January has been positive & eventful for Creative Writes and has included time spent laying the foundations for February and beyond.
Last week – ‘Life as a Workshop Leader’ included two Blotted Ink Workshops at Pickled Pepper Books in Crouch End for 7-9 & 9-11 year olds, where we continued as Story Detectives – solving the mystery of lost objects. The workshops are ongoing, during term time. Please book your child’s place with the shop: www.pickledpepperbooks.co.uk
There was also networking with my SBN group (Small Business Network) in Muswell Hill, where there are always thought provoking conversations.
On Thursday, I attended a ‘Cut Up Writing’ Workshop at Parasol Unit in Islington: http://www.parasol-unit.org/adult-workshop-cut-up-writing It was liberating to have some time out to play with words.
We used some of the same techniques from the Creative Writes ‘Playing with Poetry & Words’ workshop – which will run again on 21 March (this follows ‘Myriad of Objects’ on 4 March). For info & booking: https://www.creativewrites.co.uk/p/bookings.html
The Parasol Unit workshop made a direct link with the methods used by William Burroughs and other Beat Culture artists & writers. We ripped pages from books & magazine, cut them out, folded them up, painted over them, added our own words & images and shared with the group. Poets found themselves writing openings to novels…everyone was focused and surprised at the results.
Try these exercises – inspired by the ‘Cut Up Writing’ workshop:
Gather a random selection of unwanted books, newspapers and magazines. Cut up words that stand out for you. Put them in a bag and then pick out a few. Display in the order you selected them and use these words to trigger a poem. Add to these by cutting up and writing more words – include images too if you wish. You could also try folding pages of text at different angels and seeing what happens when two pages meet. You could also block some words out with paper or paint – as the Beat Writers did. Go for it!
I also had fantastic meetings and converstaions with Rochelle Scholar from Mendham Writers www.mendham-writers.com; Cynthia Akinsanya from Delights by Cynthia www.delightsbycynthia.com, Olivia Bellas from ScreenDeep www.screendeep.co.ukand Nina Simoes from the Fragmens of Parenthood Project. These conversations are continuing and I will post updates about our work together.
In the meantime, booking is still open for the Reminiscene & Creative Writing Workshop with Mendham Writers on Sunday 10 February, where we will remember the 1970’s and take inspiration for new writing.
We are also booking for Sutton House Saturdays which will run from 23 February for four weeks.
For details on all February/March Creative Writes workshops, please see our Info & Bookings Page and do email or call me if you wish: https://www.creativewrites.co.uk/p/bookings.html
Bye for now!