The Writing Squad

SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY MINI-GOALS
2021-02-22 18:00 - 19:30 UTC
Why are you starting this group?
Setting goals is a really useful way of prioritising our writing, and being accountable (principally to ourselves). Since the first Covid lockdown, the Squad has run a number of Mini-Goals groups, which have been a fantastic resource, and a source of support, motivation, and encouragement (as well as a lot of fun).
We know that many Squad writers have an interest in SFF, and as Francesca is a specialist in this field, we thought a dedicated group would be a great way to support one another with our SFF writing.
What counts as ‘Science Fiction and Fantasy’?
For the purposes of this group, we mean anything that might fall under the umbrella term ‘speculative’ writing – writing that depicts something beyond the real or current world. You might be interested in high fantasy; magic realism; cyber-punk; dystopian fiction; space opera…
What kinds of goals do people set?
Whatever you like. Small, achievable goals are more realistic, so examples of goals might be: ‘finish reading a novel/short story’; ‘finish editing a chapter’; ‘spend 15 minutes a day writing’; ‘submit a story to a journal’ etc. Your goals will change from meeting to meeting. Sometimes your goal might not even be writing-related (e.g.: ‘have a week off’; ‘finish this essay for my course’; etc.), though we try to keep the focus on writing, so that the group isn’t just a general support group.
How does it work?
A monthly Zoom meeting, initially chaired by Francesca, though we expect that as the group evolves it will probably be chaired by its own members. Each member will have a chance to say whether you met your last goal, and to set a goal for the next meeting. Interesting group conversations always arise out of these goals, as we discuss issues, share solutions, and bounce around ideas.
I’m not an expert in SFF / I don’t exclusively write SFF
No problem! This group is for anyone interested in writing speculative fiction, whether you’ve been doing it for years, or just trying it for the first time.
I write novels/short-stories/scripts/screenplays/poetry – is that OK?
Absolutely. Great SFF work is been produced in all different forms, and we hope to have a range of approaches within our group.
Is this a writing workshop?
No – it’s a goal-setting group. We’ll discuss issues related to your writing, but we won’t do writing exercises, or workshop your drafts. As mini-goals groups develop, we’ve found that writers will sometimes email each other their work and get feedback from other members, but this is an optional extra that takes place outside the meetings themselves.
Do I have to come every time?
Coming regularly is best for you, as it’s what helps you to be accountable and meet your goals (as well as building the sense of community that has been a really special part of the existing Mini-Goals groups). However, we completely understand that sometimes it won’t be possible to attend, and that’s fine.

SQUAD 10: WORKSHOP WITH MALIKA (MANCHESTER)
2021-02-20 11:00 - 17:00 | Manchester, Manchester
INDIVIDUAL WORKSHOPS – SQUAD DAYS

We will slide from Zoom into this programme when it is possible.
If on Zoom they will stay at two hours starting at 14.00, if we are able to meet up face to face they will take place in the cities mentioned from 11.00-17.00. All Saturdays.
Put the dates on the next page in your diary. We will email you about these workshops nearer the time with a link to sign up for them on Eventbrite.

FALLING WITH STYLE/FRANKENSTEINING A POEM/METROPHOBIA with Gregory Kearns
2021-02-18 19:30 - 21:00
We will look at:

What are you afraid of?
Why we should keep moving toward our personal fears in a poem?
How we stop ourselves drawing back from the poem?
How our created rules can help?
How we create and choose the rules that will shape our poems?
Why might these rules help?

We are going to discuss:

Existing forms and what affect they have on tone/subject/theme of a poem. And the participants relationships with these existing forms. How writers have experimented with existing forms
Narrative Structure (Christopher Vogler and John Yorke) – (Symmetry and Asymmetry)
Stealing ideas and techniques from other art forms: montage (film), layering (visual arts), proportions (visual arts), harmony and dissonance (music)
The unconscious (what is it?, how it works?, what is our relationship with it is?, how can we use it as poets?) (In this section we’ll touch on the idea that we contain multiple selves, Jung/Campbell’s archetypes) (Active Imagination)
How and why we create our own forms/rules? (how we use the unconscious to shape these rules?)

You will get a step-by-step process of how to create a content led poetic form. This will include digging down and exploding themes/subjects that are of interest to you. As part of the workshop we will be going through the steps of the process so it is possible that the participants might have a first draft or the frame work for a poem by the end of the session too.
Gregory is a writer based in Liverpool. He has been longlisted for the National Poetry Competition, has been published in Introduction X: The Poetry Business Book of New Poets and has worked with groups like No Dice Collective. Gregory also works for The Brain Charity which supports those affected by neurological conditions. He is a member of the Writing Squad board.

