Jumbalup - What animal would you see?

What would you write?

Sometimes I’m inspired to write but sometimes I might be stuck for ideas.

Well, actually I have so many ideas it’s hard to keep up with them.

I have several stories in some for of draft and it’s a matter of which one to work on and develop.

Sometimes an idea comes along by chance and takes over.

It has been like that with my book ‘Bus Rhymes and Playtime’, which I worked on after a trip to a local libraries Rhyme Time session. I thought, why not a Rhyme Time book with buses?

Writing Groups

I have joined a few writing groups, each organised in a different way.

I love attending and taking on a prompt, some are spontaneous prompts which others might be prompts you can work on and bring along.

For me I enjoy being given a prompt outside my comfort zone and to come up with an idea to write. Then listening to how each one in the group had interpreted it, each one different.

The Zoo on Sunday

In one group I was asked to talk about a favourite author.

I wrote about an author called Frank Worthington who had written a book over 100 years ago titled ‘The Zoo on Sunday’. I remembered, as a child, looking through at the black and white illustrations and thinking what a strange book it was.

I had thought to use the idea of mixed-up animals as a creative writing prompt in one of the groups but the idea was sidetracked and I did a nonsense session instead.

As it was my writing lead again, I decided to work on the idea and see if we could give it a go.

Jumbalup

I’d found a set of children’s cards which had top and tail images of animals for children to pair up.

I thought this might help so I was ready.

The start of the session with introductions I also suggested that they answer a question.

If you had a ticket to anywhere, where would you go?

Me?

I’d go anywhere with my grandson, ‘there and back’ again… but then again isn’t that what I had done on a Thursday bus ride?

I then read out the ticket from ‘A zoo on Sunday’ and shared a few images of the animals drawn by Frank Worthington.

I then gave out a few tops and tails or animals and suggested they could make up a new animal and write (a poem or a story). 20 minutes later and we listened to everyone’s writing ideas.