The Writing Squad

Politics and Prose with Preti Taneja
2022-05-28 11:00 - 16:00 UTC | Newcastle, Newcastle
How to work with real life laws, evidence and witness testimony in all your many forms.
In this workshop we will look at the ethics, politics and aesthetics of working with real life situations and research evidence, including legal documents, and gathering witness testimony, as you write.
We will talk about situations where we have gathered witness testimony for our research, how to handle sensitive material and respect interviewees; we will share and build towards best practice when your work includes other’s real stories or identifiable lives especially friends and family. We may discuss how we can engage with legal documents that inform our world-building and how we can go about this in a fictionalised way.
You will leave the workshop with an appreciation of the value of research and the wealth of real documents and stories that exist for writers to draw in formally inventive ways. You will learn how to bring the politics into the prose with style and confidence.

Squad 10 Mini Goals
2022-05-30 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-06-27 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-07-25 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-08-22 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Mini goals session – setting goals and updating each other on writing news and cultural highlights. Email billie@writingsquad.com for Zoom details.

Poets Mini Goals
2022-06-02 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-06-23 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-07-07 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-07-21 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-08-11 17:30 - 19:00 | Online

Script Mini Goals
2022-06-06 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-06-20 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-07-04 17:30 - 19:00, 2022-07-18 17:30 - 19:00 | Online

TEN Talks: Sex in YA Communities
2022-06-08 19:30 - 21:00 | Online
Part of TENTalks – a series of discussions on ethical and philosophical writerly questions.
Sex is everywhere from ads, to TV, to music but should it be everywhere? In this discussion, we’re asking two questions: should sex be present in books marketed as ‘YA’? And how should a fandom community act when a book marketed to younger readers contains sexual content? To answers these questions, we’ll be looking at the work of Sarah J Maas, an author known for her very explicit books that despite being marketed as New Adult very much still find themselves in the YA section, and the infamous #DickSoap scandal that rocked her fandom and all of Book Twitter back in 2018.
There’s no preparation required other than having your thoughts (or your ears) ready to partake. But if you wish, here’s an article about DickSoap: https://electricliterature.com/young-adult-novel-twitter-is-losing-its-absolute-mind-over-penis-shaped-soap/ and you can choose to read Sarah J Maas novels such as Throne of Glass or ACOTAR (‘argh my eyeballs’ discretion is advised).

Writing in Glass - A Three Day Project
2022-06-11 11:00 - 2022-06-12 16:00, 2022-06-18 11:00 - 16:00 | Sunderland
Priority for N.E. based Squad writers. If you are N.E. based, sign up by this Friday (20th) – sign-ups will then be open to writers in all locations of all Squads.
Over a series of three days (Saturday 11, Sunday 12 and Saturday 18 of June) you’ll get a chance to develop your writing practice against glass fusion techniques. This project will focus on distortion, tension, colour and the tactile world. We’ll be thinking about thing-power, the importance of scrap in our writing and our handling of the world around us.
Alongside glass artist Anna Selway we’ll look at different applications of frit, stringer and ribbon. On the Saturday we will familiarise ourself with the museum, and have a gander and play of the space we’ll be working in. The National Glass Centre is a historic venue right next to Sunderland’s old shipyard and metres away from St Peter’s Church. On Sunday we’ll work primarily with our glass pieces, applying materials to our glass pieces. Then on the following Saturday, we will receive our fused glassworks back from the kiln, and will work on binding (yes binding glass!), arranging and exhibiting them.
This project will take place in the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, so priority will first go to writers based in the North East, before we open it up to other Squad members. The project will run from approximately 11am-4pm over the three days. If you are not based locally, accommodation can be provided. If you will need accommodation for the night of the 11th of June, please email Billie on billie@writingsquad.com ASAP.
You don’t need ANY prior experience to be part of this project, just an open-mind, and a love/desire to work with the tactile world. This is a fantastic opportunity to work interdisciplinary with a fantastic glass artist and a brilliant space.

