*Guest Blog* - Sue Douglas

Sometimes life throws you a chance that you can’t ignore. ‘What’s Your Story?’ was that chance so I grabbed it and joined the group.  The thing about writing is that I didn’t know where to start. I’ve spent a lifetime writing letters and emails, delivering reports and so on, but they tend to be factual - leaving little or no room for imagination or creativity.   One thing I do know is that whether you like it or not it’s inevitable that as time goes by you become a store-house for the many experiences, sounds and images that make up your life, and suddenly you are someone who needs to shape and share some of those ideas and stories before it’s too late!  But WYS? isn’t necessarily about being older or telling your own story. The age-range of our group is w-i-d-e, the starting-points varied, and I feel refreshed and encouraged by being in such great company.  Paula and the group are taking me down a track that is extending my outlook, developing my ideas and helping me to become more confident about setting down my thoughts and ideas.  Sometimes we laugh and sometimes we cry! It’s fun, cathartic and a great, new learning experience.  Last week I wrote a poem! Whatever next?

Sue Douglas

*Guest Blog* - Helen Windel

Andy started the session today with his tale of a spliff-smoking, scam-scheming nun.  Much laughter.  Eric's poetry then carried us through the maze of life and we were captivated.  And this was before the session had even begun, while our coffee still sat warm in our cups and the chocolate biscuits waited for politeness to subside.
Today we'd be focussing on performance poetry and would get the chance to perform a poem of our own if we wished.  My default setting is to avoid any kind of audience so I shied away when Paula asked for volunteers though almost everyone in the group put themselves forward and Paula's enthusiasm and encouragement had even me considering whether to have a go.

First we looked at some examples of performance style on DVD and it was surprising to realise how the completely disparate performance deliveries from each poet could all engage us and connect us with their words and worlds.  Jackie Kay candidly chatted to us about her adoption experiences from her sofa while John Agard energetically and charismatically reported over a mike his newsflash on all non-native words having a mass walkout from the English dictionary.

Back in the room we connected with the words of the group as one after another people articulated thoughts, feelings, beliefs and most importantly truths the listener could empathise with.  Soulful accounts of loss, a rich and textured slice of Merseyside pride, visions of defiant kites soaring over Otterspool Prom, passionate homage to a doomed pub, heartwrenching reflections on parenthood and a lighthearted take on the innocence of childhood.  Our journey complete, the coffee sat cold and the biscuits were forgotten.  Another excellent session.

Helen Windel 

*Guest Blog* - Andy Green

We'll be putting up guest entries to the blog over the next few weeks from participants of our What's Your Story? project. Our first guest blog is from Andy Green and he discusses his previous experiences with poetry.

School has a lot to answer for; I found myself at the age of 11 being expected to appreciate the poems of Andrew Marvell, and frankly metaphysics wasn't my cup of tea at that age. That precipitated an almost terminal slump in my interest in English in general and pomes in particular. It wasn't until a wonderfully maverick teacher ( notorious for producing for a school  play Aristophanes' 'The Frogs' which so offended the Bishop of Southwark that he walked out - and subsequently sacked for giving us a lesson based on the infamous Oz magazine prosecuted for criminal blasphemy) introduced me to the great war poets and the 1960's poetry scene that I thought there may be something in it after all. That and hearing Under Milk Wood for thew first time.

I'm OK with metaphysics now- but still prefer e.e.cummings. Who can resist a poet who wrote;

'a politician is an arse upon

which everyone has sat except a man'

Poetry was 'hot' then, often linked to the jazz scene and to the arts lab scene. Looking back I was pretty lucky; for example I remember hearing Christopher Logue read on several occasions as well as the Liverpool Poets in their first flush. My local arts lab was run by one D.Bowie, who done quite well for himself in the end.

Enjoying the course; thanks.

Andy G.

Can Writing Be Taught?

