Creative Writing Workshop by Monica and Lesley-Anne

I had wanted to arrange this Creative Writing workshop with Monica and Lesley-Anne for the longest time ever (Monica can testify that). The club that AJ is in, had initially agreed to incorporate it into their bi-yearly activities for children. However, somehow, along the way, there were hiccups and the workshop didn’t materialize. Not willing to give up, I solicited people around me so that I could have at least 10 children in the workshop to help share the cost. Monica and I agreed on the date, but, lo and behold, nearing the date, I only have 5 children signed up.

Monica was very kind to offer her help to put up a post in her Facebook Fanpage, and in less than a week, we have met the numbers. That’s how influential she is!

Here are some photos I took on the actual day.

It was a very useful workshop for the kids, I find. Lesley-Anne shared a few tactics on writing creatively and the duo even played games with the children to stimulate more creative juices!

As I sat back and observed the workshop, I couldn’t help but to admire Monica. Lesley-Anne is such a pleasant, confident, mature young lady, I could sense the respect and love she has for her parents (her father was there too). The duo has a strong chemistry in this partnership, it is not difficult to sense the strong bond between them. Indeed, Monica has brought her up well. My heart was filled with envy. Then, I found myself imagining how AJ would turn out to be 8 years later. Would he be a fine, well-mannered, filial and mature young man? Would I be able to have such a strong mother-son bond? Ah! I digressed. Let’s get back.

The children were supposed to craft a short story based on some guidelines given. Here’s AJ’s:

I was pretty surprised he talked about Coffee. He had never tasted coffee, let alone the different types of coffee. I suspected he picked up this from his coffee-addict mum. :O

Anyway, I find his story funny, and very ‘him’. He likes to inject time frame in his stories, and likes to travel on a time machine to millions of years in the future or back. He likes to do that in his composition too, and often got marks deducted because of that :(. And his story always ended abruptly. Haiz.

Here’s his crafted story (unedited) after going through those guidelines:

Hi! I’m Latte. Yes, I am a coffee. I don’t want you to drink me. I like to drink other coffee. I am in a cruise ship. I am in a coffee shop in the cruise ship. They are selling me. I don’t want to be sold to people who will gobble me down their throat and wake me up through their digestive system and end up as poop. So I have been finding ways to hide from sickening people like you. Through a study, I have come to a conclusion that sickening people like you enjoy drinking sickening Cappuccinos and hate drinking friendly Raspberry Juice. So I hide in Raspberry Juice for the time being.

2,398,274,065 years later …

The same jug of the Raspberry Juice is running out. I am now 2,398,274,079 years old, and nobody can find me. I talk to Raspberry Juice about it. She says to stay here but I want to leave. So I go and seek refuge in the deep blue azure sea. 

(And the mum here wonders why the Raspberry Juice didn't turn bad ... ...)

At the end of the workshop, we had photography and book-signing session. Of course, all gathering of human beings can't go without some form of ‘makan’. Besides serving light refreshment, I took the opportunity to celebrate Lesley-Anne’s 19th birthday in advance. Blessed Birthday to you, Lesley-Anne! Thank you so much for your sharing!

This cake was lovingly baked by my home-baker friend Lynn

If you are interested to arrange for such workshop, kindly contact Denise at denise.closetfulofbooks@gmail.com