The Writing Squad

SCRIPTWRITERS MINIGOALS
2020-05-18 17:30 - 18:30 UTC
This Zoom meeting will last maybe about an hour and not longer than an hour and half.
We are seeing how we have done with the mini-goals we set ourselves last week, and maybe renewing them or setting new ones.
This is open to Squad 1-9 with a focus on scriptwriters, there are other groups for poets and prose writers. If you haven’t been to a previous meeting, you are welcome to join, just let steve@writingsquad.com know you want to come.
You will be sent a link before the meeting and you can go on Zoom from your computer or phone.

SHINY HAPPY PLAYWRIGHTS
2020-05-16 14:30 - 16:00
Open to theatre writers from all Squads 1-9
A one-off workshop exploring earnestness, warmth and the ‘feel good’. Through reading, discussion and exercises, we’ll think about writing hopefully, moments of kindness, and ideally have a laugh. All levels of experience welcome (though no cool kids allowed).
Billie is a Squad grad, playwright and screenwriter from Merseyside. Her play Too Much World At Once was written on attachment with Box of Tricks Theatre as part of their 2019-2020 PlayBox residency, and received a rehearsed reading at HOME in Manchester. She is currently developing a short film with the young people of the Television Workshop Salford. Her first play, Spiders, was longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in 2015, debuted in Cambridge in 2017, before being performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre, London, in August 2018.
You will be sent a Zoom invite on the morning of the workshop with a link to click to join in.

SIGN UP HERE

I WANT TO BE A COW
2020-05-14 14:30 - 16:00
Open to all poets Squads 1-9.
In this workshop, we will be reading fun and fantastically silly poems by Sharon Olds, Frank O’Hara, and Selima Hill, among others, and attempting to write funny poems of our own, through a series of exercises focusing on puns, rhyme, and voice.
There is plenty of talk about the necessity of poetry in this difficult time, poems that rise to the occasion and bear witness. However, there is also a need for funny poems: poems that surprise us, delight us, and most importantly, make us laugh. We need to laugh.
The workshop aims to be fun, and might even be funny.
Emily is a Squad grad and poet in York, currently writing her MA dissertation on butch poetics. She has competed in the Roundhouse and BBC Fringe poetry slams, and has poems published in Poetry Birmingham and The Kindling. Her poetry focuses on family, queerness, and the body. She runs a regular poetry workshop at the University of York, and enjoys constructive criticism more than you’d think possible.
You will be sent a Zoom invite on the morning of the workshop with a link to click to join in.

SIGN UP HERE

SCRIPTWRITERS MINIGOALS SESSION
2020-05-11 17:30 - 18:30, 2020-05-04 17:30 - 19:00
This Zoom meeting will last maybe about an hour and not longer than an hour and half.
We are seeing how we have done with the mini-goals we set ourselves last week, and maybe renewing them or setting new ones.
This is open to all Squad members with a focus on scriptwriters, there are other groups for poets and prose writers. If you haven’t been to a previous meeting, you are welcome to join, just let steve@writingsquad.com know you want to come.
You will be sent a link before the meeting and you can go on Zoom from your computer or phone.

ALEX PRAGER STORIES
2020-05-09 14:30 - 16:00
A workshop open to all Squads 1-9 and people telling stories any form.
We will each write our own stories gently guided by a mixture of Alex Prager’s wonderful photographs and other prompts, some for everyone, some just for you.
An hour plus to write alone together, with new prompts dropped in regularly throughout and some time for sharing at the end, but only if you want to.
When not running the Squad Steve write’s short stories, has been Writer In Residence at Bluewater Shopping Centre and the Wakefield Literature Festival. www.stevedearden.com
You will be sent a Zoom invite on the morning of the workshop with a link to click to join in.
SIGN UP HERE

POETS MINI GOALS SESSION
2020-05-06 17:30 - 19:00, 2020-04-29 17:30 - 18:30
This Zoom meeting will last maybe about an hour and not longer than an hour and half.
We are seeing how we have done with the mini-goals we set ourselves last week, and maybe renewing them or setting new ones.
This is open to all Squad members with a focus on poets, there are other groups for script and prose writers. If you haven’t been to a previous meeting, you are welcome to join, just let steve@writingsquad.com know you want to come.
You will be sent a link before the meeting and you can go on Zoom from your computer or phone.

STILL LIVES 3
2020-05-05 19:30 - 21:00
In these sessions we will collaboratively create short pieces of writing, building on personal experience/observations led by Lydia Allison.
We will focus on everyday, domestic challenges and observations. Topics will include plans which get cancelled, things you see day to day in your house, and internalised arguments about what you believe is the right thing to do in relation to every day activities.
You will be asked to imagine outside perspectives looking in at your lives, swap and stories, adopt another voice, write individually at first and then collectively in threes.

