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Short Fiction: A Random Click of the Shutter
Everything in the bungalow was neat and pristine, except the photo frame. Its glass was clouded from her fingerprints, but she didn’t care. She’d taken the snap at her daughter’s wedding, miraculously capturing an unguarded moment of laughter between her husband and her daughter. A random click of the shutter became the treasured image of…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: P is for Photograph
I’d like you to write something – story, poem, or just a little piece of writing – sparked off by a photograph. Is it in colour, or black and white? Formal, like a portrait photo, or more of a snap? Where’s this photo come from? Is it known to you or not? Have you found…
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Poem: Getting In
He tried password – it didn’t work; He tried 1234. He tried his place of birth but got No further than before. He tried his mother’s maiden name, His father’s mother’s too; He tried his first pet – and his last – But still it wouldn’t do.
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: O is for Open
Our next writing prompt is O for open. Such a small word applies in many different ways. You can open little things – jars, bottles, packets, parcels – or large things: you can open doors, open a new building, a business, a fair or a fete, or you can open your garden to the public.…
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Memoir: My First One in Real Life
I was twenty-two years old, and about eight stone wet through. I was wearing a home-sewn wrap-over skirt – small brown and white flowers and green leaves on a black background, the hem finished off with cream broderie anglaise. The top half of my skinny frame was covered by a sleeveless v-necked t-shirt, over which…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: N is for Needle
Plenty of variety on this subject for you to have a go at. What sort of needle is it? Sewing needle? Hand sewing, machine sewing, upholstery needle?Surgical sewing or injections? If it’s any of those, are you on the receiving end of it, or is it you that’s using the needle? For what purpose? Then…
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Song: You Can’t Call It Music
It’s something special, I know, and I don’t want to bore, But I guarantee that you’ve heard nothing like me before. But I have a talent – unusual thing – ‘Cause everyone shudders when I start to sing… I can scatter a crowd; People pray that I don’t sing out loud.
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: M is for Music
95% of us enjoy music. It’s all around us. It’s rare to go a day without hearing music. Radio, TV programmes, films, adverts, ice-cream vans, ringtones, passing cars blaring out favourite tunes at top volume… So, for the purposes of your story or poem, here are some ideas to get you going if you need…
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Short Fiction: The Washerwoman
The men do not take the trouble to get to know me, but they are fascinated by me. They bring their easels and brushes and colours and stare at me as I work. If they want me to stop so they can catch the light from the water as I heave a sodden sheet from…
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Carol Carman’s Writing Club Prompt: L is for Laundry
Something we’ve all got to do with alarming and depressing regularity. So, let’s make it exciting. What is it that’s being washed? Why? What’s on it that needs to be washed off? How did it get mucky? How important is it that it gets washed? Who’s washing it? Why are they washing it? Are they…