Our Creative Writing Group met on Wednesday 19 February 2025 with a simple brief that drew creative stories from around the world. The brief was to write on ‘Back to Reality’ or ‘A Dream’ or ‘A Walk’ or ‘Environmental Change’. It was made clear that the dream need not involve sleep, but could be an aspiration.

We started with an imagined author who had written a book that had set the arts scene alight, and had resulted in the author being called to a celebrity party where he was asked to sign a multi-million pound deal for the film rights of his novel by a world famous film director. Did the author wake or did it really happen?

We then heard a dialogue between husband and wife stuck in their car at a set of traffic lights for a major roadworks, during which they discussed driving, shopping and their relationship. From the everyday we moved to fantasy where the parents of small children had won an enormous lottery prize and were explaining to the children that their good fortune must remain a secret. Needless to say, the news crept out and the nightmare began. We were calmed after that by a description of a yoga class and the peace and contentment that could develop there before returning to reality.

We then heard about the memories that an old sea shell brought back when it turned up in a house clearance. That led to another story about a marriage across a religious divide and how to couple managed to cope with their in-laws. We heard a poem about the benefit that light brings to our lives. That was followed by an example of what can go wrong during a dog walk in a park when you pop out without your phone or wallet. A fall in the park, leading to a loss of memory had created confusion for our narrator, and consternation when there was no means to pay the taxi driver for the ride home. That story was followed by another poem dealing with how easily troubles can mount once a life starts down the slippery slope.

We then had a descriptive poem about the walk down from a mountain top in Cyprus, and all the wildlife that was seen as the forest was approached. We then had a reflective poem about the anniversary of a sad event, and we finished with a story about the 2020 Kumbh Mela, where some 50 million pilgrims had converged on the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati rivers in Prayagraj, India.

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 05 March 2025 at 10:00am.