The Art of Listening and Communication

Had the second of the Yorkshire writers’ writing retreats for some of my fellow Yorkshire writers. We had the first at my house in May. This time the lovely Ashe Barker offered her house as a venue and we had a goodly bunch in attendance.

I did a session for these lovely people which was on the Art of Listening and Communication using the well known fairy story, Goldilocks. After reading it I then made 12 statements based on what I had read and they answered true or false depending on what they heard. Often we make assumptions based on what we hear, eg, the statement ‘Goldilocks woke up and was frightened when she saw the bears and ran away in fright’. I only said, “Goldilocks woke up, saw the bears and ran away.” So in that circumstance, the statement was false. People often impose their own feelings on what they hear, because they would be frightened in that situation. If you are in a position of dealing with customers, it is important to listen and not decide on an outcome based on your own emotions.

As authors though, the point is – have we made the character’s emotions clear enough? Or are we relying on implication? And is it necessary in this instance to be specific? Food for thought.

I am not going through each of the statements in case you should ever do this quiz yourself as it would give it away, but it was a fun session to do.

Other sessions included using Triberr, and setting up a newsletter. It was great to see everyone and a fabulous day was had by all.

Many thanks, Ashe, for hosting us.