“The writing retreat was encouraging to me. A much needed opportunity to “prime the pump” as well as meet writers in this area.” Judie Miller commented at the end of the retreat.
D5 sponsored a writing retreat Saturday, August 26. It was the first in my association with D5, and I’m sure it will not be the last. The writing activities stretched our skills and resulted in new friendships.
Mary Coley, not only a gifted author but also a gifted writing instructor, led us through four exercises. Each of the exercises challenged us to stimulate our creativity when describing place, humans, nonhuman objects, and emotions. She gave a short instruction with handouts, sent us off to our corners to write, brought us back, critiqued our efforts, gave new instructions, and sent us off to write again.
For me, the most challenging exercise involved writing emotions as metaphor. The group’s efforts often turned out to be a simile or personification. Here is an example.
Disappointment is a canary that escaped from its cage. It flits into the sunshine through an open window. But when dusk arrives, the window has closed. The bird collides with invisible glass and falls to the ground, stunned, but whole. It will fly again tomorrow.
Teaser: At the D5 meeting in December, we will explore writing emotions as metaphor after our election of officers and business meeting.
The retreat attendees ended up being an eclectic group in age, writing experience, and genre. The pieces we wrote and shared included young adult, poetry, memoir, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and mystery.
Our venue was at a rural property three miles north of Winfield owned by Ann Fell. If you as an individual or as a small group desire a writing get-away location, I suggest you contact her. The beautiful setting and peaceful atmosphere primed our writing pumps.
Sandee Taylor
D5 president
D5 sponsored a writing retreat Saturday, August 26. It was the first in my association with D5, and I’m sure it will not be the last. The writing activities stretched our skills and resulted in new friendships.
Mary Coley, not only a gifted author but also a gifted writing instructor, led us through four exercises. Each of the exercises challenged us to stimulate our creativity when describing place, humans, nonhuman objects, and emotions. She gave a short instruction with handouts, sent us off to our corners to write, brought us back, critiqued our efforts, gave new instructions, and sent us off to write again.
For me, the most challenging exercise involved writing emotions as metaphor. The group’s efforts often turned out to be a simile or personification. Here is an example.
Disappointment is a canary that escaped from its cage. It flits into the sunshine through an open window. But when dusk arrives, the window has closed. The bird collides with invisible glass and falls to the ground, stunned, but whole. It will fly again tomorrow.
Teaser: At the D5 meeting in December, we will explore writing emotions as metaphor after our election of officers and business meeting.
The retreat attendees ended up being an eclectic group in age, writing experience, and genre. The pieces we wrote and shared included young adult, poetry, memoir, contemporary fiction, historical fiction, and mystery.
Our venue was at a rural property three miles north of Winfield owned by Ann Fell. If you as an individual or as a small group desire a writing get-away location, I suggest you contact her. The beautiful setting and peaceful atmosphere primed our writing pumps.
Sandee Taylor
D5 president
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