I’m very pleased to be planning a new real-time, in-person workshop for 26 November: Reawakenings.

It’s been nearly three years since we last met at a Words Away workshop! And a lot has happened since then, so for this first workshop I thought we could explore some of these changes in our writing. There’s some darker stuff there, of course, but it also gives us plenty to think about in terms of transformation and creativity and coming out the other side. Plague and war and sourdough starter: meet notebook and pen.

We’ll draw upon the ideas of sleeping and waking for our focus: slumber, hibernation, dreams, nightmares, rebirth, recreation, the interactions of the conscious and the subconscious minds. I’m currently gathering some short readings – probably some Natalie Goldberg and Robin Wall Kimmerer, perhaps some Tove Jansson, almost certainly a reference or two to Brokeback Mountain. I might bring in some Buddhist psychology I’ve been studying over the last couple of years, and we’ll also use the Four Elements as a holistic creative framework.

Kellie and I are particularly excited about a super new venue in the heart of the West End: the Phoenix Garden. A couple of months ago, as I was taking a short cut behind Shaftesbury Avenue to the bookshops of Charing Cross Road, my eyes were drawn to Tibetan prayer flags behind the railings of a little pocket park. I realised in fact it’s where I once ate fish and chips – or was it a cream cake (or maybe both?!) – when I met up with an old friend. Since then it’s had a bit of a makeover: it has its own meeting space, and the garden has been carefully tended into a little oasis. I’ve always wanted to teach a workshop in a garden: now my dream comes true. Perhaps, if it’s not raining on the 26th, we can even do some writing outdoors?

And of course the idea of a Phoenix fits perfectly with the theme of reawakening.

The formal description for the workshop is copied below, and here’s a booking link at Words Away.

Rise again! I hope to see some of you there.

REAWAKENINGS
A Four Elements workshop
1.15-4.45pm, 26 November 2022
Phoenix Garden, 21 Stacey Street, London WC2H 8DG

What’s been sleeping, and what’s now stirring? And what can we spring into action in our writing?

The past few years have been marked by great changes for all of us: fears of plague and war and climate disaster, moral panics about woke culture, political upheaval, social isolation, personal loss. But there’s also the possibility for seeing and doing things anew.

Drawing on the powers of the four elements, in this workshop we’ll look for fresh inspirations for our writing in the ideas of sleeping and waking. As we come together again to write, let’s sharpen our awareness as we reawaken our imaginative purpose.

This workshop will include:
* preparatory readings and writing exercises (optional, and to be circulated a couple of weeks before the class)
* in-class discussion, meditations, and writing
* teatime with the book doctor: opportunities to raise questions about writing and publishing over tea and cake
* follow-up notes, including writing experiments, reading suggestions, and resources on writing and creativity