Morning Pages:
September 2024 Workshop Ideas
Monday 2nd September 2024 – So, food and memory. What memories do certain foods trigger? I could use my Yesteryear’s Lunch and my Love Poem – I could talk about KitKat machines, I could talk about Viennese Whirl latchkey afternoons. I could have steak and mushrooms with apple sauce as a celebration of a good bike event. A ninety-nine on a Summer’s day. Proper ham broth made in a huge pan by Mam in West Road Winters. I could have Mars bars and Christmas cake. Burnt chips and horse hoof rusty coloured pies on Fridays in the warehouse. This could lead into a list of things you like, things you dislike. Write about the sun as if you love it or as if you hate it. Let the adjectives show your emotion. Don’t just tell us you don’t like or do like. There’s ‘Gardening’. Tell them when it was originally published it was a different shape and the title had ‘no thank you’ on it. Crista strongly advised to just use the word ‘gardening’. Crista put punctuation on all my tiny fragments and I hit the roof. The way we punctuate something makes all the difference. Show an example from Eats, Shoots and Leaves – the love letter. You could then repeat the like/dislike – but use character traits. Let’s put some character poems into the mix. I/they/them. Is ‘I’ autobiographical? Is ‘she’ really you wearing a mask?
We need to revisit some flash fiction and micro fiction. I
want to do the favourite authors focus again that I used to good effect for
King Ink. I’d like to reiterate Bullet Your Whole Day – but lead it into Home
Town Slog and a Warm Space. I think it would be fun to do some more compound
word definitions and some flash non-fiction essays as well. It’s National
Poetry Day in a little over a month. At this point I couldn’t be 100% sure but
I think the theme is ‘Counting’. So any poems that include numbers. Kim
Addonizio has a good one. And Billy Collins on turning ten – and most trad
forms have set numbers of lines, syllables. Word counts in poems and prose.
Concision. Can you get your white heat free write down to half its original
word count without losing any of it’s meaning? How many days of the year do you
come up with a great piece of writing out of the blue unprompted by a writing
exercise? Not many? Yeah, me neither. I write to find out what I can write
about. Twenty minutes ago I didn’t know I was going to think about
writing-related activity. One line
triggers another. Stephen King says the way to write those doorstop novels of
his is one sentence at a time. A sentence about an animal, the weather, a place
you’ve visited often, a sentence containing an item of clothing.
There are many ways to trigger a piece of writing. Sometimes
I play page 56. Open the nearest book and copy out the first full sentence that
appears on page 56. Put it in a jar and add more page 56 sentences to it every
day for a month. Then, over the course of the next month, take out a line and
us it to prompt a piece of writing, but remember to have kept a note of the
author’s name and the book. If you keep any of the original sentence wording
you might need to acknowledge it or risk getting into hot water for plagiarism.
Do you get into hot water? Or do you take ice cold showers? When was the last
time you were caught out in foul weather and got absolutely soaked? When did
you last get lost? When did you last find something that had a great impact on
you emotionally? What books do you like to read? Do literary novels bore you?
When was the last time you dissected a short story and looked at its
construction? Did the gun in chapter three of the crime novel get fired in
chapter seventeen? Was it Anton Chekhov who asked that question? What’s your
writing routine like? Do you have one? What happens if you don’t show up to the
page regularly? Are you frightened to dig deep? Is comedy your thing? Horror?
Memoir? 8.41am.
..
With over thirty years of experience as a published author and over twenty years of regular writing workshop facilitation - incorporating poetry, journaling and flash fiction - Steve exudes energetic and infectious enthusiasm for the art of self-expression, instilling the belief that every individual voice is valid while bringing a sense of fun and inclusiveness to creative writing. He has a strong ability to engage groups and individuals with a wealth of advice on composition, performance and publication, drawing on an extensive range of exercises and techniques.
Although working predominantly in mental health settings, Steve also runs private courses for writing groups and college-funded evening classes. He has provided identity-themed performance poetry taster sessions in schools, worked as a shadow poet coach for a national youth poetry slam championship and regularly hosts writing marathons, attracting newcomers and seasoned authors alike, creating brand new work for page and stage.
Students of Steve’s writing courses have published pamphlets of their work, appeared in regional anthologies and newspapers; performed in respected spoken word venues and at health seminars. Steve has mentored individuals with no previous creative writing experience towards participation in performance poetry library tours, poetry slam victory and a place in the BBC National Poetry Slam.
It is often those who have been marginalised that have the most poignant stories to tell, but also need greater encouragement to make themselves heard.
Steve can provide one-off workshops, or a series of sessions.
Previous courses include:
Exploring Creative Writing – poetry templates and fiction generators
Writing for Life – journaling sessions for memoir and poetry
Ways with Words – collaborative and solo exercises for all abilities
Writing Shack – developing writing for publication
Contact Steve to discuss a programme for your organization.
email: steveurwin@talktalk.net
www.facebook.com/steveurwintalkingpen
Some Feedback for Steve's Facilitation work:
Steve Wakefield, Manager, Waddington Street Centre
NO MATTER HOW I AM FEELING, I gain inspiration every week from the informative and imaginative topics Steve uses to springboard the creative writing sessions.
This term, we have participated in and enjoyed a wide variety of approaches.
We have, for example:
Created poems from song titles; considered issues of cause and effect in short stories and narrative; written part memoirs; learned how to take risks in writing, used art as inspiration; participated in ‘playful’ exercises with e.g. metaphor; learned how to write within constraints using various poetic devices; and used work from other authors and poets as inspiration – these are just a few examples.
As a group we are putting together an anthology of our work. For me, writing ‘small stones’ has been useful as a way in… a way to strengthen focus, engage my imagination and hone my writing skills. As we work together on this joint project we have become more appreciative of each other’s work too. We are practising bringing it all together for an accomplished and polished piece of collaborative work.
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