I started a creative writing course last week at City Univeristy and thought I'd share the fruit of my labours. One warm up piece involved interviewing each other about your name and then writing about your own, we had 5 minutes and only one draft. It's only an exercise but it's a uselful one to loosen up, meet new people and get writing.
The questions were:
What is your name? Why were you so named? What does it mean? Do you like it? Do you have any nicknames?
Me and my Name
Michelle, Meeeeechelle, Muhshell, Shell, it doesn't abbreviate well or even sound that pleasant in your mouth. But in French! Oh! Michelle! It's all flounce and passion, my belle, it's Beatles song lyrics and most definitely not a hairdresser with a bubble perm.
You may have guessed I don't like my name, je n'aime pas, so I'm off to St. Pancras to hop on a train where my name doesn't offend the ear and I may offer the true meaning of my name in a flourish, God's right hand.
I have a full page illustration in this season's Anorak magazine. If you don't know it, it's simply the most fabulous children's magazine, touted as 'The happy mag for kids', it really is so jolly happy, it's a quarterly and cheap as chips at £3.50 because it's packed full of stories, games and fun.
