I attended this informative workshop yesterday as part of the Morley Literature Festival and what a constructive and empowering event it was.
Writing about real life has never been more popular with autobiographies and true-life tales frequently topping the bestseller lists. This workshop was for anyone who had an interest in writing non-fiction about their own experiences or anyone else's.
The workshop promised that Katy would tell you how to edit your own content, for example: what to include, what to leave out, how to make prose really come alive, and how to hook a reader into your story.
Katy Massey started the workshop by informing us that she spent 15 years as a journalist, before gaining a creative writing PhD. She has been widely published, has performed at the Glastonbury Festival and works as a community artist and creative writing tutor, specialising in helping people to write their life stories and to improve their poetry and prose.
There were eight of us at the workshop (although strangely, two people had paid their money and not turned up) and there were two men and six women attendees. The group were of mixed abilities, ranging from novices to published writers and almost everyone had come armed with the story that they wanted to tell.
Katy split us into pairs and challenged us to name twelve first lines from novels, e.g. 'Call me Ishmael.' is the first line of Moby Dick. My partner and I did very well in naming five, as they were quite difficult.
We then went around the table introducing ourselves and explaining why we were at the workshop and the ideas given ranged from writing one's own autobiography, to writing about historical events from a fictional point of view. We were a very eclectic group and all the prospective works sounded like excellent concepts.
Katy informed us that non-fiction writing is about communicating facts to a reader, so a story opening is vital in that it should hook your reader. She encouraged us to think about our fictional/virtual reader and suggested that with some of the true-life events, it would enhance the story to change the names/characters and add extra fictional elements.
The point of view that you write from is key and one should introduce the central relationship of the main character early, with a recognisable time and place. This should be written as a scene rather than bare facts. Katy passed around the opening of chapter four of a Janice Galloway novel to illustrate point of view and tenses, as the beginning of the chapter is written in first person present from the point of view of a child, yet the rest of the chapter is written in past tense from a much older narrator.
Before the break for refreshments, Katy gave us twenty minutes to think about where the beginning of our stories would be (i.e. which inciting incident to start from) and to write a killer first line with a hook, followed by the start of the story which had to make the point of view, time and place clear. We all started writing with a fervour that evidenced our eagerness to get straight into it now we had been given the tools to know where to start.
Following the break, we each read out what we had produced, eliciting constructive feedback from both Katy and the other members of the group, which helped us to understand what was and wasn't working. There were some lovely writing styles, some with humour and prose so evocative you felt you were there.
Katy encouraged all the members to keep going with their stories, instilling us with the confidence to do so and recommended that those that were new to writing, should seek out local writing groups or ask friends/family to give further feedback on their works in progress. She finished the workshop by touching on libel (insulting someone in print) and slander (insulting someone verbally) implications, stressing that it does not have to be a lie, it can be true and you can still be sued as you may still be seen as having traduced their reputation. If you as the writer were not there when the incident took place, it could be seen as an invasion of privacy, so it is easier to change names/characters and fictionalise the story.
I can highly recommend both the Workshop, as part of the Morley Literature Festival, and the tutor. If you have the chance to attend either, it will be money well spent.
10/10
#MorleyLiteratureFestival
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