And So This Is Christmas!

Ho Ho Ho everyone!

As you might know, for the last meeting of the semester, Aline, Laurence and I decided to spice things up! Instead of having a meeting at the Blandijn, we went to Mayana Chocolate Bar as it is impossible to be in the Christmas mood without hot chocolate. When everyone finally had their drink and was able to listen to Aline, she explained why we had all been asked to dress up: a Christmas sweater competition! We were all asked to vote on a little piece of paper. Julie and Jolien got to share the prize. Congratulations to them! 

Aline then divided us in pairs for the first part of the meeting and gave us two cards out of Aline's Christmas Story Cards set. Each card had the picture of a character from a Christmas legend and a little explanation on who the character is. Each pair wrote a little story, and then read it out loud. We also took a vote on whose story was the best, or the most amusing.

For the second activity, Aline divided the whole group in two. Each group received puzzle pieces from Story Box. The pieces were parts of a story. Both groups had to start from the same puzzle piece, but they had different endings. Just so you know, Christmas stories can now involve spying and kidnapping. 

Our (beloved) name bag made a comeback during the third activity. We all had to pick one name from the bag and then had to imagine what would happen if our character met Santa Claus. I wrote a story about the Statue of Liberty getting a saw from Santa so she could free herself and walk around, because isn't it ironic that a statue representing freedom is immobile?

To end the meeting, Aline gave us a copy of a Christmas song written by John Lennon. Laurence, who created this activity, had taken out some of the words and our job was to add new words, as long as it fit the rhyme scheme. For some reason, we all decided to transform the song into something weird, creepy and scary. Sorry, John!

Well this is it for this semester, we are now taking a break until the end of the exams. Aline, Laurence and I hope you enjoyed the meetings and what we posted on the Facebook page.

Enjoy the holidays and good luck for the exams!

- Cara  

Sunday Writing Prompt 04/12/16

#SundayWritingPrompt 💡✒ As Christmas quickly approaches, the pile of presents underneath the Christmas tree grows. One morning, you wake up and an oddly shaped gift has been added to the pile. Who put it there and what is inside of it?
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Don't forget to join us this Tuesday for the CWG: Christmas Edition! Since we are not entirely sure if the chocolate bar will be open, we will be meeting at the main entrance of Blandijn! (TraBla)
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We hope to see you there!
- Aline

CWG: Christmas Edition

Good morning dear fellow writers,

Upcoming Tuesday will be the last creative writing meeting of the semester, but it promises to be a special one! As a theme, we chose the early Christmas spirit, and we will be going all out with it. Instead of meeting in the Big Meeting Room like we usually do, we will be meeting at TraBla at 19:00. We will leave at 19:05 at its latest, and go to the Mayana Chocolate Bar (if it’s open, there was some confusion about that and the baristas wer...e not able to help us out – but if not, Cara and I will inventively think of alternatives and are open for suggestions.)

Now what will be so Christmas-y about it, you may wonder? For starters, there will (hopefully) be hot cocoa. On top of that, all the writing we will do will be Christmas-themed in one way or another, and there will again be both prose and poetry stuff. Thirdly, we ask everyone who comes to dress up in a Christmas/very wintery sweater and to bring Christmas hat. The person that looks the most like an escaped Santa elf will win a prize. :D (Winner will be chosen by popular vote because democracy.)

Besides all the fun stuff, we ask everyone who’s coming to let us know you are on the Facebook event, so we know how many people to expect when we’re waiting in the cold in front of TraBla.  You can find it here: https://www.facebook.com/events/686851998157379/.

Last but not least, if anyone feels like sending in a story to be put on the FB page/be feedbacked during the meeting, feel free to send it through to creativewritingugent@gmail.com or message it to Cara or me on Facebook.

Alright, enough of the whining.
We hope to see you there!

- Aline