Also available for parties...
Recently I did some interactive storytelling on a stage in Wymondham. It was surprisingly fun and, I think, went well. I'm hopefully going to be doing some more of this. And if you wanted to have a writing-themed birthday party (any age), I'd be up for that (for a small fee). I will optimistically put in a contact form at the bottom of this page.
Take it as Red Day at Wymondham, February 2013
This was the first of a hopefully annual event at Wymondham aiming to put on free fun stuff to do.
Tony Vale asked me to help people write love poems to go with the Valentine's cards they'd made.
I came up with a couple of ideas, the most fun of which was:
1. In one pot people wrote down 'things that you might compliment about someone' on scraps of paper (e.g. eyes, hair, smile, laugh, personality...).
2. In another pot people wrote down NOUNS. There could be sensible ones like 'sunshine' or 'tulips', or funny ones like 'chevrolet', 'biro', or 'Take That'.
3. People then selected 3 (or more) words from each pot at random, and had to fill in the blanks in the following template:
Your ............ is/are like a/an .................... , x3
+
Some romantic phrase e.g. 'And that is why I love you'/'My heart is yours - will yours be mine?'
(With optional explanations of the similes in between each line.)
Some of the amazing results include:
Your eyes are like music,
They sing beautiful songs to me,
Your hair is like a red London bus,
Vibrant, and it goes somewhere!
Your smile is like excitement,
Because that is what it does to me.
And I love you because you are
Uniquely you.
Your love is my pathway,
Excitement is hearing your voice,
And your hair is as smooth as milk chocolate.
Tony Vale asked me to help people write love poems to go with the Valentine's cards they'd made.
I came up with a couple of ideas, the most fun of which was:
1. In one pot people wrote down 'things that you might compliment about someone' on scraps of paper (e.g. eyes, hair, smile, laugh, personality...).
2. In another pot people wrote down NOUNS. There could be sensible ones like 'sunshine' or 'tulips', or funny ones like 'chevrolet', 'biro', or 'Take That'.
3. People then selected 3 (or more) words from each pot at random, and had to fill in the blanks in the following template:
Your ............ is/are like a/an .................... , x3
+
Some romantic phrase e.g. 'And that is why I love you'/'My heart is yours - will yours be mine?'
(With optional explanations of the similes in between each line.)
Some of the amazing results include:
Your eyes are like music,
They sing beautiful songs to me,
Your hair is like a red London bus,
Vibrant, and it goes somewhere!
Your smile is like excitement,
Because that is what it does to me.
And I love you because you are
Uniquely you.
Your love is my pathway,
Excitement is hearing your voice,
And your hair is as smooth as milk chocolate.
One of the amazing banners I made for the event. Hopefully to be altered and reused each year.
(P.S. many thanks to all the many other people who helped me with them!)
Zoe pretending to be interested in the exercise.... Lol.
Typing on typewriters is ridiculously fun! :)
Lemon Day at Wymondham, November 2012
This was a really fun day. Even though it was cold and damp, the (admittedly small) audience was really up for it. I'd been asked to prepare some interactive lemon-related creative writing activities, plus to write some poems advertising local businesses, for which I apologise wholeheartedly.
First, I had written a short story with lots of references to lemons and yellow - some more obvious than others. The audience had to clap if they thought they heard a reference.
Second, I had written another short story (particularly targeted at young children), where there were lots of instances of things like "And I saw some buttercups and they were... [audience shouts 'yellow']". Occasionally I tricked them :)
Thirdly, in terms of interactive stuff, I also did the exercise using signs where I make up a story on the spot. A guide troop was wonderful and joined in as the sign holders - when a person holds up a sign (obviously some of these had lemons on them) I had to straight away include it (fishermen, lipstick, David Beckham...) in the story.
The stallholders and audience were really up for it, and I had a great time, so thank you!
First, I had written a short story with lots of references to lemons and yellow - some more obvious than others. The audience had to clap if they thought they heard a reference.
Second, I had written another short story (particularly targeted at young children), where there were lots of instances of things like "And I saw some buttercups and they were... [audience shouts 'yellow']". Occasionally I tricked them :)
Thirdly, in terms of interactive stuff, I also did the exercise using signs where I make up a story on the spot. A guide troop was wonderful and joined in as the sign holders - when a person holds up a sign (obviously some of these had lemons on them) I had to straight away include it (fishermen, lipstick, David Beckham...) in the story.
The stallholders and audience were really up for it, and I had a great time, so thank you!