SFF Mini Goals
2022-06-13 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-07-11 18:00 - 19:30 | Online

Awesome Poetry: The Air Year
2022-06-14 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
OPEN TO ALL SQUADS
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 Caroline Bird’s The Air Year. The text can be purchased here.
The Air Year is a time of flight, transition and suspension: signatures scribbled on the sky. Bird’s speakers exist in a state of unrest, trapped in a liminal place between take-off and landing, undeniably lost. Love is uncontrollable, joy comes and goes at hurricane speed. They walk to the cliff edge, close their eyes and step out into the air.

Prose Mini Goals
2022-06-16 18:00 - 19:30, 2022-07-14 17:30 - 19:00 | Online

The Butterfly in the Corner: Revitalising Old Myths
2022-07-02 11:00 - 16:00 | Leeds
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.
We will write a poem using a myth, folklore, fairy tale, fable, religious, and / or historical tale as a starting point. Your poem will be in conversation with an iconic, well known and influential text. Hopefully you will find it both fascinating and rewarding to reimagine a text that we know and love, in order to present another perspective.
Come to the workshop armed with a myth, fairy tale, folklore, religious and / or historical tale that has always fascinated you in some way or form to use for stimulus for the poem we will create.
Note: This workshop is only open to members of the Writing Squad. It is not open to the general public.

Interactive Fiction: Choose Your Own Adventure
2022-07-09 11:00 - 16:00 | Manchester, Manchester
We’ll take a look at the many ways in which interactive stories exist, with a dive into examples from the games space, print, and new media. We’ll look at ideas and structures that make interactive fiction such a unique way to tell stories, and then roll up our sleeves and get stuck into a number of easy free tools to create our own works.
Although this is a primarily a hands-on workshop, the discussion will focus on what makes interactive storytelling really tick, what sets it apart from linear fiction, and where the overlaps are. This workshop is a space for experimentation.
You will come away from this workshop with new insights and understanding of a writing form you’re perhaps unfamiliar with, as well as some useful practical skills for creating your own work. You’ll also be given a cohesive spring-board into more learning and work through comprehensive hand-outs at the end of the workshop.
Bring a laptop of some kind, or anything that connects to Wifi and has a web browser! We can also provide machines if need be. Nothing else needed.

Awesome Poetry - Disiniformation
2022-09-13 18:00 - 19:30 | Online
Writers reading, led by Malika and Stevie

Amanda Dalton Workshop: Lost in Translation
2023-03-04 11:00 - 16:00 | Yorkshire Dance, Leeds
More details and signup here.
How might we go about dramatising a novel? And is it ever possible or desirable to turn a poem into a play or a short story into a poem? How do we settle on the genre for something we want to explore through writing? What happens to a text when we change its form? What’s the point – is there a point, ever, in adapting an existing text? This workshop will consider these questions and experiment with some of the fun, creative discoveries and challenges to be had when we adapt our own or other people’s writing and/or style of presentation.
We will produce some new writing in response to an existing text or texts. We will try out new skills and techniques around adaptation and reflect on our writing processes and how we decide which form or genre we want to write in and how some material might be better suited to one form or another. We’ll also have had a go at turning a piece of our own writing into a different ‘form’ or genre.

Poets Minigoals
2023-03-08 18:30 - 20:00 | Zoom
Online poets minigoals session for members of The Writing Squad. This event takes place every 3 weeks.

Topic: Poets Mini Goals
Time: Mar 8, 2023 06:30 PM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89281065693?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 892 8106 5693
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Script Minigoals
2023-03-09 17:30 - 19:00
Online script minigoals session for members of The Writing Squad. This event takes place every 4 weeks.

Topic: Script Mini Goals
Time: Mar 9, 2023 05:30 PM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85471549933?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 854 7154 9933
Passcode: [REDACTED]

SFF Minigoals
2023-03-13 18:00 - 19:30
Online SFF (Science Fiction/Fantasy) minigoals session for members of The Writing Squad. This event takes place every 4 weeks.

Topic: SFF Mini Goals
Time: Mar 13, 2023 06:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89916823663?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 899 1682 3663
Passcode: [REDACTED]

Prose Minigoals
2023-03-16 18:00 - 19:30
Online prose minigoals session for members of The Writing Squad. This event takes place every 4 weeks.

Topic: Prose Mini Goals
Time: Mar 16, 2023 06:00 PM London
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84457760317?pwd=[REDACTED]
Meeting ID: 844 5776 0317
Passcode: [REDACTED]
