Our adult literacy and numeracy service recently celebrated the success of a fantastic new creative writing project, which took place in our St. Enoch Square office and in various other locations across Glasgow.
The workshops started on the 23rd of February when our budding writers hesitantly arrived to a warm welcome and an opportunity to tackle their writer’s block head on by putting pen to paper after interviewing each other to find out what they all had in common. Their next challenge was to produce a piece of writing based on a memorable bus journey. With tales of late buses, crazy drivers and landing flat on their bums, the room was soon filled with laughter as everyone began to get involved.
During the second workshop, two Glasgow-based writers (Ian Pattison, writer of Rab C. Nesbitt, and an up and coming young writer, Chris McQueer, of ‘Hings’ fame) came along to participate in a Q&A session with the group. Both shared how they became established and talked about the challenges they faced along the way. A key highlight for the group was when Ian and Chris participated in an exercise using different prompts to spark their imagination.
On the third week, the lights went down and everyone got the chance to watch a music video based on the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, before they wrote about memories this brought to the fore. This was followed by a trip to St. Enoch Square to engage in a bit of ‘people watching’ (and a few sneaky fags). Back in the room, everyone created a fictional character based on somebody they’d observed in the square. From men in blue coats to bionic grannies, this fun exercise really got the creative juices flowing.
The sessions culminated in a presentation of work at the Spoon Café in the Trongate. The writers recited some of their work to invited guests before tucking into a delicious buffet provided by Spoon Café staff. A collection of the work was captured in booklet form, aptly named ‘Pen for Ma Thoughts’. If you’d like a copy let get in touch and let us know.
By way of a thank you, the writers were invited back to our St. Enoch Square office to receive a certificate, a copy of their booklet and goodie bag. The positive feedback from writers have prompted the adult literacy and numeracy team, Denise and Linda, to look at the possibility of running drop-in sessions in the future. Watch this space.
We’d like to thank all our writers who supported our project, as well as Glasgow City Council for funding received through their Integrated Grants Fund.