THE SPACE
2021-02-17 19:30 - 21:00, 2021-02-03 19:30 - 21:00, 2021-01-20 19:30 - 21:00
The Space, a dedicated (virtual) space for us to write alone, together.
Think of it as your favourite library, a coffee shop, or a co-working space. It’s a room full of writers at work, and it’s a way of making a commitment to yourself to show up and write. Pop in to The Space to work on any writing project that you like – and in case you need inspiration, an optional writing prompt will be emailed in advance, for you to use, adapt or ignore.
Come and go as your please, and feel free to make yourself a cuppa. We’ll work in silence (don’t forget to mute yourself!), but halfway through there’ll be the option of joining small-group break-out rooms for 5 minutes, for a quick chat (but if you’re on a roll and don’t want to stop working, just drop Francesca a line in the ‘chat’ box and you can remain in the main room.)
We will send you a Zoom link before the day.

POETS MINI GOALS
2021-02-17 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-02-10 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-02-03 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 Squad 1-9 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.

Awesome Prose Reading Club
2021-02-16 18:00 - 19:30
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, Francesca will be hosting the Awesome Prose Reading Club to focus on how we can read as writers.
If you want to join us, the first book we’ll be reading and talking about is: Sarah Moss’s 2018 novel, Ghost Wall. “It’s short, available in paperback, and (most importantly) it’s really great. In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age. The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice?”

SCRIPTWRITERS MINIGOALS
2021-02-15 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-02-01 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-01-18 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 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.

HUNTER GATHERERS - Job Hunting Skills with Sian Hughes
2021-02-11 19:30 - 21:00
How do you organise your job search so that it’s not soul destroying, HOW discover and successfully apply for the job or career you want right now?
Where are you at now? And where do you want to be next?
What is getting in your way with getting to where you want to be?
How do you know enough about yourself to know where you want to be?
When you get there, how will you know if it’s good enough, is it forever?
How do you even get there in the first place?
Who and what can help you get there?
This seems like a lot of questions – how will you remember them AND find the answers?
Sharing tools, tips, tricks and hacks to stay organised in a general job search to maximise your chances of getting a job. In the arts or not in the arts, in a big or small company, a first job, or a forever job.
Sian is not a career-adviser! She’s a Squad grad and writer with a couple of prize-winning poems and several unfinished novels. Having always been the kind of writer that has a day-job, she knows the importance of a job that is fuelling of her writing brain and creativity, but also pays the bills.
After growing up in the Peak District, at a distinct disadvantage from ‘poverty of opportunity,’ Sian has since worked in rural Derbyshire, Manchester, London and now Edinburgh. She has applied for a many jobs, had more than her fair share of interviews, and has intentionally changed job successfully every two years since leaving university.

PROSE MINI GOALS
2021-02-09 17:30, 2021-02-02 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 Squad 1-9 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.

Squad 10 Minigoals
2021-02-08 18:00 - 19:30
We have found our Zoom mini-goals sessions have been a great way of Squad writers supporting each other. So far they have been open to grads only, now it is time to offer the same opportunity to Squad 10!
We would like you to bring a mini-goal and share it with the others attending.
A mini-goal. Not a big goal. If you say, I aim to write the play that defines this current crisis we will mute you. That’s a great goal, but it’s a big goal, talk to your mentor about it!
We are thinking of small achievable goals, either in your writing or personal things that will help you find the time and space to write. Don’t worry if you haven’t got a goal, you can just listen, maybe you’ll find one while we talk.
We will schedule a meeting for next month and come back to share how we have done. This is open to all Squad 10 members whatever you write and will be chaired by Squad grad Libby Williamson.

