“Once in a while, someone amazing comes along, and here I am!” Tigger, Winnie the Pooh Literature is full of animals. From Black Beauty and Mr Toad to the talking animals of Narnia, animal characters have starred in many of … Read More
In fiction, characters drive the narrative and create a voice for the reader to relate to. In the second of our ‘Write Like A Girl’ sessions with author Helen Cross we’ve been looking at how to create characters, using the … Read More
We’re all familiar with Byron, Sillitoe and DH Lawrence, and their association with the city of Nottingham. What’s less well known is that a host of top female authors hailed from the city too. A new project, organised by Nottingham … Read More
How do you feel about new year? Do you find it exciting and full of promise, or do you mourn the passing of the old year? For some, it’s a cause for celebration and hope, or a chance to wipe … Read More
For our last group session before Christmas we had a bit of fun with our writing. Here are a few games you might want to try. Names in a hat: This is a bit like the party game ‘Who Am … Read More
Fellow IQ writer Anne Goodwin has brought out a collection of short stories called Becoming Someone– all themed around the topic of identity. I went to her book launch last week which gave me me the idea for this week’s writing … Read More
As children we are naturally creative, but the disciplines we face as we progress through school, college and career often put constraints on that creativity. I get people coming to my groups who haven’t written since school and are surprised, … Read More
We’ve been working through the senses in the group I run at Maggie’s. This week we did smells! I asked people to bring things in that smelt interesting (within reason). Among other things they brought citrus fruits, spices, coffee, … Read More
At Maggie’s we often use visual prompts for our writing, but this time we collaborated with the art group that meets on the same day and used some of their creations as prompts. These days we are bombarded … Read More
As I sit down to write this blog JP – my other half – is randomly instructing Siri to play whatever piece of music comes into his head. Siri – resident in a globule-shaped speaker which sits in the centre … Read More