I had a light-bulb moment the other day.

Island Writers has almost reached maximum capacity, and with the lazy days of summer behind us, soon we’ll have to freeze membership again. But that leaves many Isle of Wight writers still looking for support and encouragement from a group of enthusiastic writer friends. Non-members are welcome to join the Island Writers facebook group, but it’s not the same as meeting in person.

Then I had a flash of inspiration: creative writing workshops!

A series of themed, stand-alone workshops, open to non-members and members alike, offers opportunities to link up with other local writers, including people who want to get back to creative writing, and those with more experience.

As a trial run, I’ve arranged three Sunday afternoon workshops, which will be held at our home in Ryde. The content will be suitable for writers of any genre, and will include :

LIGHT & DARK: Sunday 16 OCT, 3pm to 5.30pm, £7.50

CHRISTMAS: Sunday 20 NOV, 3pm to 5.30pm, £7.50

TIME: Sunday 15 JAN, 3pm to 5.30pm, £7.50

We’ve had several enquiries about writing memoirs/autobiography, so next year, I will be leading a series of three Wednesday afternoon sessions in Ryde:

MEMOIR-WRITING: Wednesday 8, 15 and 22 FEB, 3pm to 5.30pm, £22.50 (for 3 sessions)

All of these will have limited spaces, so book your place now to avoid disappointment!

We started by pulling crackers and writing a piece about one of the items we found inside. Then I asked you to write about a childhood Christmas – not necessarily your own childhood. That produced an interesting variety of poetry and prose, although a lot of you chose some rather gloomy stuff. I began to feel quite guilty that my worst Christmas problem is that advent calendars aren’t as exciting as the good old days! 

Let’s be honest, none of us experience the Hollywood idealised Christmas of rosy-cheeked carol-singers tramping through the snow, or happy children sitting beside log fires, opening beribboned parcels containing wooden toys. I doubt if anyone ever did!

The fact is, as Erica pointed out, writing about the ordinary doesn’t grab most readers’ attention. Adding conflict to the mix can create a stronger piece of writing. 

And every Christmas there are many people who don’t get the modern ‘TV advert’ equivalent either. We’ve all seen it, of course, as Mum brings in a platter of gleaming golden turkey to an appreciative gathering of family and friends. Bev’s story of homeless children in a hostel, with ham sandwiches for their Christmas dinner, showed the other side of the coin: many people are dispossessed, sad and alone.

Showing a contrast between the expected joyful feelings of the season and the negative emotions and memories it can evoke in reality works well, but can be a bit of a downer!

Fortunately for those of a more cheerful disposition, there are other ways to add contrasts to a piece of Christmas writing. Comparing the present with the past or one type of celebration with another can have just as powerful effect.

Anyway, we soon perked up again with lots of yummy Christmas food and a couple of glasses of wine!

If you have some spare time for writing over the break, I’ve scheduled some festive writing prompts to appear on this blog on 22nd December. Have a very happy Christmas, and I hope all your conflicts over the festive season are purely fictional!

Next, I asked you to choose a particular bird, and we spent a few minutes focusing on how our birds moved, sounded etc. and writing useful vocabulary words and phrases which could migrate into our pieces of writing. Then I egged you on to write about a person who reminded you of that bird.

And there was I, wondering if it would be too difficult! I must have been raven mad. You didn’t get into a flap, but all flew into action and hatched some interesting descriptive writing.

Well, Christmas is fast approaching and we are feeling festive! So after our meetup for friendly drinks at Yelfs (Tue 11th December, 7pm), our next Island Writers group session (on 18th December) will have a Christmas theme, with some yummy Christmas nibbles and Christmassy writing activities – feel free to turn up in an ugly Christmas sweater, silly tinsel earrings and elf hat if you get the urge!

Our assignment for next time is to create a piece of writing which includes a robin.

It can be poetry or prose, any length, or can be included in a longer project such as a novel or blog. Lucy’s already done hers – take a look!

As always, it’s optional, but if you haven’t completed your assignment yet, you might find this list of facts about robins useful.

See you on Tuesday 18th December at Ryde Library, 7pm-9pm.

PLEASE NOTE:

After Christmas, our next meeting will be on Tue 15 January 2019 – there will be NO MEETING ON NEW YEAR’S DAY.

Our writing topic this time was Water. I asked you to write about someone or something underwater, and it was impressive to see how keen you were to wade in and respond to the challenge. Some pieces were dark and brooding, others playful or intriguing, with settings ranging from waterfalls, rivers and canals to the sea and even a bathtub. I’m hoping some will appear on our blog soon.

We spoke about beta-readers, and I noticed some of you were unfamiliar with the term. It’s used to refer to someone who will read and critique your whole manuscript, whereas your first reader (alpha-reader) might look at it in parts, as you write it. Here’s a link you might wish to explore about the difference between alpha- and beta-readers.

If you have a book or any other piece of writing that’s ‘kind-of-finished’ and you’d like a first critique of your writing, I’ll be happy to give you my suggestions, whether you want to call me an alpha-reader, a beta-reader, or a @!?&# pain! You don’t have to follow my advice: the important thing with sharing our writing is that we have the humility to listen to other people’s opinions – and the confidence to decide our own way is better.

I’m still working on the ‘humility’ bit!

Our assignment for next time is a piece of writing including (or inspired by) the phrase, ‘Swept by the tide’.

See you on Tuesday 4th December.

Are you ready to join Island Writers and see how far your writing can develop?

It could be an intriguing journey. Let’s explore together.

See you all tonight, 7pm-9pm, at Ryde Library.