The Writing Squad

What if we didn't start with words?
2021-12-11 11:00 - 16:00 UTC | 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?

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

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

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.

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!

SFF Mini Goals
2021-11-29 18:00 - 19:30, 2021-11-01 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Mini goals session for science fiction and fantasy writers.
Email billie@writingsquad.com to get the link.

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.

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

Prose Mini Goals
2021-11-02 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-10-19 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Prose Mini Goals.
Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Material and Materials
2021-10-30 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
SQUAD 10, LEEDS – VENUE TBC
A workshop in bookmaking, writing and play with Stevie Ronnie.
We will be discussing the materiality of books and what affect a book’s material aspects can have on the way the reader experiences our words. We’ll consider the benefits and drawbacks for writers of producing and distributing your own work in the form of handmade books, and explore the ways in which the practice of making can feed into our writing practice.

Poets Mini Goals
2021-10-27 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-10-20 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Poets mini goals.
Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Awesome Prose - The Road
2021-10-26 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
One of the squad’s 3 Awesome Reading groups – designed to think about how we can read as writers.
If you want to join us, then here’s what you need to know:
We will be reading Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. The text can be bought here.
The Road is the astonishing post-apocalyptic and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Cormac McCarthy.
A father and his young son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food – and each other.

Script Mini Goals
2021-10-25 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
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. 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.

10 Things Every Story Needs
2021-10-23 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
SQUAD 10, LEEDS – VENUE TBC
In this workshop, we take Mark’s ten questions and apply them to your favourite films, films you hated and some movie classics. Whatever your genre, the ten tests Mark takes you through can be applied to any form of writing – scripts, novels, short stories and even longer narrative poems. In our last Squad evaluation someone said, “I learned more in that workshop than I did in the whole of my MA.”

Yes, Poetry Can Handle This - Writing the Unpoetic
2021-10-14 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
ZOOM, OPEN ALL SQUADS
This workshop looks at the thematic boundaries of poetry – the gnarly, uncomfortable edges – and asks how we can write about things that are inherently unpoetic. There’s a tension between being gratuitously unpleasant vs. making good art that says the unsaid. We’re going to think about where that line is and how we can navigate it.
