Poets Mini Goals
2021-11-04 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-11-25 17:30 - 19:00 UTC | Online
Mini Goals for poets.
Email billie@writingsquad.com to receive the link.

Rituals: How do you take your tea?
2021-11-04 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
ZOOM, OPEN ALL SQUADS
In this workshop we will look at rituals and how they appear in our own lives, what they reveal about us and how we can use them to strengthen our understanding of our characters.
We will also explore how disrupting these rituals can function as a plot device using examples from theatre/film as well as putting one of our characters on a bad date.
Finally, we will look at the big rituals, the religious holidays, the weddings, the funerals – what do they offer us? What have we not seen? And what, importantly is the best party game?

Squad Assessment Centre: Storylining
2021-11-06 11:00 - 16:00 | York, York
OPEN TO ALL SQUADS, YORK – VENUE TBC
This workshop will introduce you to the story process within soap. You will gain a unique insight into the way in which continuing drama hires Storyliners. Storyliners are responsible for generating ideas and structuring the story into each episode. We will also talk about what is expected from Storyliners at Story Conference where producers, writers and commissioners all meet to discuss future blocks of content. This session will focus on Emmerdale, so please watch two weeks of the show beforehand. The workshop will be modelled on our experience of ITV’s Assessment Centre which is part of the hiring process. During the day, you will pitch, develop and structure storylines, both independently and in groups.

Script Mini Goals
2021-11-08 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-11-22 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals for script writers.
Email billie@writingsquad.com to receive the link.

Awesome Poetry: I'm OK, I'm Pig!
2021-11-11 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
One of the very best ways to become a better writer is to read widely and thoughtfully. Building on Emma and Matt’s great work in establishing the Awesome Play Text / Screenplay Reading Club, and Francesca’s prose club, Malika and Stevie are hosting the Awesome Poetry Reading Club to focus on how we can read as writers.
If you want to join us, then here’s what you need to know:
This session will focus on Kim Hyesoon’s I’m OK, I’m Pig! The text can be purchased here.
Kim Hyesoon is one of South Korea’s most important contemporary poets. She began publishing in 1979 and was one of the first few women in South Korea to be published in Munhak kwa jisong (Literature and Intellect), one of two key journals which championed the intellectual and literary movement against the US-backed military dictatorships of Park Chung Hee and Chun Doo Hwan in the 1970s and 80s.

Short Story: First Draft, First Edit
2021-11-13 14:00 - 16:00 | Online
SQUAD 10
If you are a Squad grad (1-9), and would like to be added to the reserve list for this workshop, please email Billie on billie@writingsquad.com
An uncompromising workshop in which Leone will explore how to edit the first draft of a short story and offer some hard golden rules that will last you forever and invite a lifelong relationship with the underlying idea. An hour of listening hard, an hour of activity.

Squad 10 Mini Goals
2021-11-15 18:00 - 19:30, 2021-12-13 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Squad 10 mini goals session.
Email billie@writingsquad.com to get the link.

Prose Mini Goals
2021-11-18 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals for prose writers.
Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

First the words, then the music: An Introduction to Libretto
2021-11-20 11:00 - 16:00 | York, York
OPEN TO ALL SQUADS, YORK – VENUE TBC
This session will explore the relationship between text and music, and the numerous ways the two can interrelate in opera, art song and other classical forms (eg choral music).
We will take a look at the different ways a collaborative relationship between a writer and a composer can work, and the different permutations that the resulting pairing of text and music can take.

The Texture of Place: Writing Landscapes and Building Settings
2021-11-25 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
ZOOM, OPEN ALL SQUADS
How can we make the places and locations in our writing feel three-dimensional and “real”? How do we avoid falling into clichés when writing about landscape and place? How can we capture a real/imagined place through senses, description, speech and muddled language? Can settings ever be as important as characters?

The Butterfly in the Corner: Revitalising Old Myths
2021-11-27 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
SQUAD 10, LEEDS – VENUE TBC
Now it is a well-known fact that literature is constantly in conversation with other literary text in some shape or form. This workshop will exploit this tradition as the starting point for writing our own poems. We will turn up to the blank notebook page armed with material, that our imagination can translate, update, transform and in some cases give voice to silenced characters or even fill in gaps left out of the original text.

SFF Mini Goals
2021-11-29 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Mini goals session for science fiction and fantasy writers.
Email billie@writingsquad.com to get the link.

