October’s meeting ended, appropriately, with a writing exercise.

1. In an effort to get us out of our comfort zones, Sheila asked for fourteen random nouns. We came up with:

Spaceship, spade, owl, truck, flag, tree, shirt, car, custard, chocolate, witch, airplane, Starbucks, and woman.

2. With the current contest in mind, we were then asked to imagine a character and hiding place, then list fourteen more nouns: two for each of our character’s senses – sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, bodily feelings, and emotion.
3. Finally, we were asked to pair up seven of these with seven from the first list of nouns, to create metaphors which we could use in a poem or description of a scene.
4. Sample metaphors include: “The flapping flag of pride” “The chocolate voice of desire” “The warm air’s comfortable shirt against his skin” “the lumpy custard of the sagging mattress” etc.

If you weren’t there, or even if you were, why not give this a try to get your creative juices flowing.