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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: B is for Ball
This week – the prompt is B is for Ball. What kind of ball is it? Is it a sports ball? That’ll take you from ping-pong to ten-pin bowling and all stops in between right up to those massive inflatable balance balls. Is it to do with food? Cheese balls, puffball mushroom, doughballs, aniseed balls,…
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Poem: Better Than Nothin’
‘What’s a girl like you doing in a place like this?’ The first one asked as he ordered some wine; ‘I’m researching a book that you could help me with,’ She said, ‘It’s all about out-dated chat-up lines, So push off. Here’s your wine, Sling your hook, go away. I’m not talking to you, not…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: A is for Attract, Attraction or Attractive
This week – the prompt is This week – the prompt is A is for Attract, Attraction or Attractive Obviously there’s attraction between people, but animals do some weird things to attract a mate. Your story could be about trying to attract someone’s attention: in a restaurant, or to warn of danger (like in the…
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Poem: What Don’t You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
I don’t want to be a singer, I don’t want to drive a train. I don’t want to be a teacher, ’Cos teachers are a pain. I don’t want to be a footballer, Don’t want to be a cleaner; Don’t want to work an ice-cream van Or be a ballerina. I don’t want to be…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Free Week
This week – the prompt is entirely up to you. This is a free week for you. Write about whatever you like. You could be inspired by absolutely anything: nature, architecture, food, sport, history, geography, art, archaeology, entertainment, literature – the list goes on. You don’t have to write reams. The poet Ian McMillan posts…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Z is for any word containing Z
This week – the prompt is Z is for any word containing Z. Easy one this week – you can choose any word that’s got a z in it and use that as your prompt. So there’s a few common words starting with z – zone, zero, Zumba, zip, zinnias… but there’s many more containing…
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Poem: Why I Don’t Keep a Diary Any More
To track the year ahead of me, I bought myself a diary. Looking back now, it is clear: This was not a good idea. January – Tried to ski, Ended up in A&E. February – Valentine. Not a single card was mine. March – St Patrick’s celebrations. Drank green beer, had palpitations. April – Shakespeare’s…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Y is for Year
This week – the prompt is Y is for Year. It could be a specific year, for example 1066 or the late Queen’s Jubilee year. It could be a year which is memorable to you for a specific reason. It could relate to how old someone is: x years of age, but then things are…
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Memoir: Living Under a Romany Blessing
‘Ye’re not scared of buying from a Romany are ye?’ said the old woman at the door one November night. ‘Of course not,’ I said. My granny was born to travelling horse-dealers so no, I wasn’t scared. ‘Blessings be upon ye,’ she said. She was seventy-five if she was a day; a lot younger than…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: X is for All Sorts of Things
X can be used in voting, or on very old documents such as marriage certificates, where if someone couldn’t read they would mark an x instead of signing; you use it playing noughts and crosses, marking things as wrong, or denoting a location on a treasure map; it’s the horizontal axis on a graph, it’s…