Read the full Guardian article here: https://bit.ly/2LSID3https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/09/lets-be-frank-it-takes-more-than-talent-alone-to-produce-a-fleabag
~~~
An interesting angle from The Guardian on Phoebe
Waller-Bridge’s recent comedy Fleabag – a story about a 30-something woman
trying to stay afloat in her world of fractured relationships and unreliable
emotions. The show’s frank and often ugly of treatment of vulnerability and
family clashes is something most of us can relate to, but it’s a fair point to
consider how many of us could actually write about it in the way Phoebe has
managed with Fleabag.
It’s so important to provide writing
opportunities for those people without the privilege of networks and private
education. Without these pathways, there would be no representation within the
arts, and the impact of that is a lack of education for everyone on diverse
experiences and outlooks.
Earlier this year a
survey conducted by The Bookseller revealed that almost 80% of people from
working class backgrounds said they believed their class had adversely affected
their writing career, and a further 48% said they had experienced industry
discrimination based on their background.
At WoW, we provide a variety of writing courses
to help create much-needed access to a largely closed and exclusive industry.
Our courses include:
‘Write to Work’ – a course for unemployed learners to develop a diverse range of writing skills that
can help them gain training and new opportunities. From our last two Write to
Work courses, 32 participants took part and of those that answered, 47%
of these participants went on to further education or employment after
completing the course. One of our former Write to Work
participants Claire Rice said about the course: “I feel confident in
about how to get work, I also got published in The Guardian because of this
course. I feel this course has been a watershed moment for me and I am so
grateful to all involved thank you.”
‘What’s Your Story?’ – a course which engages diverse
communities to tell their own story in their own voice and on their own terms.
Since October 2018, we have delivered three of these courses, while engaging
with and publishing the work of 58 new writers.
‘Superheroes: Words Are Our Power’ – our literacy project that lets school
children create their own superhero and realise the true power of their
stories. Since October 2017, the project has engaged with over 400 school
children and helped them to create and publish their new superheroes.
We also run our annual novel-writing
competition Pulp Idol for early-career writers to gain experience of the
publishing industry. The twelve finalists will all have their first chapters
published in an anthology, which are then sent out to publishes and agents.
Recent successes include Ariel Kahn, whose debut novel Raising Sparks
came runner up in The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize, and James Rice who
signed a two book deal with Hodder and Stoughton.
In 2018, WoW also published its first
ever novel. Bess by Rose Thomas is the first novel to ever be published
by a Liverpool-born black female writer. Since its publication, Rose has taken
her novel to multiple universities, delivered guest lectures about her writing
journey and been reviewed/interviewed in various magazines.
At Writing on the Wall, we understand
the enormous value of providing these crucial pathways for working-class and
underrepresented writers to gain access to the writing industry. Writing
shouldn’t be an aspirational or unlikely idea – it’s one of the best ways we
can engage with ourselves and those around us. Through our courses, we want to
make sure writing is accessible and attainable for everyone who wants to do it.
