360 Snippet

Here's another of the 360 snippets made last Saturday. 

Want to write a story based on this 360 snippet? Please do! Email me your submissions on jennifer.newbury13@bathspa.ac.uk

If you wanted to join in but couldn't make it, you can always do the workshop whenever you want. Here's what you need to do:

Materials: paper, pens or pencils of different thicknesses.

1) Find a moderately busy place (not so busy that there's too much happening too fast to record, nor so quiet that you run out of things to write about). Eg, near bus stops can be good. 

2) draw a circle. It helps if you divide the circle into quarters with little dashes at the edge. 

3) you can start by describing fixed points in each quarter that can act as markers. I like to put the fixed points in a bolder ink because they remain where they are throughout the exercise. 

4) Note down everything that happens, people (what are they wearing, how is their hair styled, what are they doing? etc), conversation. Animal life. Moving vehicles. Everything that catches your attention. During quieter moments you can work on describing the fixed points more accurately and finding all those details. Consider all five senses: what can you see, hear, smell, taste, feel and touch?

5) stay for 45mins-2 hours or until you run out of space. 

6) Photograph your snippet and email it to me.

7) try writing a story based on something that interests you from within your snippet. And then email it to me. I might publish it on this blog. 

Snippet Workshop on Saturday

Here's one of the Snippets created on Saturday. Thanks Aimee! 

Want to write a story based on this 360 snippet? Please do! Email me your submissions on jennifer.newbury13@bathspa.ac.uk

If you wanted to join in but couldn't make it, you can always do the workshop whenever you want. Here's what you need to do:

Materials: paper, pens or pencils of different thicknesses.

1) Find a moderately busy place (not so busy that there's too much happening too fast to record, nor so quiet that you run out of things to write about). Eg, near bus stops can be good. 

2) draw a circle. It helps if you divide the circle into quarters with little dashes at the edge. 

3) you can start by describing fixed points in each quarter that can act as markers. I like to put the fixed points in a bolder ink because they remain where they are throughout the exercise. 

4) Note down everything that happens, people (what are they wearing, how is their hair styled, what are they doing? etc), conversation. Animal life. Moving vehicles. Everything that catches your attention. During quieter moments you can work on describing the fixed points more accurately and finding all those details. Consider all five senses: what can you see, hear, smell, taste, feel and touch?

5) stay for 45mins-2 hours or until you run out of space. 

6) Photograph your snippet and email it to me.

7) try writing a story based on something that interests you from within your snippet. And then email it to me. I might publish it on this blog. 

More Snippets from Saturday will be loaded up throughout the Bath Lit Fest week. 

Porthleven 360 Snippet

I'm in Porthleven at the moment working on a writer/ artist in residency project (stage 1 of a project). Today I sat on a bench in the centre of the town and spent two hours writing down all the things, people and conversations that I saw/ heard/ smelt in a 360 degree radius around me.

There are many ways we can make observational writing. The outcome doesn't have to be narrative or prose based, it can equally be visual.

Information about day, time, location of the workshop

Come along to our free workshop on Saturday 1st March at 2pm. Meet at Southgate, in the area near the Apple Store. There will be a few Bath Lit Fest events going on in this area (mostly performances I believe) so look out for the t-shirts. Hopefully I'll make a sign, but I'm in Cornwall doing a writer/ artist in residency project until Friday evening, so maybe it'll be rushed.

 If I haven't had time to make a sign, look out for me, I look like this:

People Watching

People watch with us for an hour in Bath.

There are stories happening all around us, if only we take some time to sit and watch them unfold. Note it all down, submit it, and we'll write your snippets into new fictional stories that will be published on the Snippet blog.

Participants will be asked to walk and find somewhere to sit, ideally somewhere with lots of people or activity. Be open to what's going on around you, you will be given three slips of paper to fill out titled describe a place, describe a person, note down snippets of conversation or speech. Photos, sketches etc are also welcomed.

Come along to the free workshop on Saturday 1st March at 2pm. Meet at Southgate, near the Apple Store (there will be various other projects going on for Bath Lit Fest. Look out for the t-shirts). We will spend an hour observing the people, the places and the conversations that happen around us. These snippets will be collected at the end of the workshop and submitted to this blog. Some snippets will be selected as prompts to generate story ideas.

If you are a writer or photographer, get in touch for a chance at getting your writing or photography published here.

We haven't done the workshop yet, so far there is no material to share. But here's an idea of the kinds of characters that are wandering around out there just waiting to inspire us: