Saturday 25th September 2004 - "Writing a Novel"

This was an opportunity for writers to come and discuss their writing with experienced writer and creator of the Cassandra James in Cambridge mysteries, Christine Poulson.

Christine had already written widely on nineteenth-century art and literature during her career as a lecturer in Art History at Cambridge. The city and the surrounding Fens with their unique, sometimes sinister atmosphere provided the inspiration for her first novel, Dead Letters. It was followed by a sequel, Stage Fright, and she is now working on a third.

For more information on Christine look at her website on www.christinepoulson.co.uk

Some of the subjects that were discussed included:

Where do I begin?
How to develop an initial idea.
How to develop a plot.
How do I tell my story, action or narration?
Developing characters.
Writing Dialogue.
Background and research.
Marketing to an agent or publisher.

This surgery took the form of part lecture and part question and answer.

Signposts Writing Workshops.

"WINTER WRITING WORKSHOPS"

Signposts presented a new series of WINTER WORKSHOPS which started on 13th November 2004 and ended 7th May 2005.

The workshops consisted of three prose and three poetry workshops. The prose series were ran by one writer, Linda Lee Welch, while the three poetry workshops each had their own writer who lead the individual workshop along a particular theme.

This started on Saturday November 13th, the following two workshops were on December 4th & January 29th, starting at 10.00 am until 4.00 pm, and were all led by Linda Lee Welch.

Here are the details

The aim was that by the end of the course everyone should have at least one edited and complete short story. The workshops were a combination of teaching, exercises, and feedback where the short story as a form was explored. The three workshops were planned to build progressively on each other but some participants attended individual ones.

Poetry Workshops

MARCH 5TH - Matt Clegg - In The Destructive Element

Want to get to grips with messy reality? Interested in poetry that deals with the darker side of experience? Writers joined Matt Clegg in testing Joseph Conrad's idea that in order to stay alive we must submit ourself to the 'destructive element'.

APRIL 2nd - Debjani Chatterjee - Myths, Legends and Traditional Tales in Poetry

Debjanni Chatterjee finds myths, legends and traditional tales an endlessly rich and exciting source of inspiration. In this practical workshop she looked at ways in which contemporary poetry can tap into the power and beauty of age-old stories.

MAY 7th - Ann Hamblen - Seeing in Colour.

This event was for anyone who enjoys playing with words and was for new and more experienced poets alike! Using colours in the world as the theme, Ann Hamblen looked at how we translate colour into words and how it permeates published writing as well as our own writing.

BOOKING DETAILS

The workshops were held in the Signposts Training Room and began at 10.00 am and run until 4.00 pm with a one hour break for lunch.
The cost of each workshop was £8.00 / £4.00 concessions.
Each workshop was booked and paid for in advance.