The Writing Squad

Script Mini Goals
2022-04-25 17:30 - 19:00 UTC | Online
Mini goals session – setting goals and updating each other on writing news and cultural highlights. Email billie@writingsquad.com for Zoom details.

Material and Materials
2022-04-23 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
A workshop in bookmaking, writing and play with Stevie Ronnie. We will make books and explore bookbinding techniques and formats with a range of materials. We’ll be writing too, using words as a material in the bookmaking process. The second half of the workshop will be a more open creative play session where you’ll be given a wide range of tools and materials and invited to explore the ideas and techniques you’ve learned.

Forming Poems with Lydia Allison
2022-04-21 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
Is rhythm and metre something we should consider in the first stages or only when editing? Do rhythm and sound carry their own kind of meaning? How can we use both to make our work more effective?
Using our favourite poems and songs we will examine the rules to learn their magic then write exploring how to consciously and effectively to break them.

Poets Mini Goals
2022-04-21 17:30 - 19:00 | Online

Script Mini Goals
2022-03-28 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-02-28 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-02-14 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for script writers. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Film in a Weekend
2022-03-26 11:00 - 2022-03-27 16:00
SHEFFIELD, VENUE TBC. SQUAD 10.
Come and make a film in a weekend with Ben Wilkinson and Matt Rowan Maw. We meet on the Saturday morning, talk about film and film production, write a script over lunch, film in the afternoon and Sunday morning, edit Sunday morning and load the finished film onto Vimeo on Sunday evening.
You will be able to have a go at everything, or specialise, but basically if we don’t write, act, shoot and edit it, no-one else will!
Previous films we have made in a weekend include XXX?, Swipe Wrong, The Character, How To Succeed at Rada Auditions (Guaranteed) and of course, unfortunately, Balaclava Man.
THIS IS A SQUAD 10 WORKSHOP, if you are a grad and want a place should there be any available please don’t sign up here, contact billie@writingsquad.com to go on the waiting list.
We expect demand to be high so please make sure before signing up that you can make it.
Matt and Ben are Deranged Industries.
Note: This workshop is only open to members of the Writing Squad, and not to the general public.

Poets Mini Goals
2022-03-24 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-03-10 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-02-24 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for poets. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

SFF Mini Goals
2022-03-21 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-02-21 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for sci-fi and fantasy writers. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Prose Mini Goals
2022-03-17 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-02-17 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for prose writers. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Script Mini Goals
2022-03-14 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini goals session for scriptwriters. Email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Writing the Funny Stuff with Jeremy Dyson
2022-03-12 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
SQUAD 10 – if you are in Squad 1-9 and want to be added to the waiting list, please email billie@writingsquad.com
We will explore how you source material and then work on and refine it into scripts for TV, radio or sketch shows. Jeremy will also share examples from the real and not so real world of comedy and you’ll get a chance to write too.

Precision Journalism
2022-03-10 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
With Gabriel Evans
This workshop will examine how the media uses sensationalism to garner interest and give alternative ways to make newswriting engaging.
What is sensationalism, and why does the media (still) love it?
How does sensationalism affect our lives?
How can we write news articles and other non-fiction without sensationalism?
By the end of the workshop, you’ll not only have a more acute awareness of sensationalism in the media, but also be able to recognise it in your own writing and replace it with more accurate alternatives that are just as engaging (and clickable.)

Squad 10 Minigoals
2022-03-07 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Mini goals session for squad 10 – email billie@writingsquad.com for the link.

Lunch Poems with Andrew McMillan and Lizzie Coombs
2022-03-05 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
Exploring the poetry of the street on the page and through the lens.

This workshop will explore the poetry of the street on the page and through the lens. We will spend some time in the morning looking at poets and photographers who catch the incidental movement and life of the streets as well as going through the techniques, does and don’ts of street photography. Then we will go out into Leeds over lunch time with notebooks and phones/cameras coming back together in the afternoon to write, edit, photoshop and put together an impromptu edition of PUSH.
You wont need a posh camera to take part, if you have a phone with a decent camera that will do, let us know if you don’t and we will sort something.

Awesome Poetry: Shine, Darling
2022-03-03 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Writers reading led by Stevie and Malika.
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.

Finding the Semantic Field
2022-02-19 11:00 - 16:00 | Manchester, Manchester
With Keisha Thompson
This workshop will focus on using poetic form and semantic field to create performance and theatre material.
We will be thinking about the cross over from page to stage, extended metaphor and using writing devices to inform performance ideas.

Going Freelance, In Company
2022-02-17 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
If you have an idea you want to realise and it involves pulling together a bunch of people and resources, this conversation and Q+A is for you.
Steve D will talk to three freelance Squad writers who have set up companies either to deliver specific projects or as a vehicle for their work, asking questions like … Do you really need to set up a company or can you just do the thing? Where did you go to for advice? What do all these terms mean; CIC, Sole Trader, Limited by Guarantee? What were the costs? Who is in control and who makes the decisions? How do you manage people? What didn’t you know you wished you had? Are the legal responsibilities onerous? What’s all that stuff about tax?
You’ll get the chance to ask your questions too.

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!

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.

Poets Mini Goals
2022-02-10 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-12-30 17:30 - 19:00 | Online
Mini Goals session for Poets. 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.

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.

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