At Ty Newydd Writers Centre

I arrived in a sea fog which made the beach invisible and muted the sounds of Easter Monday holiday makers. Thereafter it was a perfectly sunny, warm week at the The Nawe / Lapidus Writing Retreat at Ty Newydd Writers Centre in North Wales - ripe for gentle distraction activities like winding the coastal path to Crricieth.

I was co-hosting the Retreat this year with Nawe's Chair Liz Cashdan. It's essentially an unstructured opportunity to get away from everything and write. The environment is calm and conducive with delicious and healthy meals provided (all dietary requirements catered for!) by Gwynn and Erin who live on site, and a congenial office staff on hand to help with anything from printing to taxis and local info.

Optional workshops were also available including one on poetry and a novel writing workshop from a published author.   

Liz and I also offered one to ones which allowed time for individual participants to explore aspects of writing and writing for wellbeing.

A highlight of the week was the visit from Jill Teague of Lapidus, who lives nearby in the North Wales forest, to facilitate her Writing in Nature workshop. This gave us an opportunity to focus on the landscape around the centre, encounter nature and its inhabitants and process the experience in writing and words.

Robert Graves' The Welsh Incident begins with the lines


‘But that was nothing to what things came out
From the sea-caves of Criccieth yonder.’

The Retreat is held each year in April at Ty Newydd.  More details are available from Nawe.

Words and Stories

The Care in Mind creative writing group I facilitate meets each Tuesday morning in Canning Town. There are up to six regular members and this week we welcomed two new members.

 

We've agreed a format which includes some light stretching and relaxation exercise at the beginning, about 10 minutes of journal writing, and sharing words we like or are feeling by writing them in coloured pens on the board throughout the session. 

 

I choose a different theme each week and yesterday it was Stories - remembering the stories we know, changing story endings and creating our own stories.

 

Stories we know

Words we like

Each week is full of stories as life is made up of the stories we tell ourselves and each other, and the subjects we've written about include neighbourhoods, animals, favourite places, seasons, names, gardens, people and shoes.

 

The group also enjoy reading and writing from poems. TS Elliot, Grace Nichols, Langston Hughes, John Hegley, Raymond Carver, Mary Oliver, Wordsworth, John Agard and Norman MacCaig are among the poets who have joined us over the weeks. (See links to specific poems below)

 

I really enjoy working with this group. Thanks to Care in Mind for asking me!  

 

Mr Mistoffelees by TS Elliot, Sea Timeless by Grace Nicholls, Judith by John Hegley, Happiness by Raymond Carver, Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth, Adlestrop by Edward Thomas.

 

 

 

Creativity and Wellbeing Week

New WordWell Workshops are planned for London Creativity and Wellbeing Week which takes place from 5 - 12th June 2015.

The first, Words for Life, is on Friday 5th June with colleague Charmaine Pollard, at the Poetry Cafe near Covent Garden in London. This workshop will look at fun ways we can increase our resilience and confidence using writing.

The Writing in Nature workshop is on Wednesday, 10th June between 10.30 and 12.30pm, in the Fulham Palace Walled Garden.  This is a natural space tucked away between the Thames and the Fulham Palace Road. "Are we in the country?" a child from a school in the centre of London asked when he visited recently for a story writing workshop. It's true. The garden feels a million miles away from inner city stress, even though it's in the borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.

This workshop is an opportunity to be in nature and to use the sights, sounds, smells and feeling of the garden as inspiration for writing. We'll have use of a room in the Education Centre (the old stable block) so even if it's raining we can still write!

writing and nature have health and wellbeing benefits

Latest news from Lapidus: The Writing for Wellbeing Organisation

It was Lapidus: The Writing for Wellbeing Organisation's 2014 AGM on 29th November and the room was alive with energy and positivity from Lapidus members passionate about writing and words for wellbeing.

It's been a challenging year for Lapidus and as Chair I'm pleased to report the organisation is now solvent and stabilised. 

Member numbers continue to grow but as all funds derive from membership we need to look for other sources of funding too. This is one of the challenges for the coming year. Another is to ensure a place for Lapidus and writing & words for wellbeing on the National Wellbeing Agenda. Over the next few months the Lapidus Board will be looking at ways to promote Lapidus as the 'go to' organisation for writing and words for wellbeing.

Earlier in November I attended the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) Conference in Bristol. This was an inspiring  event with workshops and seminars from 9am to 9pm. 

Roger McGough and Deborah Moggach were both interesting and hilarious. I learned about notebook poems, lines as inspiration, celebrating mother tongues, poetry improvisation, wild writing and creative approaches to change and renewal. 

Lapidus is a partner organisation with NAWE and holds an annual joint Writing Retreat at Ty Newydd, North Wales. Next year it will take place from Monday, April 6th - Saturday April 11th, 2015. I'm happy to be co-hosting with NAWE's Liz Cashdan. There will also be a guest workshop from Jill Teague entitled, Treading Softly - Writing in Nature.  

Writing Workshops at the Mint House Book Shop

Autumn is a time of change and opportunity... 

We are excited to be holding FOUR WRITING WORKSHOPS 
at The Mint House Book Shop 
94 High Street, Hurstpierpoint, West Sussex, BN6 9PX

INSPIRATIONS and POSSIBILITIES 

writing from the season, senses and the self

Thursdays 16th, 23rd, 30th Oct and 6 Nov 
7 - 8.30pm 
£60 
with poet Charles Antony

To book a place email Christine at: writewordwell@gmail.com or contact Charles on: 01293 519688