Last summer, I attended Kerry Ryan’s Write Like A Grrrl one day intensive workshop in Brighton, on the recommendation of my good friend Lizzie.
I’ve been writing on and off since I was 16, but my limited education and lack of confidence in my own abilities (which I will talk more about in my next blog) have always held me back in actually doing anything about it. For about 10 years now I’ve known that my dream job involved writing. And not in the administrative sense of replying to customer queries that I have had in my day jobs. Ideally, I’d be writing about movies as that’s my other great passion. The problem is that with no qualifications or experience, you really can’t get a job in that world. And my experience at school was such that I could never see myself going back to a classroom environment.
All that changed with Kerry’s course. Firstly, she is super friendly and not at all judgemental. I even felt comfortable enough with her to confide in her during that first meeting that I am a writer of fan fiction. Something only my fandom friends and a handful of trustworthy close friends knew at the time. She was enthusiastic about that, and most importantly, didn’t make any of us read our work out loud that day.
The other great thing about the WLAG course was that I met a group of amazing women writers. We’re all very different in our styles of writing, our approach to writing, what inspires us etc, but by god what an amazing group. At the end of the course Kerry advised us all to keep in touch if we could, meet up occasionally. She said it would be invaluable, and it really has been, in so many ways. We have helped each other when one of our group was homeless for a few months. We have talked through break ups, and encouraged each other on our writing journeys with tea and cake and weekends away.
For anyone interested, Kerry is holding another one day intensive this July in Brighton. If you are struggling to write or to find a community of writers with which to discuss your work, I cannot recommend Write Like A Grrrl highly enough.
But I am writing this blog to talk about something else entirely. Grrrl Con. A weekend long convention arranged by Kerry (@writelikeagrrrl), Jane Bradley of For Books’ Sake (@forbookssake) and Claire Askew (@onenightstanzas). And what a weekend it was.
Friday morning began with a train to Manchester. My best friend had sent me off equipped with screenshots of a map of Manchester, showing the way from Victoria station to Ziferblat - the social space hired by Grrrl Con to house all of us eager to learn ladies. Of course, I immediately got lost and a lovely Mancunian man helped me find my way.
I was going to be there with three of the women from the Brighton WLAG group, but as I have family up north I’d come up a few days earlier to see them, and so arrived at Ziferblat knowing only Kerry. My anxiety levels were through the roof because my brain was telling me it’d be just like school, where I knew no-one and no-one would like me. I kept to myself and took a seat for the opening keynote address, notebook in hand. Quickly the room started to fill up and a lovely grrrl called Rebecca came and sat next to me. I tried not to scare her away and asked her about her writing. Of course she asked me too so I was brave and admitted the extent of my writing was pretty limited to fan fiction. “Oh what kind?” she asked. Shit. I never considered for a moment that someone would ask me that. Deep breath. “Well it’s kind of specific…” I said. She nodded her encouragement for me to continue. “Err, it’s about the actor Jeremy Renner.” A look of recognition and a smile crossed her face. “Oh wow that is very specific,” she said, a small laugh, “about his life?” I was amazed that she knew who he was as most people look confused when I say his name, until I say he was in Avengers. “Sometimes, other times about characters he’s played.” We continued to chat until we were called to attention, and I think I knew then that the weekend was going to be much better than I’d anticipated.
Our keynote address was by Novelist Jenn Ashworth (@jennashworth) who came to talk to us about ‘Finding the courage to write and keep on writing’. I soon discovered that she had spent time in my home town of Preston in her youth, and I felt like I was listening to a kindred spirit with some of the things she was saying. How school wasn’t a fit with her, how she didn’t really have friends, how she found solace in books. And most importantly about how as women we often have to ‘don armour’ to protect ourselves, and that courage can be found in being vulnerable. She also talked about her community of writer friends and how much she takes from the support they give her. I was almost in tears. Her words resonated so clearly with me and the courage I have gained from the group of writers I have in my own support group.
Some pearls of wisdom that I took from Jenn’s talk included - Don’t let research get in the way, if you wait until you know everything you’ll never write it. If you find when you’re writing that you need more information on something, block it off and write ‘need info on…' The first draft is your guide to what you need for the second draft.
Jenn then read an excerpt of her novel Fell which sounded intriguing. As we took our first break of the day Jenn signed copies of her book and spent time talking to every person in the queue. Unfortunately this meant that the break overran into the first workshop of the day. I had to abandon my wish to get myself a signed copy of Fell, but Jenn was kind enough to answer a question I had for her on Twitter afterwards. And once payday comes around I’ll definitely be placing an order for Fell.
The first workshop I had was with Rosie Garland (@rosieauthor) on ‘Silencing the internal critic’. As someone who listens to hers far too much (in all aspects of life sadly - not just writing) I felt I would get a lot out of this workshop, and Rosie certainly didn’t disappoint. There are 5 pages in my notebook filled with gems from this workshop. One of which was to find my “crime scene”, the point in my life when my internal critic started speaking to me. Despite my useless memory I felt I could pin-point this moment precisely to when my fiancé told me my writing aspirations were a silly dream that nothing would ever come of. Well fuck you Ken.
Rosie also told us to remember that the first draft is you telling yourself the story. It’s the sketch that lives under the painting. It’s the starting blocks to give you something to build on. Rosie, you rock. Tell Mavis to do one.
Before we knew it the morning sessions were over and it was time for lunch, which is when my grrrls finally arrived in Manchester. I joined them for some food and a quick catch up and then we headed off for our afternoon workshops.
