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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: G is for Garden
You can just describe a garden if you like – let us really picture it in our mind’s eye. Is it formal? Informal? Large? Small? Modern? Traditional? You could write a piece about what you get out of a garden – whether it’s actual produce or flowers, or whether it’s inner peace and a state…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: F is for Free or Freedom
What does freedom mean to you? There are many types of freedom – freedom from slavery/ pain/ hate; free from restrictive shackles; freedom from unhappy relationships; freedom as in off the leash. There are different interpretations of free: unoccupied – is this seat free?; free – not paid for; free – as in loosening something…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: E is for Expecting
Who or what were you expecting? Where? Why? Why is it important? Does it matter if it gets there on time? What happens after it turns up? Oh, the anticipation! How does your character feel about it? It could be an object, or a result of an exam or a test or the result of…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: D is for Drive
Various forms of transport: car, bus, train, tram, trolleybus, steamroller, tractor, ambulance, military vehicle… Is your character doing the driving, or are they being driven? Where to? What for? Who’s with them? What are they feeling? Excited / anxious/ scared /bored / filled with dread? Do they have to be somewhere at a certain time?…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: C is for Collections
Lots to think about here. You can have collections as in people collecting things, like stamps, or china ornaments, or a certain type of glassware, or little plastic heads of famous footballers (Joe Mercer’s England Squad 1971, anybody?). So from that you can widen it out to What does this character collect? What kind of…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: B is for Breakfast
There’s a breakfast table. Now, there are so many options for you here: Who’s at the table? Is it you – and by you, I mean your character. Doesn’t have to be you personally – you can be anybody you want in creative writing. So, who’s at the table – if anybody? If there’s a…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: A is for Apple
Imagine an apple, or pick an apple up out of the fruit bowl. In your mind or in reality, have a really good look at it. Feel its skin. Smell it. Cut it open or bite into it. Is it firm and you worry that it’ll bring your teeth out, or is it a bit…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club
In January 2024 Louise Hulland and I started up a writing club on BBC Local Radio in the East – and it’s also available to listen to anywhere in the country online! Please join us every other Monday afternoon (give or take a bank holiday or annual leave) and I’ll set a prompt for you…
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Publication Day!
Here at the McCaw office we are quite giddy with excitement because it’s official publication day for Gingerbread Children! And within a couple of minutes we’d had our first order, and then another, and then another! We’re thrilled to bits. Thanks to everybody who’s supported us.
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Fever pitch
Much excitement in the McCaw office – oh, we love taking delivery of new books! Soon these gorgeous wee things will be on their way to bookshops and customers.