MWC meeting - 17th May - an update

I apologize for the delay in sending the updates on the last meeting of MWC on May 17th. 17 members participated and we had an interesting group exercise in short story writing based on "Animal farm" by George Orwell. For those who have not read the book, here is the link: http://www.george-orwell.org/Animal_Farm/index.html.

There were no specific guidelines so each team took their own path. One team based their tale on the animals in politics with some humor, another with a trace of love, and the story that got the most votes was one on "Cows who dreamed to be in Mootopia".

Exercise to be done before the next meeting: Complete the story in 600 words. The beginning and the end is provided. Use your creativity, be the animal you want to be and define your farm or just take your own wild/tame path. Enjoy the experience :). I like happy endings but those who wish to change the ending, please feel free to do so. Post your story on the blog. We will probably have a vote system to judge the best story. Those of you who are new to writing, please do not feel shy. The only way to gain experience is to write but please do a spell check and a grammar check before you post.

Outline of the story:

Once upon a time, in a land beyond the river Moo was a farm...............

.......and the journey continues but "To be milked or not to milked?" is our choice and that gives us the freedom to live the life we want and I love my farm. Do you?

For writers who have starting trouble :), here are some guidelines:

• Prepare your draft to edit later
• Close your eyes and visualize a plot
• Start with a scene of high drama - action/tension/emotional
• From this drama, identify the characters
• Ask questions about the characters or missing characters and write all the answers
• Build on the drama/conflict - this could take a happy/humorous twist based on your imagination - do not stop your flow of thoughts, you can remove what does not fit in later
• Get to the end of the story
• Now you can write the beginning

MWC is a joint effort to conduct fruitful meetings with a volunteer or an expert leading the session to stir our creativity, improve our language and style, and educate the wanna-be writers. The success of this club depends on participation and involvement. If we look for what we can give then we will receive a lot too so do not expect the administrators to do all the work. Support the club in any way you can.