Mine was ‘Making Art is hard and that’s okay’ a zine workshop for wannabes, imposters and would be creatives with Sasha de Buyl-Pisco (@sashadebuyl).
And here, for anyone who wants to see, is my creation…
It’s about my friends and what you all mean to me. Yeah I’m a sap, so what?
We finished the day with a ‘Path to Publication’ Panel chaired by Jane, and featuring the aforementioned Rosie Garland and Grrrl Con organiser and novelist Claire Askew, alongside poet and playwright Afshan Lohdi (@ashlodhi).
Lots of talk on what the path looked like for them (clue - it was very different for each of them), and sage words of advice and encouragement for us all. My take away words of wisdom were “You can only have a first book once, so make sure it’s ready.” Thank you ladies.
Right, who’s ready for day 2?
We began day 2 with a talk by author Monique Roffey (@moniqueroffey13) on The Truth in Sex and Writing. As a writer of Fan Fiction which usually features a lot of sex, I am certainly no stranger to writing sex scenes into my stories. But as any FF writer will tell you, sometimes you feel you’ve exhausted every possible way of saying ‘…and they had sex.’ Especially when there are certain words you yourself are not a fan of using. One of my friends hates the word panties with a passion. I myself am not a fan of the word pussy. I could go on but you get the gist.
As such, I was probably looking forward to Monique’s talk (and reading) the most. When she did do her reading I quickly realised Monique’s writing style was nothing like mine, which was a pity as I’d hoped to at least ask her the age old question of how she kept each of the sex scenes fresh and different in her book. Having said that, I know a lot of the women at Grrrl Con loved her talk, and got a lot out of it. And I of course wish her every continued success with her writing.
>Related tangent< In one of the workshops I overheard someone say in a disparaging tone that FF was not real writing. Initially this upset me because that person could not have been aware that there was a FF writer in the room, but should have thought about how hurtful those words could be to such a person. But then I felt sorry for them that they had clearly not read the kind of FF that I have read, which would mean she would never have felt the need to say those words in the first place. I mention this here because although Monique’s writing style isn’t for me, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want her to succeed. The world is made up of so many different people, and lots of them will love Monique’s books. If this weekend has taught me anything it’s that there is room for all of us, because we all bring something different to the table.
Anyway, back to day 2. My first workshop was Leonie Ross’ (@leoneross) ‘How to edit the hell out of your fiction’. One of my first notes from this workshop was… don’t go off on tangents. See above. Apologies Leonie. 3 pages of notes and a *really* helpful handout were all taken away from her workshop and I still need to look at Hemingwayapp.com for those pesky adverbs.
After lunch we had our second workshop of the day, ‘Writing without the male gaze’ with Desiree Reynolds (@desreereynolds). Here I discovered that my way of writing without adding in descriptions of my characters is actually not a bad thing. And I also got to talk about the Hawkeye Initiative and how it is helping to redress the balance of the overtly sexist male gaze on female superheroes. Google it if you’ve never heard of it, it’s wonderful.
Our closing keynote from day two was by the Poetic Legend Patience Agbabi (@patienceagbabi). I stole those words from the Grrrl Con Storify and I’m not ashamed because they perfectly encapsulate Patience’s brilliance. She read to us from her Poetry collection Telling Tales. My favourite quote has to be “The story ends where you put the frame, but however it begins, remember my name.”
We ended day 2 of Grrrl Con by attending the spoken word night ‘That’s What She Said: Nasty Grrrls’ at TriBeca, where a piece on Trauma by Katie Watson (@kwatsonwriter) moved me and my fellow WLAG Lou to tears. It was beautiful and sad and everything in between.
Feeling emotionally and physically exhausted, and literally feeling the heat from what has to be one of the hottest weekends Manchester has ever known, we brought on day 3 with a keynote from Kerry, Jane and Claire - ‘Just Fucking Do It: Maintaining momentum after Grrrl Con’.
They asked us to set 5 realistic goals that we wanted to achieve in the next year. And then asked us to find an ‘motivation buddy’ to keep check on us and make sure we were achieving those goals.
Once I get to the end of this blog I will have achieved two of my goals.
The first workshop I had on day 3 was Hannah Kate’s (@hannahkateish) ’Creating Space, Place and Atmosphere’. We started by playing a Hannah Kate-ish version of Taboo. Where we took a card and had to describe the thing on the card without adjectives. As I wasn’t sure I knew what an adjective was (limited education remember) I had to take a back seat and just listen and learn. I took 4 pages of notes and then an additional 3 pages of short story inspired by a photo of an abandoned fairground ride. It’s fair to say that I did listen and learn.
After lunch we had our last workshop of the weekend, mine was Cheryl Martin’s (@cherylalaska) ‘Every Grrrl has a story’. I found this to be the most useful workshop of the whole weekend. It was almost like therapy. Cheryl asked us to go back and examine a moment in our lives when everything changed for us. For better or worse, we had to write about what life was like before, and what it was like after. I wrote 10+ pages for this exercise. And what poured out of me that day will form my next blog.
Our final keynote came from publisher Sara Hunt of Saraband (@sarabandbooks). She had lots of advice to impart on us about the minefield that is publishing. As we all felt ready to explode due to the overload of information, the overwhelming heat, and the emotions coursing through us from a wonderful weekend, that seemed like a very appropriate way to end the Grrrl Con journey.
All that’s left for me to say is a humongous thank you to Kerry, Jane and Claire for putting together such a jam packed agenda of amazing women speakers, to the women who passed down their knowledge via imaginative workshops, to all of the staff and volunteers at Ziferblat, and to all the attendees at Grrrl Con for making it one of the best weekends of my life. You’re all AMAZING.
