Monday 1 January 2024

Themes for HTW writing

If you want to write on one of our past themes or have writing on past themes languishing in your folders and would like to share it or see it published on our blog please send to hightownwriters@gmail.com.


2019

1.      Unlucky Numbers

2.      Love

3.      Rivers

4.      Otter

5.      Daylight Falls to Darkness

6.      Clouds

7.      Six of the Best

8.      Dreams

9.      Limerick about a well-known person

10.     Halloween/Brexit mash up

11.      Twelve Days of Christmas

12.     New Season

2020

1.      Dimensions of Space

2.      A Fairy Tale with a Twist

3.      An Act of Kindness

4.      Begin with the line, “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day.”

5.      Send yourself a postcard from a favourite place when things are back to normal

6.      You are a housekeeper or butler for a wealthy family. One day when watering the plants, one of them starts talking to tell you of a family secret.

7.      Write a sonnet – any topic, any style, 14 lines

8.      Take a book from the shelf. Turn to page 10. Read the 10th line. Write a story or poem based on that line!

9.      Writing inspired by a song or a piece of music

10.   Write the diary entry of a fictional ordinary person in the style of The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ which captures the zeitgeist of the present times.

11.   Find 3 new words and their meanings. Use them in a short prose, story or poem.  Readers will have to guess their meaning.

12.   Environment

 2021

1.       Love – in its many forms

2.       Belonging

3.       Freedom

4.       Discovery

5.       Coincidence

6.       Murder Mystery

7.       Smoke

8.       Equinox

9.       The Closed Door

10.      Under the Water

11.      The Frozen River

12.      Deep Winter

    2022

1.      Over Again

2.     Choose any book. Turn to Chapter 5. Open the 5th page of Ch5 and count down to the 5th line. Use that line as your writing prompt.

3.     That House with the Red Roof

4. Your character finds a strange looking egg in the forest. Thinking it will make a great decoration they take it home. What hatches surpasses their wildest imagination.

5. Open a book at Chapter Three. Look on the 3rd page of Ch3. Count down to the 3rd line on that 3rd page. Use that line to inspire your writing!

6. Expand on this statement from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and create a piece of writing: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’. Take an imaginary family or a real one

7. Summertime - or something inspired by the Commonwealth Games eg Baton Bearer

8. September writing theme is locally inspired:

 There used to be 22 pubs on the Cartway; the main link between High Town and the Quayside in the days when Bridgnorth was an important port on the River Severn. They served the needs of the traders, sailors and river folk.

Write a story or poem inspired by one or more of their names:

The Red Lion

The Kouli Khan

The Woolpack

The Beehive

The White Hart

The Ship and Anchor

The Coopers Arm

The Saltbox

The Forge and Hammer

The Tumbling Sailors

The Star

The Mermaid

The Britannia

The Severn Trow

The Compasses

The Bush

The Railway Tavern

The Saltbox

The Cornucopia (or Horn of Plenty)

The Horn and Trumpet (later The French Horn)

The Magpie (now Bassa Villa)

The Black Boy (or The Blackie Boy – the last of the 22 pubs to survive 

9. 'Autumn Poetry' Write a haiku, sonnet or ballad

10. Treasure

11. Christmas / New Year

12. Winter 


2023

1.   Love + Valentine themed

2.  * supplementary tasks (see below)

3.  Writing inspired by mediaeval characters whose tombs lie in Hereford Cathdral - pictures of their faces supplied to writers

4.  Write a poem with a ‘waltz’ rhythm (dactylic), or a limerick or a fairy story with a twist.

And

    'Out on the town' - write about the most ridiculous series of events affecting three friends who meet up for a night out.

5.  The Bell

6.  The Love of my Life

7.  A sonnet

8.  Write no more than 1,000 words of fiction, non-fiction or narrative verse that contains this line in the middle of your writing:   “I wasn’t going to give up that easily.”

9.  Write something inspired by the following, "There is a crowd of people. So many that there is barely room to move and people are crushed up against each other ..."

10. Write a contribution on one of the book themes: “Change”, “Love”, “Survival”, “Elsewhere”, “Life”, “Sentiment”, “Memories”, “Summer days”, “Crossroads”, “Transformation”, “Remembrance”, “Goodwill”.

11. Seasonal writing

12. Lineage (the ancestral kind)

2024

1.    That Magical Moment
2.    Include the phrase:  I/she/he/they/it. - never expected that!
3.     A piece of writing (any form or genre) set at night. (Try and use a ‘hook’ near the beginning).
 
4.    Writing in any genre inspired by particular sounds or a piece of music.
5.    Star
6.    Water
7.    Summer
8.    Cut
9.    The Barn - writing featuring a character based on someone you know or knew.
O
N
D

 2023 supplementary tasks:     1. Poetry 

a) Write a sonnet that uses consonance rhyme (as opposed to “full” rhyme). 

            ▪ Examples of full rhyme: 

            pram/tram; ring/sing; earth/mirth; car/bar; mouse/house; breeze/trees. 

            ▪ Examples of consonance rhyme (a type of half-rhyme): 

            pram/scrum; ring/gang; earth/fourth; car/more; mouse/kiss; breeze/noise. 

            So, in summary: consonance rhyme is when only the end-consonant sound rhymes. It is subtler than full rhyme, and I think it gives poems a smooth, understated sound… OK, perhaps that was a bit pretentious, but I like it! 

b) Write a “modern” haiku (3,5,3). 

c) Write a tanka – which is basically an extended haiku (5,7,5,7,7). 

d) Write a poem, using only ‘perfect’ rhyme.

e) Write a spring-themed ballad.

2. Prose 

  1. Write a “fairy story with a twist” (you’re free to interpret this task how you wish).
  2. Write a piece of flash fiction of no more than 200 words. 
  3. Write something that ends with the following line:  And there she was: lying under the piano! (Yes, it does have a 1920s feel to it.)*
  4. Write about your favourite animal.
  5. Write about your favourite colour.

No comments: