This October I completed a four week online course in micro fiction delivered by the excellent www.helenchamberswriter.wordpress.com under the umbrella of www.thewriterscompany.co.uk based in Wivenhoe. The course has resulted in a host of ideas to develop in response to her challenging prompts and exercises. We used pictures, random word lists, fairy tales, and starter sentences from other writers as inspiration. We attempted 6 word stories, OULIPO and snowball writing as well as more traditional 100 word stories. It was a great way to spend Wednesday mornings in these times of restricted activity.
Happily socially distanced walks were still allowed and made a perfect change after a morning at the computer . Tramping through the woods and along the Colne was great for consolidating thoughts on a cool autumn afternoon. The fungi along the riverside path had woken up and multiplied – it would have been rude to not take pictures. Once home I set about identifying what I’d seen but then got side-tracked by the bizarre lists of mushrooms and toadstool names I came across. Many of these would not be edible ( please don’t even try) but an imaginary feast, menu set out as a piece of snowball writing, was the end result.
Greeting
Scurfy twiglet
Starter mealyoyster
Main course bitter poisonpie
With pancake crust potato earth ball
Bonfire cauliflower with witches butter dressing
Wine served in turquoise elfcup
Dessert of upper crust
Plums and custard
Whiskery milkcap
Hotlips
philippahawleywriter 