PROSE WRITERS MINI GOALS SESSION
2020-05-05 17:30 - 19:00, 2020-04-28 17:30 - 18:30
This Zoom meeting will last maybe about an hour and not longer than an hour and half.
We are seeing how we have done with the mini-goals we set ourselves last week, and maybe renewing them or setting new ones.
This is open to all Squad members with a focus on prose writers, there are other groups for poets and scriptwriters. If you haven’t been to a previous meeting, you are welcome to join, just let steve@writingsquad.com know you want to come.
You will be sent a link before the meeting and you can go on Zoom from your computer or phone.

STILL LIVES 2
2020-05-01 19:30 - 21:00

STILL LIVES 1
2020-04-28 19:30 - 21:00
In these sessions we will collaboratively create short pieces of writing, building on personal experience/observations led by Lydia Allison.
Open to all Squads to writers in any genre. Please only sign up below if you can make all three. They will be on Zoom and you will be sent a link on the morning of each workshop.
We will focus on everyday, domestic challenges and observations. Topics will include plans which get cancelled, things you see day to day in your house, and internalised arguments about what you believe is the right thing to do in relation to every day activities.
You will be asked to imagine outside perspectives looking in at your lives, swap and stories, adopt another voice, write individually at first and then collectively in threes.

SCRIPTWRITERS MINI GOALS SESSION
2020-04-27 17:30 - 18:30

ZINE WORKSHOP with Lauren Vevers
2020-04-24 19:00 - 20:30
Join Squad grad Lauren Vevers for a relaxing evening of zine making in your own home.
You’ll be sent a simple list of materials to gather, be invited to do a bit of writing, we will have a quick overview of zines, instructions on how to make a simple zine format, then time to make and chat, with a sharing at the end.
Never tried before, please try this at home!
You will be sent a Zoom link before the workshop, along with a simple list of things you might want to have to hand.

SQUAD 10 SELECTION MEETING
2020-04-24
Times TBC

RAINBOW RAINBOW RAINBOW 3
2020-04-23 14:00 - 15:30
Responding to the queer canon through reflection, discussion and poetry writing prompts led by Louise Essex.
Workshop 3
Queer Narratives/ Queer Silence
– comparing openly queer poetry with silenced queer poets
– exploring queer silence and what it means today
– ‘what makes a poem queer?’
– ‘do we want to “queer” our poems purposefully? Why?’
– ‘do we ever feel “not queer enough”?’
– writing our queerness (coming out poems etc.)

BOARD MEETING
2020-04-22 13:30 - 15:30

RAINBOW RAINBOW RAINBOW 2
2020-04-20 14:00 - 15:30
Responding to the queer canon through reflection, discussion and poetry writing prompts. Led by Louise Essex.
Workshop 2
Writing in Response to the Queer Canon cont.
– Queer 19th Century poets (Edward Lear, Christina Rossetti, Walt Whitman)
– Queer Modernism (Virginia Woolf, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Ginsberg)
– rewriting queer symbols

A Diary of Windows Video Deadline
2020-04-17 23:59
Concept
The idea began from a conversation with Steve about doing something digital and collaborative during the lockdown that is open to the entire squad. I then began to think about how we, as a group of writers dispersed across the planet, could make a collective creative response to our very different, yet very similar situations. This led me to an idea for a video diary piece that uses a format inspired by Christian Marclay’s 24-hour artwork “The Clock”. For those of you who don’t know it – it is a montage of film and television clips that have clocks in them that is ordered chronologically over a day. Then, at the squad’s first Distance Social meeting last week, we discussed how the small things we observe around us might be more interesting as a subject for our writing than the virus. At the same zoom meeting Louise Essex also commented that “We all have windows.” The concept for A Diary of Windows and Small Things is based on a combination of these three ideas.
Contribution Guidelines
I am inviting each of you to create a short piece of observational writing (in any form that you choose). This writing should then be recorded as a voice over in a one minute video of the view from your window. Each piece will be made a particular time of day that is assigned at random and should be accompanied by a 5 second video clip of a clock that shows your assigned time of day. I will combine the contributions into a single film that will be published online through the Squad’s existing (and planned) digital channels.
If you’d like to take part, then please email me at stevie@stevieronnie.com by Tuesday 7th April. I will then allocate everyone with a specific time of day at random.
You will then have until Friday the 17th of April to send me the following two videos (via wetransfer, dropbox or similar):
(1) A 5 second clip of a clock showing your allocated time of day and;
(2) A 1-minute shot of the view from your window which includes audio of you reading your short piece of observational writing.
The videos should be shot using a mobile phone in landscape format at the specific time of day that you have been allocated. I will be at hand to assist with any technical queries throughout.
Stevie Ronnie
Squad Core Team

