Workshop - Raymond Burke - Stand and Deliver........ .... 5 March 2019.

Thirteen members attended Raymond’s workshop. After a short introduction we worked alone or in pairs through a series of exercises.

These exercises were to help both in creating stories and then in presenting those stories to live audiences.

Initially,we each randomly picked a small item out of a box and were tasked with inventing (within five minutes) a story line which would explain why that item could have been delivered to us as an inheritance gift from a past associate or relation. We each then presented them as ‘true’ personal stories. This task was particularly challenging for the writers who had ‘inherited’ items which they did not recognise. (Not everyone is familiar with a face massaging roller.)

The next exercise involved splitting into pairs and creating a single line of dialogue for each of six photos.

Each pair then created a short story which used one of those pieces of dialogue as the punch line.

Finally each group stood up and jointly presented and then read out each of their stories.

Raymond outlined many of the factors to be considered when presenting stories or poetry at a large gathering:-

  Know your audience and be very familiar with the piece you are going to read.

  Annotate your script with instructions for verbal presentation eg pauses, emphasis, speed.

  Practice reading the piece out loud and measure the duration.

  Remember to breath.

  Relax, appear confident, but not too relaxed and confident.

  Check the use of any props eg display screens and microphone. Check volume.

As a final exercise, we each created a piece of flash fiction, making use of similes and using the same characters as had appeared in the previous short stories.

Raymond Burke gave us an interesting and hard working session.

http://raymondburke007.wixsite.com/writing