In a recent Guardian article, the writer Rachel Cusk explored the rise of creative writing classes and asked the question, ‘Can writing be taught?’ It is a question that polarises opinion.  For example, there are certain writers: the ‘special ones’ who insist that writing cannot be taught. According to these writers, their talent is god-given and you’ve either got it or you ain’t.  This point of view annoys me to say the least.  The exclusivity of it; the sense of entitlement – ‘this is mine, you can’t have it.’
My take on this issue is similar to Rachel Cusk’s and Raymond Carver’s (Great people to share opinions with). I think that encouraging students to think seriously about writing is tremendously helpful.  For anybody who doubts the value of teaching writing, I would urge them to read Raymond Carver’s foreword to John Gardner’s On Becoming A Novelist. ( It is also included as an essay - John Gardner: The Writer As Teacher - in Raymond Carver’s Fires.)  In it, Carver discusses the profound influence that Gardner had on him as a teacher; how he shaped his attitude and values. He also states:

…’It was his experience – and it has been mine, in my role as a teacher of creative writing – that certain aspects of writing can be taught and handed over to other, usually younger writers.  This idea shouldn’t come as a surprise to any person seriously interested in education and the creative act.  Most good or even great conductors, composers, microbiologists, ballerinas, mathematicians, visual artists, astronomers, or fighter pilots, learned their business from older and more accomplished practitioners.  Taking classes in creative writing, like taking classes in pottery or medicine, won’t in itself make anyone a great writer, potter or doctor – it may not even make the person anygood at any of these things.  But Gardner was convinced that it wouldn’t hurt your chances either.’

Of course you may say that Raymond Carver was a naturally gifted writer – he probably would have become a writer anyway, had he not had the good fortune to find himself in John Gardner’s writing class. But without Gardner’s influence, Carver’s writing may have been very different.

Carver also makes the point – a point I agree with, ‘That no teacher or any amount of education can make a writer out of someone who is constitutionally incapable of becoming a writer in the first place’.  But for writers with an aptitude, and a willingness to learn and to think seriously about their craft, then writing classes can be hugely beneficial.

I am currently running a series of free writing workshops called What’s Your Story? and have been impressed by the efforts shown by the participants to incorporate the narrative techniques that we discuss each week.  We did a workshop recently on dialogue and writers who had previously shied away from dialogue – got stuck in with fantastic results.  The classes are – I hope – making the writers think critically about their own work and their own methods of writing.  Which can only be a good thing.

Some of the participants from What’s Your Story? will be blogging in the next few weeks about their experiences on the course.  If you’d like to find out more about what goes on in the sessions check out our guest bloggers to find out all the ins and outs…

Paula Currie 

What's Your Story?

At the beginning of December we began our first What's Your Story?sessions.  My initial worry that I would be speaking to an empty room proved totally unfounded.  We had an excellent turn out.   Both the taster sessions and the course itself were very well attended and attracted an interesting, creative mix of people, all keen to start writing.
So much in creative writing groups depends on the mix of people in the room and at What's Your Story? we've got a real cross section of ages, backgrounds, and experience.  This really adds something to the sessions.  The discussions were lively and interesting - because the people on the course are lively and interesting.  There was never a lull in the proceedings.  Participants always had something to say: an opinion to offer, or an insight to share and I learned as much as anyone else - even though I'm the course tutor.  That's the thing that never fails to surprise me:  how much you can learn through teaching.  I read some stories that I know really well and at each session, someone offered me an insight into the story which hadn't occurred to me before.  I really love that.  

As well as reading stories in the group we also write at each session.  We always complete one or two short writing exercises. These exercises only take about 10 - 20 minutes to complete, sometimes I just do a couple of very short 5 minute exercises.  This is intended to reduce anxiety around writing.  Many people worry that they have to produce a work of genius - that it has to be amazing, or why bother?  You can talk yourself out of writing before you even begin.  We often listen to that voice that tells us: 'This has been done before, and better, what have you got to say that's new? And who's going to be interested?'  And it stops us before we even start.  I always tell people to ignore that voice and just pick up a pen and begin.  Usually the work that they produce is much better than they imagined.  And even if it isn't, it's just a starting point, a sketch - it can be worked on and fleshed out, improved and re-imagined.  That's what the writing exercises provide participants with: a starting point, a lump of clay that they can mould into whatever shape they want.

Some of the work produced by the group so far, has been of a very high standard.  We'll be publishing the work on the website in the next few months, and the writers will be participating in a group writing project - so look out for that, too.

