Session 7 - Creative Writing with Daniela Nunnari

Session Aims:

• Create a 'Caring Timeline'
• Learn and Practice Creative Writing Techniques
• Create and Present a Final Piece of Poetry

RARPA Statement:
"I can write and present a creative narrative which represents my thoughts, feelings and experiences"


The group were asked to respond to the statement, the Red marks show where they felt they were at the start of the session and the Green shows how they felt at the end.


Today's session was the first part of the second half of the campaign. We are now looking at creating moving media rather than static media. A definite shift in perspective takes place here; whereas before the crew were looking specifically how to project images outwards into the world, they now begin to look inwards in order to identify appropriate material for the film based on their own experiences. We knew that these sessions would be challenging for the crew and therefore set up a group check-in and check-out where people could express their thoughts and emotions and leave things in the room with the support of the group. We will do the check-in and check-out at each session from now on.

The first task was to create a visual timeline of their caring responsibility; from the moment they took on the responsibility to the present day and into the future. We asked the group to draw their timeline and include significant moments both positive and negative. The process of seeing all this written down was very challenging for all of us but became a good source of context and a pallette from which the crew could make positive choices about which experiences they wanted to share artistically as part of the campaign and which they wished to keep within the group.

Dani then began her session by doing some fun Haiku's to get the group used to writing creatively. The next exercise Dani did followed a structure working with metaphor and using metaphor to shape the poems. The results were really great and although fun, maintained a depth and quality about them. Finally Dani removed the structures and asked the group to write freely about something which was important to them from their timeline. Dani helped the group to craft their poems and narratives to really draw the audience into the feeling of the poems. The results were very vivid and again brought about lots of emotion which was shared with the group.

For the final presentation of the poems, Stephen Burke joined the group in order to see what material they would be bringing into the performing arts session the following day.