I reported a couple of weeks ago that a few of my writer friends are meeting virtually every Friday night to “write together”. We do a couple of creative writing exercises each time, and it’s a combination of practising our skills and socializing.

Usually we choose random words from random books and use them as prompts to write one fiction and one non-fiction piece, each in ten minutes. Then we share what we’ve written. I have to say I am hugely impressed with what we have come up with in that short time.

This week, Cliff brought us an idea that’s a bit different, and you might even be interested in taking up the idea, either by yourself or with a select group of friends or family.

The idea was that we were to write a letter to ourselves one year from now. The exercise itself was challenging, and the four of us wrote completely different things. We found them so interesting that we decided to take the process one step further.

We will take a few days to polish the writing, because although we all came up with the ideas, the writing was a bit rushed and messy. Then, probably next week, we will share the final versions. But here’s the fun part.

We will set a date one year from now to meet and open our letters. Then we’ll be able to compare what we wrote with what will actually have happened, and how each person’s situation compares to what we were thinking when we wrote the letters. Interesting, eh?

Let me know if you decide to do it too.