> Mrs. O'Neill's Blog: The art of Creative Writing: new competition

Friday, November 10, 2006

The art of Creative Writing: new competition


Ever since Miss Fisher (P4) got us to write a story 'about something scary' I've been fascinated by creative writing. Funnily enough my story involved a man giving a speech. Some people do find that scary. Miss Fisher had a problem with my description of the man 'throwing his arms and his words out towards the audience'. Later on I discovered that this odd manoeuvre was called a zeugma. I also discovered that I am probably more intrigued by the process of writing about something, than the actual outcome. In other words I should be an English teacher...
However, like a lot of people, I make up little stories all the time in my head.
Look at the photograph above. What does it you think of?
A withered leaf from a single rose that has been thrown away by someone perhaps...
For the less imaginative or more scientific perhaps you're thinking of Gardener's Question Time: what is that fungus called?
Anyway I came across this competition which might be fun:
Creative Writing Competition.
The competition is open to everyone, and simply requires that you write a short poem or piece of prose in not more than about 1,000 words inspired by a piece of art, taken from the collections of the National Galleries of Scotland . You can view many of the works online at their site.
Prizes? Well it's art for art's sake, the prize being free entry to all National Galleries exhibitions for two people for one year. The winner also gets published in the Scotsman newspaper.
I am happy to read over anyone's ideas, and make encouraging sounds.
Oh, go on. You know you want to...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As the note said... "Show me the money!"

I thought about writing something for this, but I think I'm going to concentrate on trying to write longer stuff. I lost 800 words of the start of the Great Contemporary Novel last night. Blogging like hell, though.

Anonymous said...

The prize is the reward of knowing you created something in response to great art.

Re the novel -let us know if you find it won't you...