THE CLANDESTINE DIGITAL PERFORMANCE EXTRAVAGANZA WORKSHOP
2021-02-06 14:00 - 16:00
We’re going to think about what it’s like to be a person on the internet.
We’re going to think about the places people hang out on the internet (whether it’s YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Gmail, Google Docs or Facebook) and think about what’s natural and native to how they communicate with us.
Then we’ll explore ways of communicating through them in a way that turn ‘people on the internet’ into an audience to an event!
The themes are liveness, spectatorship and world-building, meta-theatrical theatre.
We’ll talk about the conventions and what’s familiar to us about live streaming and social media platforms. And we’ll talk about times when things were different: moments we’ve stumbled into interesting places on the internet, and times where we felt seen or temporally present.
We’ll discuss voyeurism, and the language, modes of address, and explore ways of using ‘public’ spaces on internet as to publish our work into:

Finding, sharing and exploring curious places on the internet.
Exploring and playing with the ways platforms allow us to communicate through them
Live publishing
Screen recording (documentation)
Live streaming

All you’ll need is your connection and a Google account.
Andy is a writer, theatre maker, facilitator and Squad grad. Originally from Sheffield he lives in London, where he has just finished an MA in Advanced Theatre Practice at Central School of Speech and Drama. He started out writing poetry and performing it all over the country. And now he writes plays, devises theatre and occasionally makes installations. Sometimes he does it with other folks and sometimes under the banner Forest Sounds theatre. He is really interested in performance where the audience are invited to participate in some way. And things that are funny and absurd or surreal. (Not that you have to write like that. He wrote this from his kitchen table next to his my cat, named after a character from Game of Thrones.)

SQUAD 10: WORKSHOP WITH STEVIE (NEWCASTLE)
2021-02-06 11:00 - 17:00 | Newcastle, Newcastle

STEP CHANGE Applying to the Arts Council’s DYCP Funding Programme Part II
2021-02-04 19:30 - 21:00
Developing Your Creative Practice (DYCP) is Arts Council England’s funding scheme that aims to provide financial support to individual artists in order to facilitate a step change in their career. In this workshop successful DYCP applicant, Stevie will help you to think strategically about your career as an artist and help you to consider how DYCP funding could best support you in achieving your aims. DYCP is a very competitive funding programme and while it is important to note that attending this workshop will not necessarily guarantee you success in the application process, the aim will be to increase your chances of writing a strong application with support from Stevie and the other workshop participants.
This workshop will take place over two sessions. To maximise the benefits of the support on offer you will need to spend time thinking about and working on your application in-between the two sessions. More details on the eventbrite link.
*if you are in Squad 10 and would like a place if there are any, please email billie@writingsquad.com

POETS MINIGOALS
2021-01-27 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-01-20 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-01-13 17:30 - 19:00

PROSE WRITERS MINIGOALS
2021-01-26 17:30 - 19:00, 2021-01-19 17:30 - 19:00

SCI FI AND FANTASY MINI GOALS
2021-01-25 18:00 - 19:30
Setting goals is a really useful way of prioritising our writing, and being accountable (principally to ourselves). Since the first Covid lockdown, the Squad has run a number of Mini-Goals groups, which have been a fantastic resource, and a source of support, motivation, and encouragement (as well as a lot of fun).
We know that many Squad writers have an interest in SFF, and as Francesca is a specialist in this field, we thought a dedicated group would be a great way to support one another with our SFF writing.

SQUAD 10: WORKSHOP WITH EMMA (MANCHESTER)
2021-01-23 11:00 - 17:00 | Manchester, Manchester

STEP CHANGE Applying to the Arts Council’s DYCP Funding Programme
2021-01-21 19:30 - 21:00

SQUAD 10: WORKSHOP WITH FRANCESCA (MANCHESTER)
2021-01-16 11:00 - 17:00 | Manchester, Manchester

THE AWESOME PLAY TEXT / SCREENPLAY READING CLUB
2021-01-12 19:15 - 20:45
During this meet up we will be discussing The Funeral Director by Iman Qureshi. We will send you a script or you can buy it from Nick Hern Books.
Life as the director of a Muslim funeral parlour isn’t always easy, but Ayesha has things pretty sorted. She and Zeyd share everything: a marriage, a business, a future.
Until Tom walks in to organise his boyfriend’s funeral. A snap moral decision, informed by the values of Ayesha’s community and faith, has profound consequences.
Forced to confront a secret she has hidden even from herself, Ayesha must decide who she is – no matter the cost.
An incisive and heartfelt story of sexuality, gender and religion in twenty-first-century Britain. It won the 2018 Papatango New Writing Prize and premiered at Southwark Playhouse, London, in October 2018.
What to expect at Awesome P&SPR Club?
The zoom is informal and relaxed. No one is put on the spot. We tend to look at the text from 3 positions:
How did it make you feel / think as a reader?
What kind of themes/ideas is it exploring (so a kind of Eng Lit pov)?
What kind of ideas/tools does it give to you as a writer?
That’s it. If that sounds like your kind of thing, then Matt and Emma will be delighted to see you on the night.
