Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk
Workshops
From the Mslexia Workshops Collection
December's Workshop: Write on the Wild Side
DEVISED BY LINDA ANDERSON
EXERCISE EXCERPTED FROM ISSUE 25:
FLYING
>> Growing wings. Try a bit of magical realism. Imagine an 'ordinary' character, male or female, who begins to grow wings. It starts with an itch in the shoulder blades, and then something sinewy and feathery begins to sprout. How does your character respond? How do others react? What does the transformation mean, if anything?
>> Seatmates. Invent your own fictional scenario in which two characters fetch up side by side on a plane and begin to talk. They don't have to be swapping confessions. One of them might be boasting or lying. You might want to make your story comic. But try to move your plot towards an outcome in which one of the characters is unexpectedly changed by the encounter.
>> Weighed down. Invent a character who is flying to an exciting destination where s/he hopes to act or feel differently. List five or six items associated with his or her old life which s/he cannot bear to leave behind. What happens to these items in the new setting? How does your character let go of them?
>> Goodbye. Invent a character who feels oppressed by something big – a religion, a job, a parent – and show the oppression in vivid particular details. Imagine what might trigger your character's decision to escape.
Workshops collection
Plunder our selection of writing workshops for inspiration:
Inspirations
FEATURE
The Mslexia MA in Novel Writing – Character, led by Jenny Newman
KEEP GOING
...with life coach Bekki Hill
Use metaphors
WRITING YOURSELF
Explore the unconscious and turn your life into literature
Hayfields or horse-dung
FIRST DRAFT
In which a published author compares a segment of her book to an earlier draft, dicussing how - and why - she made her editing choices.
Deborah Moggach's First Draft
Wendy Cope's First Draft
MAKING A POEM
Poets are interviewed about the process of writing a selected poem.
Polly Clark
Jean Sprackland

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