If you'd like to get involved in What's Your Story?  There are still some places available.  The Toxteth daytime session is full but there are still some places left on the evening course which takes place on Monday 7th January at the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre, Princes Road, L8 1TH. (6.00 - 8.00pm) There are also a few places left on the Croxteth course, which takes place on Tuesday 8th January at  Communiversity, Altcross Road, L11 0BS (10.00-12.00pm)  So why not make creative writing one of your New Year's resolutions?  If you've always wanted to write, but need some help and encouragement to get you started then why not come along to one of the groups.  We've got a lovely mixture of participants who are very warm and encouraging of each other's work.  So if you'd like to come along you'd be very welcome.  

Hope to see you at one of the groups.  Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and creative New Year!
I'm spending a bit of time writing over Christmas - I promised myself that I'd have the final draft of my novel finished by Christmas and I've missed my own deadline.  So I'll have to get busy...

Paula Currie

Pot Novel! (Just add words)

A few weeks ago an interesting looking supplement fell out of The Guardian. It was called 'How to write a book in 30 days.'  Having spent well over a year writing my own first novel, I snatched it open.   The title, it has to be said, was a bit of a con.  On reading the supplement it became clear that it wasn't a manual in how to write an actual book in 30 days, it was a guide to writing a 30 day plan for writing a book.  The final page merrily asserts that once the 30 day plan is complete, 'Only then, finally, is it time to start writing the book itself.'  Hmmm.

Everybody is anxious for a quick route to writing a novel but there really isn't one.  It takes as long as it takes and there are no real short cuts.  Some writers spend months, even years, thinking about their novel, letting ideas and characters percolate.  Other writers move into the writing process a lot quicker and prefer to work their ideas out practically, on the page.
Last year, I met the award-winning novelist Cynan Jones who blithely informed me that he'd written his first novel, The Long Dry (winner of the Betty Trask Award) in two weeks!  It's a very short novel - but it's still an astonishing feat.  I'd love to be able to tell you that his writing is careless and obviously rushed, but it's actually a stunning novel; beautifully written, which wholly deserves the acclaim that it received.

All writers go through a different writing process.  That's why I'm wary of self help books promising writing miracles.  There's no one correct way to go about it.  What works for one writer often creatively stifles another.  You may be aware that November is 'National Novel Writing Month'. (www.nanowrimo.org/ ) Writers who sign up, will attempt to write a 50,000 novel in a month.  This is an actual novel, not a plan for a novel as above.  Some writers will find this notion profoundly unsettling, it just wouldn't work for them.  But others may find that it gives them the kick start they need to get cracking on the novel they've been planning for years.  Will any of these novels be any good?  Only time will tell.  But one thing is certain: you may have an idea for novel but until you start writing, it's only an idea.  Until you have words on a page you have nothing.  Maybe it's time to write those ideas down.  Okay, so maybe you won't finish it in a month - but you'll make a start.  So go on - get cracking!

Paula Currie

A Room of One's Own

As you may know, we are currently in the process of setting up What's Your Story?  a series of free creative writing workshops to be held in Liverpool.  One of the weekly sessions will take place in the city centre and the other is going to be held in Croxteth, at Communiversity's new Creative Campus.
I hadn't been to Communiversity before, so last week I  paid them a long-overdue visit.  I had the real pleasure of meeting Sheila Sweeney and Phil Knibb, the two inspirational people who have worked so hard to make Communiversity a reality.  They've done a fantastic job with the place.  it's an amazing community resource and a real testament to what communities can achieve when they pull together.

I'm going to be running the What's Your Story workshops from their new Creative Campus and I can't wait to get started.  Phil and Sheila have provided a beautifully designed, fully refurbished building for our use, which includes a teaching room, theatre space, recording studio and - this particularly delighted me - private rooms for participants to write in!

They are beautiful and such a useful idea.  It's a nod to Virginia Woolf's notion that 'a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.' Unfortunately, we can't do anything about the money situation - but we can provide men and women with a room of their own to write in.   They're going to be so helpful to writers.  Sometimes it's impossible to find a space to think in - let alone write in.  Kids arguing, telly blaring, next door playing thrash metal at all hours. (And that's just in my house) So I know what it's like.  The writing rooms at the Creative Campus will provide people with a haven, a space to be creative in.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the writing rooms in use.  Sheila and Phil have done a wonderful job of creating the right environment for people to write in - so I want to ensure that the place is packed to capacity.

If you'd like to participate in What's Your Story? contact me on:
info@writingonthewall.org.uk and I'll keep you up to date with developments.


Paula Currie