SPOKEN WORD SALON
2020-04-16 19:00 - 21:00
The Spoken Word Salon is an informal, virtual open-mic night, with the opportunity to meet other Squad writers and practise reading / performing your work – of any form and genre – in a supportive space, with the option of feedback. The writing does not need to be a final product or learnt by heart, and there is no competitive element, just a cosy sharing of work. We are looking forward to welcoming you to a fun and creative Friday night. Hosted by Liz Gibson.
This event will take place on Zoom, you will be mailed a secure link on the morning of the event.
To sign up got to the link below

RAINBOW RAINBOW RAINBOW 1
2020-04-16 14:00 - 15:00
Responding to the queer canon through reflection, discussion and poetry writing prompts. Led by Louise Essex.
Open to all Squads for female identifying poets, 8 places. Please only sign up below if you can make all three workshops. They will take place on Zoom, you will be sent a link on the morning of each workshop.
Workshop 1 – Thursday 16th April 14:00-15.30pm
Writing in Response to the Queer Canon
-Sappho and what we can learn
– Queering myths & legends

POETS MINI-GOALS SESSION
2020-04-15 17:30 - 19:00
This Zoom meeting will last maybe about an hour and not longer than an hour and half.
We are seeing how we have done with the mini-goals we set ourselves last week, and maybe renewing them or setting new ones.
This is open to all Squad members with a focus on poets, there are other groups for prose and script writers. If you haven’t been to a previous meeting, you are welcome to join, just let steve@writingsquad.com know you want to come.
You will be sent a link before the meeting and you can go on Zoom from your computer or phone.

PROSE WRITERS MINI-GOALS SESSION
2020-04-14 17:30 - 19:00

SCRIPTWRITERS MINI-GOALS SESSION
2020-04-13 17:30 - 19:00

POETS: MINI GOALS SESSION
2020-04-08 17:30 - 19:00

A Diary of Windows Email Deadline
2020-04-07 23:59
If you’d like to take part on Stevie Ronnie’s ‘A Diary of Windows’ project, make sure you email him by the 7th April.

A DIARY OF WINDOWS AND SMALL THINGS
This is a call for contributions to a collaborative video diary focussing on our windows and the small things around us. It is open to everyone in the squad and if you would like to take part, then please read through the concept and follow the contribution guidelines below. If you have any questions at all, feel free to email me at: stevie@stevieronnie.com
Concept
The idea began from a conversation with Steve about doing something digital and collaborative during the lockdown that is open to the entire squad. I then began to think about how we, as a group of writers dispersed across the planet, could make a collective creative response to our very different, yet very similar situations. This led me to an idea for a video diary piece that uses a format inspired by Christian Marclay’s 24-hour artwork “The Clock”. For those of you who don’t know it – it is a montage of film and television clips that have clocks in them that is ordered chronologically over a day. Then, at the squad’s first Distance Social meeting last week, we discussed how the small things we observe around us might be more interesting as a subject for our writing than the virus. At the same zoom meeting Louise Essex also commented that “We all have windows.” The concept for A Diary of Windows and Small Things is based on a combination of these three ideas.
Contribution Guidelines
I am inviting each of you to create a short piece of observational writing (in any form that you choose). This writing should then be recorded as a voice over in a one minute video of the view from your window. Each piece will be made a particular time of day that is assigned at random and should be accompanied by a 5 second video clip of a clock that shows your assigned time of day. I will combine the contributions into a single film that will be published online through the Squad’s existing (and planned) digital channels.
If you’d like to take part, then please email me at stevie@stevieronnie.com by Tuesday 7th April. I will then allocate everyone with a specific time of day at random.
You will then have until Friday the 17th of April to send me the following two videos (via wetransfer, dropbox or similar):
(1) A 5 second clip of a clock showing your allocated time of day and;
(2) A 1-minute shot of the view from your window which includes audio of you reading your short piece of observational writing.
The videos should be shot using a mobile phone in landscape format at the specific time of day that you have been allocated. I will be at hand to assist with any technical queries throughout.
Stevie Ronnie
Squad Core Team

PROSE WRITERS: MINI GOALS SESSION
2020-04-07 17:30 - 19:00
This Zoom meeting will last maybe about an hour and not longer than an hour and half.
We are seeing how we have done with the mini-goals we set ourselves last week, and maybe renewing them or setting new ones.
This is open to all Squad members with a focus on prose writers, there are other groups for scriptwriters and poets. If you haven’t been to a previous meeting, you are welcome to join, just let steve@writingsquad.com know you want to come.
You will be sent a link before the meeting and you can go on Zoom from your computer or phone.

SCRIPTWRITERS: MINI GOALS SESSION
2020-04-06 17:30 - 19:00
