As I trundled down the driveway to Lower Shaw Farm, I couldn’t help but smile. The writing workshop I was about to attend was my first visit and, when I saw the cheerfully decorated farmyard, the outbuilding painted sky blue, the ex-cow shed with each door painted a different colour and the tree house with it’s fire engine red staircase, I couldn’t help but think that I had arrived in the perfect surroundings for an afternoon of creative tuition.
Greeted by Bridget Holding from Wild Words, a huge, welcoming grin on her face, my fellow writers and I settled down to enjoy a hearty lunch of soup, potatoes and some warm cheese scones. Suitably satiated, we gathered on the sofas to begin the real business of the day; writing.
I have to admit to being nervous, I had not attended a writing workshop since my university days and the thought of writing on demand and potentially reading it out in front of the others sent a small chill running up my spine and in to my brain. I needn’t have worried, though, Bridget’s relaxed approach to the workshops quickly put my fellow writers and I at ease. She made it very clear that she would only ask people to read, never forcing anyone to do something with which they aren’t comfortable.
Bridget’s approach was refreshingly straight forward; helping writers find their own voice through structured exercises and tuition, while never dictating a genre, form or length . An experienced writer herself, she created a fun and friendly workshop that encouraged us to become more confident in our natural storytelling instincts and, through three structured exercises, introduced us to the Wild Words approach to writing. Promoting the idea that writers should be more connected to the world around them and describe physical reactions to stimuli to communicate an emotion or environment. Through this you are taught to use the five senses in order to build a world or environment; rather than saying something is hot, you describe how the heat affects your body.
While this was just a brief introduction to Bridget’s approach, it was very insightful and, more to the point, inspiring and I, for one, will most certainly be checking out the Wild Words website to find out about their writing holidays and other courses.
