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Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

02 July 2024

Posted by Harley Truslove

Writing From Injuries

We were online today, so we started with a bit of fill-in fun from Ali’s screen share. The theme of the day was drama and all things dramatic - so our fill-in sheet had our heroes Jeff and Gloria onstage. Our writers were somewhat split between the traditional (something strange happening in their performance) and regicide/murder. 


Ali went on to discuss how effective writing drama out of a crisis can be, especially when beginning a story, and it’s always helpful to mine your own life experience for things to write about!


We discussed “traumatic” (nothing too bad!) incidents we’ve seen or had, minor issues which have sent people to A&E - cut fingers, hurt heads and the like. Ali then challenged our writers to begin a story with something “catastrophic” happening, it could be small but still had to have impact. 


Our writers’ stories included neuroscientists walking into lampposts, children falling off climbing frames and bleeding, and a best friend fainting and then turning into an alien. 


Ali then got out a box of wonder (which had its own musical sting!) and randomly pulled out prompts for us to trigger a story. Everyone got a different accident or malady, including:

  • A bouncy castle skull bash 

  • A tumble into brambles 

  • A weever fish sting 

  • A football in the face 

  • A bee sting

  • A fall off a bike 


Our writers gave us revenge for a bouncy castle collision at a prom, branches in the face atop bikes, and a visceral description of teeth falling out.


To close the session Ali gave us a quick prompt & word combo: “is that a shark” with the word ‘shudder’. 

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