Then just turn up to Willesden Green Library Centre (click here for map) any Thursday at 8pm. There will be signs within the Centre directing you to the room or ask any member of the security staff.
We LOVE creative writing, both narrative (fiction and non-fiction) and poetry. You can have a look in the Monkey’s Typewriter, our award-winning anthology, to see the kind of writing that flourishes within the group (we can give you a free copy when you turn up).
It may be helpful to point out the things that we are less excited about:
- technical papers
- papers for school or university work (unless it is a creative writing course)
- writing for very young children (but something for older children, that might appeal to adults would be welcome)
- illustration-based work (we are inexperienced at criticising comic strips or graphic novels)
- straight-forward diaries or blogs (unless these are essentially telling a story and the format is a device)
- journalism (we are not experienced at looking at work that is intended for newspapers or non-literary magazines)
- religious sermons or works that seek to proselytise
- racist or otherwise bigoted pieces, where the intention is not to create art but to insult
- pieces that have already been published or which the author is not interested in improving - the group is about improving one’s work, not seeking out praise. Similarly, if you write autobiographical work, no matter how sensitive the material, it will be judged as a piece of narrative writing. We will not go easy on you just because you have written something traumatic. We are not therapists!
We are sorry about all these caveats, but it is better to make matters clear right from the start so that we waste neither your time nor ours.
- to apply to
become a member you must:
- bring along something to read out and listen to the feedback;
- you can then attend a maximum of three sessions before you must bring the piece back, with changes made, which must reflect how you have participated in learning from and selecting from the feedback (you can continue to read out other things);
- within a week of your second reading, you will be contacted (by email) and be told whether you have been accepted by the executives; and
- no discussion will be entered into about the decision.
- membership costs £15. Membership lasts for a year and the £15 fee counts as pre-payment for 5 workshops, which can be taken any Thursday within the year of joining.
- After you have used your five pre-paid sessions, you will be expected to pay the normal sub of £3 per workshop attended.
This is not intended to scare you! We accept that people will write the odd dud, which will end up in the bin (we all do it) and sometimes a piece will not work. You will only be judged on whether you are able to improve, which is what the group is all about…It is our experience that when people come each week and are not able to evolve or improve, reading the same thing over and over, or reading out pieces which all suffer from the same basic problems, this quickly becomes boring and causes good members of the group to drift away…
We like new. Everyone likes new. Come along and maybe we can make new together. Thank you.
We hope that you will apply. If you have any questions, please contact Anne on info[at]willesdengreenwriters[dot]com or Bilal on altahafut[at]hotmail[dot]com.
