TheFED Writing Festival 2017
Saturday 3rd June
Faraday House
(48-51 Old Gloucester Street, Holborn, London, WC1N 3AE)
Were you there?
Please send your photos, recordings, writing, suggestions etc.
to fedonline1@gmail.com
The Workshops
'The Numbers Game' - Tony May
A simple & fun workshop designed not only to inspire writing but also to encourage those taking part to share and get to know each other a little better.
With the world and its people becoming ever more connected to computers and machines this workshop aims to redress the balance...
'How to Use Character Arcs in Short Stories and Novels' - Philip Corwin
Do you want your readers to fall in love with your characters? Do you want them to care for their fate? Are you trying to make a point without sounding to preachy? Then you need a good character arc.
This workshop aims to teach you the basics of how to develop a character arc, a useful tool for short stories and novels.
'Letters to Trump and May' - Jess Pauszek and Steve Parks
In this workshop merging US and UK backgrounds, we will focus on the protest letter as a genre of writing. We will read some examples of letters throughout the years and participants will write their own letters to express views of the current political situation to leaders such as Donald Trump and Theresa May. What might these letters include? We will also explore how the letters might circulate and be published beyond this workshop? We will discuss these questions and explore ways to make this writing public (if participants are interested).
'Crisis' - Andrew Henry Smith
We all experience crisis; mid-life crisis, a crisis of confidence, crisis in the NHS. Crisis is quietly going on all around us, noisily happening right here & now. Political crisis, personal crisis or personal political crisis. Where does crisis come from - where does it go? What are the essential features of crisis?
Can crisis be avoided? Is crisis inevitable? We will walk around our own crisis & the crises of others, too see what we can discover.
If we can get a good idea of what exactly it is we may come to transcend personal crisis & simply view it working away in the lives of others. Maybe we will learn to stop catastrophising our normal life events.
A serious subject - but why not have some fun with it? I'm gonna try!
'You Couldn't Make It Up' - John Malcomson
It is often said that truth is stranger than fiction. Following recent events such as the election of Donald Trump, the Labour Party voting in Parliament to support the Tory hard Brexit strategy and other equally unlikely happenings, how can the writer compete?
We will do some writing exercises using the most implausible stories we can think of, and discuss how we can make them believable. We will also look at real life events that are even weirder, and work on how to turn our fiction writing into something that is not immediately dismissed as utterly implausible, even when the truth is even less so. It will be great fun, especially when I give examples of several real events that would not be accepted by any editor who found them in a story.
'The Wave - a taste of the Five Rythms' - Roy & Lucia Birch
Exploring movement as healing. Using meditation, free movement, dance and imagination. . . either seated or on your feet... we will experience and create with words and/or pictures. No previous experience necessary.
'Accessing Online Writing Courses For Free' - Sunitha Webster
With the emergence of university Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) in the last few years, there has never been a better time to learn more about writing. If certification isn't a concern for you, most providers allow learners to 'audit' classes for free, with thousands of resources available at your fingertips. In addition, you can engage with hundreds of other learners in MOOC online forums.
Whether you want to learn about narrative structure, lyrical poetry or dramatic irony, there's a course out there for you, the trick lies in knowing how to find it. This workshop will allow you to try out some of the materials on offer, help you identify where you might begin your own search for learning and give you the tools for continuing your search post-workshop.
'The Secret Plot' - Michael C. Bungay
What is the Secret Plot? Are you the one coming up with the secret plot? Are you discovering the secret plot? Is someone else discovering or making the secret plot? Even your own character(s) could be the one(s) to make or discover the secret plot? Who knows? It is your secret so you decide.
'Welcome to my World' - Lytisha Tunbridge
After a series of warm ups to get us focused on the sense of place, we will explore writing using the infraordinary as our lens.
After work-shopping in small groups we will each create a piece to share.