The room was filled with contemplation and discussion as the four groups read and critiqued members’ flash fiction, poetry, short stories, and excerpts of novels.
The night brought us many challenging and delightful ideas; a protagonist who had returned to face an early childhood trauma. We loved the imagery and undercover cop disguise! We read a beautiful poem about memories of a loved one, which had been crafted using techniques suggested by Gail Anderson (condensing prose to a poem) and Alan Bisset (concrete poetry).
We were invited to think about our own values and culture through the fantasy world of elves, wizards, and humans and again in a story about oppression and risk – how far would you be willing to go to fight for your rights? There were stories with clever twists which left us longing to know more … what happened to the baby?! Why did George feel guilty? We were cleverly transported to a kitchen whilst a cake was baking, and vegetables were being prepared … but all was not as it seemed!
There were constructive suggestions for development of pieces too.
- Be mindful of rogue commas and punctuation mistakes.
- Offer readers enough information to connect with the main character.
- Consider the impact of the ending, don’t add unnecessary information.
- Balance detail and description to ensure that it doesn’t detract from the main focus of the story.
It was a lovely evening exploring different genres with the opportunity to think deeply about writing style, characterisation, and plot!
Jennifer Lerpiniere