I have started a writing course two weeks ago with the ‘Writers Bureau’ and for my first assignment I had to visit a place and describe it using all five senses. So today I made a special trip to a cafe called ‘The Engine Room’ in Dorchester. The reason why I chose this cafe was because they do a wide range of gluten free cake, which is great because I can still go out and have a treat without going off my new diet plan.

I wanted to share this experience with you as this is a great exercise if you feel stuck and you feel like nothing creative is coming from your brain, or pen 😉 The brief for the assignment was to be observant and use all senses when describing a place. It had to be a special visit. They were suggesting a market, fair, a place of historical interest, sporting event, a cafe or a restaurant. I took my pen and notebook along and noted down everything I could hear, smell, see, feel and taste. The word limit was 300-500 words. I was only in the cafe for 30 minutes but I had a long list of notes and when it came to writing them up I found that I was well over the word limit. I had to take a lot out to match the criteria, but if you are stuck and you are not confined to a word limit this little bit of writing could help jump start your writing 😉 I really enjoyed the task. it showed me how easy it is to just write. I often feel like I am lacking inspiration and motivation, but making a special visit to somewhere, knowing I would use it to write made me feel quite excited. i think I am going to use this method more often to get me to write. It’s like a date with your inner writer x