August 2025
The start of the new academic year 2025-2026 marks Lil' Writing Shed's fifth birthday! I proudly raise a glass, thank you for all your support over these years and look forward to many more!
Over the past five years, Lil' Writing Shed has spread its wings beyond its birthplace Bristol welcoming writers from the West Country, London, the USA and as far afield as Australia!
We now offers classes for children and teens too. It has been wonderful to hear from those who have published or performed poems, self-published their memoirs and completed their novels, but more importantly it has been wonderful to witness and assist the joy of coming together to explore how we express ourselves through language, with such variety in personal expression, humour, feeling and imagination.
The biggest advantage to writing together, which is that you get to read your work. Not only is your writing validated by being listened to, but you get to hear it for yourself too, speaking it out loud, an opportunity to notice what works and what doesn't; you also get the opportunity to receive feedback from others.
Having said that, I also believe not all of our writing is ever meant to be read by others, instead it may release a need to express, provide us with the personal pleasure of a memory, allow us to drop our censorship, experiment and even fail to write something we like, and there is always space to do just that.
Inspiration this month comes from Wimbledon winner Jannik Sinner, who has spoken about how:
* Small details can make the difference
* With the losses, you learn more
* With less pressure you are likely to perform better
* Tennis is unpredictable - Writing can be unpredictable too: one day inspiration seems to have dried up, but take heart because the next day words may flow...
* One year passes by so fast, so you had better enjoy the moment
Writing Suggestions:
* While the weather is good and everybody is enjoying being outdoors, head into town and pick up snippets of conversation, observe how people gesticulate, their body language as they interact, notice where tension lies in voice. Use this to inform speech and dialogue in your story. You can also use a snippet of conversation as the starting point of a tale.
* Repeatedly ask yourself what it is you want to be saying
* Explore what you need to include to create a character that you really like
Over the past five years, Lil' Writing Shed has spread its wings beyond its birthplace Bristol welcoming writers from the West Country, London, the USA and as far afield as Australia!
We now offers classes for children and teens too. It has been wonderful to hear from those who have published or performed poems, self-published their memoirs and completed their novels, but more importantly it has been wonderful to witness and assist the joy of coming together to explore how we express ourselves through language, with such variety in personal expression, humour, feeling and imagination.
The biggest advantage to writing together, which is that you get to read your work. Not only is your writing validated by being listened to, but you get to hear it for yourself too, speaking it out loud, an opportunity to notice what works and what doesn't; you also get the opportunity to receive feedback from others.
Having said that, I also believe not all of our writing is ever meant to be read by others, instead it may release a need to express, provide us with the personal pleasure of a memory, allow us to drop our censorship, experiment and even fail to write something we like, and there is always space to do just that.
Inspiration this month comes from Wimbledon winner Jannik Sinner, who has spoken about how:
* Small details can make the difference
* With the losses, you learn more
* With less pressure you are likely to perform better
* Tennis is unpredictable - Writing can be unpredictable too: one day inspiration seems to have dried up, but take heart because the next day words may flow...
* One year passes by so fast, so you had better enjoy the moment
Writing Suggestions:
* While the weather is good and everybody is enjoying being outdoors, head into town and pick up snippets of conversation, observe how people gesticulate, their body language as they interact, notice where tension lies in voice. Use this to inform speech and dialogue in your story. You can also use a snippet of conversation as the starting point of a tale.
* Repeatedly ask yourself what it is you want to be saying
* Explore what you need to include to create a character that you really like
|
Hasn't this summer of 2025 been one of extraordinary heatwaves! Remembering cooler days, here's a pic of me earlier in the year, giving my cat a rub down after he ran in wet from a downpour of rain.
|