What We Owe: Bad Art Friend Discussion
2021-12-02 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
It is easy enough to trigger a storm on Twitter, but some stories create a hurricane. ‘Who Is The Bad Art Friend?’, a New York Times Article by Robert Kolker, was one such story and has whipped up a slew of newspaper articles, Twitter threads, and memes ever since.
Centred around the court case of Dawn Dorland vs Sonya Larson, the story covers ground from kidney donations to Facebook etiquette, subpoenaed group chats and insular writing community drama. We don’t want to spoil the story for you, but suffice it say it’s a wild one.
This session will comprise of a discussion focused on the relevant writing aspects of the story. Both sides field a series of key disputes, surrounding the plagiarism of ideas and Facebook posts, the etiquette of writing communities, and above all the kindnesses we do (or do not) owe to our fellow writers. Is using someone else’s kidney donation for a story acceptable? What if said story turns them into an ugly caricature? We can’t wait to hear your thoughts!

Trauma and the Creative Writing Classroom
2021-12-04 14:00 - 16:00 | Manchester, Manchester
A session exploring what trauma is, its relationship to creativity and strategies to develop a trauma-informed workshop practice.
NB: This workshop will be from 2-4pm in MMU’s Arts and Humanities Building, Manchester.
What is trauma? What is PTSD? Why does it matter for workshop/arts facilitators? When difficult memories or subjects arise, what practical approaches or tips can facilitators employ in the moment, or bear in mind for the future?
This workshop will use relaxed group conversations to explore these questions. You will gain an understanding of some of the definitions of what trauma is, its signs and symptoms, practical strategies for building trauma awareness into workshops and some tools for tackling traumatising or challenging subject matter in a workshop setting. Written, practical and creative exercises will demonstrate some ideas and approaches discussed during the session.

Script Mini Goals
2021-12-06 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-12-20 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini Goals session for Script Writers. Email Billie on billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Poets Mini Goals
2021-12-09 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-12-30 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-02-10 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini Goals session for Poets. Email Billie on billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

What if we didn't start with words?
2021-12-11 11:00 - 16:00 | Manchester, Manchester
LEEDS – VENUE TBC
WHAT IF WE DIDN’T START WITH WORDS? – EMMA ADAMS
I’ve been thinking about staging and the power of set design. Why is it that writers don’t often get to work with set designers early in a development process? What does thinking about image rather than words unlock for storytellers / writers? Then I saw a video about Taika Waititi’s (awesome writer/director, check him out) creative process. There he talked about how he starts his film scripts. He thinks about cool images / events for the beginning and start of a story, and then he writes to link them up. Do you do this? I don’t do this. I never do this. I think it could be interesting to try doing this. It could be so fun to try this! To play with the graphic and the look of things and see what that inspires. To think about a set/costumes and then imagine a story that comes from there? So, I thought, why not experiment with all of that?

Prose Mini Goals
2021-12-14 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini Goals session for Prose writers. Email Billie on billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Squad 10 Mini Goals
2022-02-07 18:00 - 19:30
Mini Goals session for Squad 10. Email Billie on billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Awesome Prose: The Summer Book
2022-02-08 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
One of the squad’s 3 Awesome Reading groups – designed to think about how we can read as writers.

Novel Writing for First Timers
2022-02-12 11:00 - 16:00 | Manchester, Manchester
Are you interested in writing a novel, but don’t know where to start? Have you started a novel or two but fizzled out? Are you intimidated by the idea of committing to such a substantial task? Does the thought of completing c.80,000 words seem unachievable? Do you have a lot of ideas but not know which ones might be the makings of a novel?
This workshop is designed to make the process of writing your first novel a lot less scary. We’ll talk about ways to make the whole process both manageable and exciting.

Script Mini Goals
2022-02-14 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for script writers. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Squad Wide Transitional Conversation
2022-02-16 19:00 - 21:00
Over the past few months, we’ve held four conversations exploring each of the Arts Council’s new Investment Principles. These principles define both their strategy for the arts in England, and the way they make decisions about who they fund. We’re using them to inform The Writing Squad’s plan for 2022/23, and our application for the next round of funding.
The principles are: Ambition and Quality, Dynamism, Environmental Responsibility and Inclusivity and Relevance.
Our conversations involved members of the board, our core team and the Squad at large. We talked about how each principle relates to the Squad – we thought about what we do well, what we could do better and came up with new ideas to shape the Squad’s future.
Stuff like: new commission opportunities, new ways of doing feedback, a new Squad origin story. It was all dead exciting, to be honest.
Since then, we’ve been collating the thinking from these meetings and started to draw up our new plan. It’s go time!
HERE’S WHERE YOU COME IN!
We’re now ready to put the Stuff What We Talked About at these meetings to the Squad At Large. We’re holding a sort of informal Zoom Squad Town Hall, in which we’ll share the outcomes of these meetings and our plans going forward, and you can tell us what you think about them. Simple as that.
TLDR: A space to talk about what the Squad could be, what you want the Squad to be, how we talk about who we are and what we do. You don’t need to know anything about the Arts Council’s principles or funding, but we will send you some light reading about our thoughts and plans before the meeting!

Prose Mini Goals
2022-02-17 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for prose writers. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.
