sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

On Writing

I used to go to a writing class which was a show-and-tell. You know the deal. Everyone brings their work, and you have to sit through other people's 20 minutes of shame till it's your turn for the limelight. Not that everyone thinks like that. But in my old class there was a woman writing (badly) about her experiences with a Neasden drug baron and pimp, a woman writing about people on the tube. And a bloke with a lot of angst who used his slot to say how he couldn't write anything.

I'm not saying I didn't learn anything, just that it was unstructured and... slightly competitive, even. The teacher inadvertantly set up a teacher's pet type thing, and we were all vying for her love like some kind of dysfunctional writing family.

Then I randomly - through the joy of the internet - found Diane Samuels, award-winning playwright of Kindertransport (among many other things); you can read more about her here (although I suspect it's a little out of date).

She's opening up her class, which will be alternate Wednesday's in the new year, and there's also a one-off evening workshop on January 3rd.

I've been to a lot of writing classes in my time, and what I love about Diane's are: (1) she was a teacher before she was a writer, and it shows, (2) it's not a bring-and-share, but more of a creativity workout. I often come home buzzing with creative energy, and find it very inspiring, (3) other interesting people go.

If you want to know more, you can mail Diane directly.