Workshops and exercises

Last week I took a day off work and went to a short story workshop, as I do from time to time. This one was concentrating on beginnings and endings: reeling the reader in, and not petering out once you've delivered the main thrust of your story. Through a day of discussion and exercises I think (I hope) I may have learned a few things. I particularly enjoyed the exercise in which we took two slips of paper, one from a box of occupations (ghost hunter, dentist, secretary, lorry driver) and one from a box of final actions (upended the vase of lilies, dived into the swimming pool, pushed his shoes through the bars of the cage). Then working backwards, we had to figure out why the architect threw the swiss roll out of the window (or why the fishmonger drove away in a stolen car, as it may be), what might have been at stake and why things came to a head. We worked out motives and related characters and generally got pretty creative, and as a way of working out the bare bones of an idea I'd recommend it. It would also make an entertaining party game, if you throw those sort of parties. I was also busy devising a workshop last week, I'm planning on introducing Ilkley Writers to microfiction this month (though some will have had previous brushes with it). I realised how hard it is to think of examples and exercises, and write down enough background without swamping everyone in detail. I doff my noir trilby to all those who do this so successfully on a regular basis.