If you saw my last related post- Liz does Creative Writing Course #1 – a week ago, then you already know that I signed up for 10 weekly creative writing sessions. Yesterday was the second session and it was great to see everyone again.
Again, we spoke about some poems and discussions took us in various directions, but importantly, the reason why I started this feature was to share the writing prompts and my own writing. So, do feel free to tag along- if a prompt makes your mind turn in creative spin, then share your own story in the comments.
Prompt: October
Guidance: Pick a very specific thing about October, e.g. wind, trees, Halloween. Anything that you relate with October first thing. Stay focused on this specific thing (as opposed to writing about wind and trees AND Halloween) and write a paragraph or two about it.
Here’s what I came up with:
Smoke Signal
The trees have shed their leaves. Leaves that not so long ago rustled in a summer breeze, offering shade from the burning midday sun.
Now, they are scattered on the ground, crumpled and dry. The color long gone from green to yellow to red.
The evergreen fur trees in the corner of the garden offer shade and sentry as the brown, dead leaves are raked into a pile with an iron rake and lit with a long wooden match.
As the smoke twirls up from the airy pile of another season gone, it spreads across the village. With it, the smell of autumn. A signal of something ending, a start of something new.
The focus is on the life cycle of the leaves here and how in various ways they signal the feeling of autumn for me. The minute I smell the burning leaves, it slams home that snow isn’t far away. Or, you know, when I have to spend hours and hours raking leaves in the garden, which I actually do enjoy. The other little message I wanted to put in was that as the leaves are burning, the evergreens keep watch and the fact that the pile is lit with a wooden match- how ironic! But anyway…
I do not claim to know what I am doing, I do not claim to feel like I have this all under control, I do not claim to have a degree or anything of the sorts in the language of English so my apologies for any glaring stylistic/grammatical mistakes… ahem
What does this prompt ‘October’ bring to your mind? Feel free to share your own thoughts and story in the comments! 🙂
Cover to Cover 
That’s awesome Liz! Good for you!
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Thank you! 🙂
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Well, it does sound good! Love how creative you are.
After i read the prompt, i was thinking what i would say / write and literally came up with nothing 😀
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Thank you, Norrie! 🙂 I think if you were sat in that classroom with the rest of us, you’d be surprised at how quickly ideas flood your head.. I was! I very much dislike autumn and cold and dreary but ideas just start to flood the mind, especially when you see others furiously scribbling 😀 hahaha
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You might claim to not know what you’re doing, but you’re ‘not knowing it’ very well! My favourite line this week “As the smoke twirls up from the airy pile of another season gone” – a great way of signifying the end of a season. I’m telling you, by week 6, you’ll have started penning that bestseller!
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ohmygosh, Janel! Thank you so mch for your kind words! 🙂 I am glad you found a sentence there that stood out. Chuffed, so I am! 🙂
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Ooo I love the imagery your piece evokes! If I close my eyes I can just picture it! The quick transition between the trees being heavy with green leaves to them being bare with all their leaves scattered on the ground around them never fails to amaze me. Autumn is my favourite season. When I think of autumn I think of dark nights and being safe and sound inside with a cup of tea and a book ❤
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🙂 Thank you, Jazz!
Funnily, I really really dislike autumn, specifically for the dark nights and the cold and damp and dreary 😀 hahaha… but I do love the clear, cool, sunny days that follow the frosty nights! Hmm…
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So wonderful, and yes, a wooden match! 🍂
It’s against the law to burn leaves here now, but when I was a kid we had a burn barrel, and I too remember that smell of autumn. 🍁
Keep up the brilliant work. 👍✨
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Thank you La La! 🙂 I think the smell of leaves burning is really just- yeap, the summer is officially over! 🙂
I get all the fire safety aspect f banning fires, etc too.. and now they even tell us not to rake leaves up at all`leave it on the ground for fertilizer… I suggested it to my mother and she nearly fainted 😀 How could she not have the clean lawn amongst the neighbors who have raked their gardens? what if the wind changes direction and the neighbor gets all the leaves- it’ll be war! 😀
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October definitely brings to mind leaves for me as well — but not the burning of leaf piles. Unfortunately, it’s illegal to burn leaves in the city I live in. Instead, I would focus on the colors of the fall leaves. So many colors! Greens and yellows and oranges and reds and even purples! I love it.
Did you complete this prompt during the workshop? How much time do they give you to read?
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I think the leaves are like the empitome of fall, really! 🙂 and the acorns and the chestnuts- picking them and sticking matches in them to make little stick figures 😀
This specific prompt was created during workshop, yes. The tutor gave us all about 10-15 minutes and what I shared here is really the raw draft, all of the shared writings are raw drafts by me 😀 I was thinking to share edited versions but I think it will take away the ‘starting point’ for me… so maybe I should try and share a 1st draft and then edit it and expand on it for the next post 🙂
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! I’ve never made stick figures form acorns and chestnuts. But guess what I’m going to be doing as soon as I am done writing these comment responses? XD
I like the idea of sharing the raw draft and expanding upon it in a future post. It would give you an opportunity to talk about your writing process and perhaps get some dialogue about writing processes started with authors who are aspiring writers. 🙂 Plus, I’m jusr curious. XD But this isn’t about me.
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What happens once you come up with these pieces? Do you present it to everyone? Do you get feedback from the “teachers” there? Love what you did with this prompt by the way! You definitely have a wonderful way with words. Writing reviews sure did sharpen that craft of yours huuh? 😛 Keep it up, Liz!
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Yeah, everything we write during the session or as homework we read out in front of class 🙂 and then the tutor offers criticism and pointers to expand or brush it up. I’ve found out since the last session that I can’t keep things to the point- I waffle too much apparently 😀 hahaha
Thank you! 🙂
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Love that you’re sharing your writing on here! It’s so good!
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Thank you 🙂
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