A 10-step guide to running a creative writing workshop on ‘Journeys’
Have you ever stepped on to a new path? Taken the road less travelled? Or been faced with a crossroad?
Scottish Book Trust want to know about a journey in your life. This can be a real journey – perhaps the adventure of your life, or a day when your morning commute became extraordinary – or it can be an emotional journey, the moment you turned off the beaten track. Did you end up where you planned to go? Did the experience change you or make you think?
Share your personal story or poem on our website and be a part of our national campaign to get Scotland writing. Our favourite stories will be included in a book that will be distributed across the country for Book Week Scotland 2015.
Are you part of a writing group, workshop group or book club? Do you think your group might have some stories to tell about the journeys they’ve been on? Use this handy guide to run an interactive creative writing session and get your stories down on paper.
If you’re working with adult learners, you should also have a look at our Guide for Adult Learning groups before you plan your session.
Submission details
Your group can be creative about how they write, as creative as they like, and submissions can take a variety of formats, such as:
· a story,
· a poem or a riddle,
· a diary entry,
· a letter,
· a sketch or a scene (like a short play),
· an article (newspaper or magazine),
· a personal piece of writing.
The entries can be short in length or a longer piece but no more than 1,000 words in total. The final date for submissions is 30 June 2015. We are happy to receive ‘postcard’ entries of no more than 150 words.
Entries should be pasted into the body of the webpage entry form found at the following location:
www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing/journeys
All entries will appear on Scottish Book Trust’s website and will be promoted in the run up to and throughout Book Week Scotland, which is held from Monday 23rd November to Sunday 29th November 2015. In addition a selection of stories will also be entered into a book that will be distributed throughout Scotland during Book Week Scotland.
All entries will be available in digital format at:
www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing/journeys
If your group usually meets for two hours, you can complete all the activities below in one two-hour session. If you usually meet for only one hour, you can run a one-hour session by omitting the activities that are marked ‘optional’.
1. Icebreaker (optional)
If your group is meeting for the first time, or if you have some new members who don’t know everyone, an icebreaker is a good way to start the session. Icebreakers are short activities that make sure everyone feels welcome and ready to contribute. You can find three sample icebreaker activities on the Scottish Book Trust website, or you can come up with your own.
2. Examples of journeys in literature
This resource pack also includes some examples of published writers describing journeys that were important to them. You can download the example sheet, which contains a non-fiction extract, a fiction extract and an extract from a poem.
3. What makes a journey interesting?
Start by discussing the example/s and picking out what your group like about them: what caught your attention? Are there any lines or images that you liked? The example sheet contains a few questions to get your discussion started. If your group is quite large, you could discuss in pairs or small groups, and then feed back to the whole group with everyone’s ideas being written on paper, a flipchart, whiteboard or smart board.
4. Your journeys
Now your group can start talking about the journeys they have been on. You can start by thinking about journeys you take every day, like the journey to buy groceries or drop children off at school. Then you can move on to thinking about more special journeys. Here are some examples:
· visiting a relative who lives far away
· going on holiday
· moving house
· first journeys: climbing your first mountain, your first plane flight
5. Mapping your journey (optional)
Once you have chosen the journey that you want to write about, you can begin to think creatively about this journey by drawing a map. Mark the distance covered, and important landmarks you passed or visited on the way. Note any particular activities you did as part of this journey, or draw the people who travelled with you. You could even draw the things you packed to take along! Be as creative and colourful as you like: this activity is a great way to get the creative juices flowing.
6. Scribble down ideas (optional)
At this point, you can start thinking very roughly about how you might write about your journey. You can write bullet points or single words, create a mind map or spider diagram, or write a quick first draft.
Start thinking about the best angle from which to talk about your journey. Do you want to tell it from your point of view? Or could you take a more abstract angle? For example, a car journey could be told from the point of view of the poor, tired car who had to trek hundreds of miles in the rain... or a camel ride could be told from the point of view of the camel!
7. Where to begin
There’s only a limited space for you to tell your story in (see our Submission Guidelines for more information), so consider how you can make the story really exciting and interesting to readers. You can jump in anywhere. We’re all used to starting the story of Cinderella with Cinderella working in her wicked stepmother’s kitchen. But imagine if the story started in the middle: with a beautiful girl running out of a castle, one shoe missing, her clothes turning to rags around her... what an opening scene!
8. How to end
A good story ends with a memorable image. Think about the best thing that happened on the journey you took – or you could think about the reason you’ll always remember that journey. You should consider putting that right at the end, so the reader leaves the story remembering the great part! If it helps, you could even write down your ending first and then work towards that ending.
9. Drafting and redrafting (optional)
If you have time, write out a first draft, so you can read over your story, change and tweak it before you decide it’s ready to send off. The word limit for submissions is 1,000 words. If you like, you can use our postcard template to write a first draft of your story during your creative writing workshop. You can then redraft what you’ve written on your postcard to create a more polished account of your journey.
10. Sharing (optional)
Once you have written about your journey, you could read it aloud to the rest of your group if you feel brave enough! We hope you’ll also send it off to SBT and share it with us! Have a look at our Submission Guidelines to find out how to do this.