Creative Writing: Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible in us be found.

Inspirational  Pema Chodron said this, not referring to creative writing classes but to life. But then, a creative writing class is a microcosm.

A wee planet by Alexandre Duret-Lutz

All human life was there.

SO...my homework of yesterday, my damned inspiration, my piece entitled 'Hidden' which I wrote in one mad flurry.

I didn't think too deeply about those words on the page. They were very personal, very black, very revealing. The irony doesn't escape me...there was the title and I was left anything but hidden once I'd read it out.

More...a bit shell-shocked.

So, the lovely people of Lewes asked the question, 'Where did that come from?' and I floundered.

'You don't have to answer that if you don't want to.'

'It was...from my past.'

A strange experience to be able to visit my past, an itinerant memory-catcher, and then to leave as quickly as I arrived.

By Steven Puetzer

Was it cathartic? I suppose, yes, in so far as it was a powerful experience to know I could go to a dark place and not be trapped there.

I found something indestructible.

Creative Writing: How to find inspiration #37b

Soooooooo...tonight is my second creative writing class. Remember the homework?

I do. Hidden. No, I haven't hidden my homework. That's the subject. And it has been. Hidden. As hidden as a very hidden thing in Hiddenville.

I have been searching for inspiration like Sir Galahad on the quest for the Holy Grail...

By Alice Popkorn

 only with less success. And no maidens in distress. Except for me.

This morning, I decided to give up, slink into class and make myself as small as possible so Roddy might not notice I was there.

Half and hour later,  inspiration came while waiting at traffic lights, not thinking about anything in particular.

Creative Writing: How to find inspiration #37b: Stop looking for it.

DAMN YOU, INSPIRATION!

Now I'm going to have to write something.

Creative Writing Class: Homework, I have discovered, involves a sharp pencil and thick books and long sighs.

Aside from the thick books (perhaps replace the word 'books' with 'head'?) I would concur with author Katherine Applegate.

I have homework to do for my creative writing class. Ironically, the theme is 'Hidden.' Yes, that would be about right. Hidden somewhere in the recesses of my imagination.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE INSPIRATION FOR MY HOMEWORK?

Here's what I'm going to do. Find an image that inspires me. Go from there.

Come on inspiration. I know you're in there somewhere.

Creative writing class - a Dam-Burst of Dreams?

 A Christy Nolanesque tumult of poetry? (Note to self: Must read Dam-Burst of Dreams again.) A Joycean stream of consciousness?

My Emotional Dam Burst by Astrid Dahl

In my case, more of a damn burst of dreams. These dreams I have; this idea that writing comes easy.

It most often doesn't, let me tell you. It especially doesn't when faced with a timed writing challenge.

It was a lovely group of writers, reassuring and welcoming. I felt cherished. Roddy, the main man, made me a cup of peppermint tea. And still my brain froze.

The exercise was to choose a couple of words at random - words which were completely unknown to me and turned out to be Yiddish - and craft a story round them, giving them meaning, any meaning. Oh and in your spare time, the theme was...

Title still from the movie by Shueti

 My words were Tsuris and Plotz. Their meanings, it transpired, were trouble/woe and to burst/explode. How wonderfully ironic!

I froze... and then I thawed a bit. It was SUCH a good exercise. There were some brilliant writers there who, in twenty minutes, produced complete stories with beginning, middle and end. I managed the first half chapter of something a lot longer starring Uber-Captain Zincbath. Yes, I know...

Then everyone read out wot they had wrote. It didn't feel too threatening at all.

I learned that I CAN write even when my brain is telling me it wants to crawl under the duvet with a hot water bottle. That it's important just to keep going, no matter what.

Like Ray Bradbury says, in Zen in the Art of Writing: "An athlete may run ten thousand miles in order to prepare for one hundred yards. Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come."

So thank you Roddy Phillips ,and all the members of the Lewes Creative Writing Class, for an inspirational and thought-provoking evening.

I will return. And I will do my homework. Honest.

Watch this space?

 This is the space you were watching to see if my alcohol-caffeine-sugar-meat-free diet made a difference to the fluency of my writing.

Here it is:

Writing is not forthcoming.

The good news is that the noble headache has gone.

The even better news is that tonight I'm going to my first creative writing workshop.

"The weekly workshops take a student-centred approach to creative writing, offering a range of strategies to help you develop as a writer. Members are encouraged to explore their creative writing potential through self-awareness and self-discovery."

(I'm hoping one of the strategies might be a rocket up the backside.)

"There are timed exercises and participants are given relevant homework each week and receive appropriate and constructive feedback."

HOMEWORK?

Thank goodness I have the dogs.