Flash Fiction Workshop with Sally Quilford...

It was very hot in Nottingham, Wednesday evening, and I think quite a few members of the writers club were at home watching tennis in the cool...at least Andy Murray won this time round!

But the rest of us had a great evening with writer Sally Quilford who travelled to Nottingham to do her flash fiction workshop.

Now I'd been writing most of yesterday, so I thought my brain would be on strike, but the first exercises immediately got my creativity working.

We had to write about ourselves in under 100 words and it all had to be lies.

Ten minutes later we all read out our fabrications- from the strange to outright bizarre (but as I've been entertained by many members writing at manuscript evenings, I could see where some of these outlandish statements had first emerged in their fictional characters).

Though where the sushi and champagne diet idea came from in my case- I have no idea. :-)

There were some interesting discussions about how flash fiction could differ from a standard short story, and it certainly caused a few raised eyebrows, but that's good.

Thinking about how a story can be written in a different way but still be effective is a beneficial exercise, as until you try it you never know if it will be a style that works for you.

The prompts  section was a great success. The audience called out a number of objects/scenarios- we had 10 in the end- and we spent time writing about our chosen prompt/s. Muddy Boots seemed to be popular...

It was great to see the variety, and there were certainly a few stories emerging that I would love to hear completed, and hope the writers finish them.

We then had to edit the pieces by 10%, and actually most managed to reduce the wordage by quite a bit more- which did seem to surprise a few.

It was an evening of fun and learning, and I'm sure we all took some insights away with us-I certainly did. Sally kindly provided handouts, so we can refer back to them when needed.

Brilliant evening- thank you Sally.