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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: B is for Bottle
This week – the prompt is B is for Bottle It could be just a bottle so things to think about: What sort of bottle? What shape is it? How old is it? Is it intact, or broken? Is it worth anything? Where is it? On a shelf? In a shop? Underground? In somebody’s bag?…
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Short Fiction: The Portrait
So I says to Frankie, ‘How do I look Frankie?’ and he says, ‘Bellissima, doll, Bellissima!’ which me giggle, and I’m already like a cat with two tails because Frankie’s spent a cartload of money hiring that Leonardo da Vinci to do me portrait. He’s so generous, my Frankie. Anyway, it’d taken me a couple…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: A is for Art
This week – the prompt is A is for Art. Now this could mean a work of art figures in your piece – a painting, sculpture, a performance… Perhaps your character is the artist – the one creating the art. Perhaps your story takes place in an art gallery – who could that involve? Customers,…
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Memoir: Bikes
Sometimes parents have to disappoint their children. And the younger you are when you are disappointed, the longer you have to brood about it and chew it over at family reunions. Take bikes. Dad would not let my brother and me have two-wheelers. Our terraced street which was a favourite haunt of driving instructors and…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Free week
This week – it’s a free week. We’ve reached the end of the alphabet and before we start again, this is your chance to write about whatever you like. Absolutely anything. Go on – give it a go.
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Z is for Zoo
This week – the prompt is Z is for Zoo or zoology or zoological. A zoo is a place full of animals – and staff, and visitors. Your piece doesn’t have to take place in the zoo – it could be outside the zoo, next door to it, across the street. It could be about…
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Short Fiction: The Dealer
Before he’s even opened his mouth I know what he wants. ‘Vinnie,’ I says to him. ‘I’ve told you before – it’s no good keep coming back, I ain’t got any and I can’t get me hands on any.’ ‘Have you tried—’ he starts. ‘I’ve tried everybody I knows and they’ve tried everybody they knows.…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: Y is for Yellow
The yellow can be incidental to your story, the springboard for it or a major part of it. Loads of things can be yellow: Clothing – including hi-vis clothing, but also have a think about clothing that’s not normally yellow – like a suit or a raincoat. Unusual things intrigue us both as people and…
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Memoir poem: The Silence Of Saturday Teatime
Every week my dad would write His Xs in the column: A ritual time-honoured, Almost sacred, always solemn. He diligently worked out – well, I say ‘worked out’, he guessed Which teams would win or lose or draw, Whose score would be the best. On Friday evening at the door The coupon man would be;…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: X is for… X
Have a think about how we use the letter X. If you’re marking something, it’s ticks for correct and crosses – or Xs – for incorrect. Putting an X in the box is how we vote. X is used to denote an unknown quantity, which you’ll remember from trying to solve equations at school or…