Coming in from the sides: Free creative writing workshops for under-represented writers
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In partnership with Creative Future, we’re offering FREE creative writing workshops for people who lack opportunities due to mental health issues, disability, identity or other social circumstance.
You want to write, but sometimes finding the time or routine can be difficult with lives full of many other things. “Coming in from the sides” is an idea to allow yourself to step into your writing in a way that fits with your life; finding the pockets of time and the stories you want to tell in ways that remain fun and enjoyable. But “Coming in from the sides” has another meaning too; it’s when you are working on a piece of writing where suddenly all the things you see, hear and feel “fit” with the work. Almost like magic. When things come in from the sides, you know you’re on the right path with your story. This series of workshops will help you find your path in both these meanings: through the obstacles every life throws in the way of your writing, and knowing when the story is the right one to tell.
We are running six workshops at Commercial Union House in Newcastle, Tuesdays at 2-4pm on the following dates:
- 21 April – The Writer’s Roadmap: Setting Out
- 5 May – The Words That Do the Work: Nouns and Verbs, and Why They Really Matter
- 19 May – Point of View and the Magic of Perspective
- 2 June – On the Road: Writing Wants and Needs, and Why They are Sometimes Different
- 16 June – Plot & Structure When You Have No Time
- 30 June – Reading, Writing, Sharing: Celebrating Progress
Tutor: Alex Lockwood
Dr Alex Lockwood is a writing tutor and the author of The Pig in Thin Air (Lantern Books), a food memoir about the relationship between climate change and the food we eat. His debut novel The Chernobyl Privileges (Roundfire) was shortlisted for the Rubery International Book Award 2019. He has written journalism, fiction and nonfiction for The Guardian, Earthlines, Compassionate Man, Zoomorphic, and more. He was recently commissioned by The NewBridge Project to produce a series of eight aural narratives that are explorations of our responses to climate change, which you can download and listen to at http://shiftandsignal.space. Connect at http://www.twitter.com/alexlockwood.