everyone would like to gain from the coming creative term ahead, we began exploring landscape.
We started by looking at where ideas come from, what Triggering Towns exist within us – after Richard Hugo’s chapter, Assumptions, in his text on writing: The Triggering Town. Through reading the assumptions Richard makes about an imagined town, people shared they were excited by the wildly contradictory assumptions that seemed to exist at the same time. People noted the micro and macro details that helped build a wider sense of a very real (imagined) town. Members of our group also noted how certain assumptions speak to the divide between the inner life and the outer life, that no-one can know who we really are, and sometimes we are masking. As the assumptions continued, we noted a voice beginning to develop – a sense of the town as a character.
Bearing our discoveries in mind, we wrote to describe either our current inner landscapes, or the landscape where our ideas arose from: be that a serene green field or a grey construction site, as one participant wrote about. In describing our inner landscapes, and sharing our favourite lines from our work, we started to notice the details that intrigued us, what aspects created a greater sense of atmosphere or drew us in.
Next, we listed the services we would need in a town: from sanitation and bin collection through to the corner shop and an arts centre. We listed our own favourite and least favourite buildings and places such as the town hall, the GP surgeries or the beach!
We each picked a building from our group list and wrote a description of it from the outside and then, the inside. Some of us named the building. Some of the group wrote pieces that reflected how the townspeople felt about the building, some buildings had history, some needed some work, other buildings were spaces of solace, or even the magical. Some building had an attitude and strong sense of character and voice themselves.
We have begun to upload our pieces to our group padlet, so that we can get a sense of the town we are beginning to co-create together…and what drama might unfold there in the coming months…
Archive
Junior & Young Writers Week 3: Return From The Magical World
Junior & Young Writers Week 2: African Mythology
Problems, Problems, Problems...
Cautionary Tales & Christmassy Opening Lines
You've Gotta Have Pace, Pace, Pace
Junior & Young Writers Week 1: Alien Encounters
Junior & Young Writers: Week 5 - Play on Words Pt. 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 - end of term showcase [build a bard workshop]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 - Greek Theatre - chorus stories
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 - Greek Origin Stories - Spring
Rubber Ducks & Writing Festivals
Junior & Young Writers: Week 7 - Greek Hero Stories [the 12 labours of Hercules]
Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
Junior & Young Writers: Week 9 [Wild Words] - Mystery & Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior & Young Writers: Week 8 [Wild Words] - Spooky Sequels & Potion Poems
Junior & Young Writers – Week 10 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Final Showcase
Junior & Young Writers – Week 9 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Editing & Performance Tips
Junior & Young Writers – Week 8 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Cuteness
Time goes on by Tavinder Kaur New
Junior & Young Writers – Week 7 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Natural Solutions
Junior & Young Writers – Week 6 (Writers’ Inspiration) – The Language of Fruit and Veg
Junior & Young Writers – Week 5 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Adventures In Space
Tinklebobs and Bedraggled Angles
Junior & Young Writers – Week 4 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Our Environment
Fortune Tellers & Future Letters
Junior & Young Writers – Week 3 (Writers’ Inspiration) – Home
Young Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Junior Writers - Week 10 (The Art of Writing) – Final Week Showcase
Young Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Junior Writers – Week 9 (The Art of Writing) – Choose Your Own Adventure
Young Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Junior Writers – Week 8 (The Art of Writing) – Sequel Stories
Young Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Junior Writers – Week 7 (The Art of Writing) – Picture Prompts
Young Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers - Week 6 (The Art of Writing) - Script-writing & Dialogue
Junior Writers – Week 5 (The Art of Writing) – Poetry
Young Writers - Week 5 (The Art of Writing) - Poetry Potions
Edward The Martyr - A Competition!
Mood Boards and Postcards from Space
Young Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Junior Writers - Week 3 (The Art of Writing) - PLOT
Moomin Stories and Hollywood Pitches
Young Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Junior Writers - Week 2 (The Art of Writing) - Genre & Setting
Prompts, Dialogues, and Cliché
Story Structure Part One: Exposition and Beyond...
Young Writers - Week 1 (The Art of Writing) - Character
Young Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Junior Writers - week 4 - Nature Writing [animals & wildlife]
Young Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Junior Writers - week 3 - Nature Writing [trees/plants/flowers]
Young Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
Junior Writers - week 2 - 'fractured fairy tales'
