"Lose control." "Don't think." "Go for the jugular."
Those were among the creative-writing tips offered to eight students at Florence Bain Senior Center in Columbia one recent Thursday, at a class called "Writing Your Life Story."
What began four years ago as a class on autobiographies has evolved in the past year into a workshop on creative writing, under the guidance of instructor Yvette Ridenour, 33, a Catonsville resident.
"I discovered a lot of talent," said Mrs. Ridenour, who holds a bachelor of arts in English literature from University of Maryland and a master's of arts in writing from the Johns Hopkins University. "Class members were actually enjoying the process of writing."
So Mrs. Ridenour, who is president and owner of Daystar Professional Writing, an editorial consulting firm, asked class members if they would like to change the focus of the class from autobiographies to creative writing.
"This was a chance to stretch them as writers," Mrs. Ridenour said. "Everyone was enthusiastic."
Mrs. Ridenour offers the senior citizens a mixture of book work and practical instruction. During one recent session, for example, she read aloud from a book called "Wild Mind," by Natalie Goldberg, a compendium of creative writing techniques.
She also had the students complete exercises intended to help stretch their creativity.
For example, one 10-minute assignment, which had to be completed in class, required them to use such phrases as "I am thinking" and "I remember" in a short piece of writing.
"You don't wait for inspiration, thinking about it for five years," Mrs. Ridenour told the students. "Sit down and do it."
Last week's homework focused on style. Students were given five starter sentences to use in a piece of writing, including "I still look back with pleasure on my childhood," and "Life is like a thrift shop; you never know what you are going to find."
The results were a potpourri of prose, fiction and fact as each student contributed her unique way of expression.
"Whether they took each sentence and wrote something about it, put all of their ideas together in one essay, or wrote it as a fiction piece, every single person created something different," Mrs. Ridenour said.
The budding writers are articulate, she said, and find satisfaction in the fact that others find their work interesting.
"I don't know if I was really good at writing, but when I came here, I got enough support," said Ann Sharp, a 58-year-old Virginia resident who joined the group when she lived in the Columbia area last year and still attends once a week.
Rebecca Britt, a 68-year-old Ellicott City resident, has been attending the writing class for four years.
She has self-published poetry, prose, children's stories and essays.
"I enjoy the friendship and the sharing of our lives, as well as the diversity in our writing," she said of the writing group.
Helen Thompson, 65, hopes to publish one of her short stories. "I like to take the classics and turn them into modern-day events," said the Columbia resident, who added that an agent currently is interested in a short story that she has had copyrighted.
Mrs. Ridenour is pleased with the efforts and progress of those in the class.
She said the writing is invariably good in quality and, sometimes, "very beautiful. "Teaching them is quite different from teaching kids," she said.
"They have no grammatical errors; the quality of their education is so much better.
"I have grown so fond of the class members; something wonderful comes up every week."
To obtain additional information about the writing class, call Yvette Ridenour, 744-7413.