Image Credits:-
Images taken by Allison Symes at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. One image adapted in Book Brush for the Feature Image. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me just after my editing workshop. One image directly from PIxabay.
It was with great pleasure I returned to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick for that treasured time where I can be fully immersed in the world of writing. As ever, I’ve been looking forward to catching up with friends and making new ones. I did so within an hour of arriving at Derby Railway Station and got chatting to a fellow long term Swanwicker on the coach laid on to take us to the Hayes.
Saturday 5th August 2023
My annual trip to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick did not get off to a great start as the train to Waterloo was delayed. Thankfully all sorted out and I ended up being only five minutes late into the capital.
Then on the Tube (one of the great feats of engineering and transport planning) to get to St. Pancras and from there the 10.45 to Derby. Pleasant run with nice country the other side of London. I only get to see it on trips like this. Many Swanwickers meet up for tea and coffee at Derby Railway Station and for us that is where Swanwick starts. A coach is laid on to get us from Derby Station to The Hayes in Swanwick. Lots of happy chat going on there I can tell you!
First timers to Swanwick are known as white badgers precisely due to them having a white badge as part of their lanyard. Old hands like me have a yellow badge. There is a special welcome and reception for the newbies ahead of dinner. I appreciated this when I was a white badger in 2016. It helps break the ice fast.
Also other delegates look out for the first timers as it takes a while to find your way around The Hayes for one thing. For another we all recall being nervous first timers ourselves.
The main event of the first evening is the welcome, the dinner and after that the Chair’s welcome. After that people catch up with friends and start to make new ones. There is another icebreaker session in the evening too.
For the rest of Swanwick, there will be courses, workshops, and after dinner events like the Open Mic nights (prose and poetry) and the big quiz. All great fun and you learn so much from the courses and workshops.
The grounds are lovely and there is a useful covered walkway between one of the main accommodation blocks and the main building. With the weather so changeable, I suspect many will be glad of that walkway this Swanwick.
Delegates are looked after well. Accommodation is comfortable, cosy, and all rooms are ensuite. The bar is appreciated by all whether or not alcohol is consumed.
The Swanwick Book Shop is open at different times during the week and gets a lot of visitors. Writers are keen readers too! My two flash collections will be in here but I suspect I will come back with interesting purchases!
It was so lovely catching up with old friends. The bar did brisk business! And there a wonderful session of Speed Meet and Greet in the Main Conference Hall after the Chair’s welcome. This is where you had two minutes to answer a question put to you by the person sitting opposite. They were given a list of potential questions.
The idea is to get conversations going and my publisher, Bridge House Publishing, does something similar at their annual celebration event in December. It is a marvellous ice breaker. A good time was had by all at the session in the hall and I loved the way we had music as a timer (no more than two minutes, remember) which ended up in a countdown taken from Thunderbirds! It was great to hear that again.
Workshops and courses start tomorrow. It will be a busy but fun day.
Sunday 6th August
With the exception of the last morning, there are pre-breakfast activities too. There is a short devotional session called Lift Up Your Hearts. There is also a short writing exercise session called Lift Up Your Pens. I lead one of each of these on the Monday and the Wednesday. The sessions last about 25 minutes.
There is also meditation by the lake in the same time slot. If wet, this session moves indoors. The phrase if wet meet elsewhere must be a peculiarly British thing, yes?
First course I went to today, divided handily either side of breakfast and tea break, was Perfect Plotting, led by Val Penny, whom I’ve interviewed for CFT before. Very informative. There are always things here to pick up on and to help strengthen your own writing.
After an excellent lunch and a much needed walk around the lakes here, I then went to the Amazon and Kindle Publishing course. Packed full of useful information, I know this may be a route I go down later. It is good to know the procedures and things to think about here.
After an equally much needed tea break, I went to Comedy – A Whistlestop Tour. As you can imagine, that was as funny as it sounds. Name a writer who doesn’t like word play, puns etc and there is a writer who may need to reconsider what they do. We work with words. We play with words. Even if we’re not writing funny material as our main work, there is much to enjoy from the written word.
As I mentioned in my post last week, the immortal line “Don’t tell him, Pike!” will live on – most people who love Dad’s Army recall that. And there was the scene from Only Fools and Horses where Del Boy falls sideways in a bar. Someone has to write these things! There was much laughter coming from this session and it was such fun.
This evening after dinner there was an excellent after dinner speaker, the poet Roy Macfarlane, and after that a choice of activities. I went to the Write on Cue which was a series of writing prompts and word games. Right up my proverbial street that! I even got a flash tale for my YouTube channel from this. The exercise was based on using an object as a prompt, in my case a piece from the game of Monopoly. Hope you enjoy the story.
And then another busy but fun day will beckon tomorrow.
Monday 7th August
I led the Lift Up Your Hearts session which takes place before breakfast. It is a short non-denominational reflective session and it is always a joy to attend. There is a peace which is hard to explain. I was glad we were all in good voice for The Servant King, the hymn I chose. My mini talk was on stories and their importance and the impact of specific lines especially in hymns. Jesus after all shared much of His message through parables. You remember stories better. That has been proven for centuries.
The morning was taken up with Rediscovering Your Writing Mojo led by Esther Chilton which was great fun and useful. Lots of prompts to try. The session finished with us writing a piece of flash fiction. I now have a draft of a story I hope to submit somewhere! I can’t take part in the Open Prose Mic Night tonight as it clashes with The Big Quiz which I simply cannot miss as it is a good laugh. Mind you, I did get to read my draft story at the Mojo session so I have done some flash fiction prose reading after all!
I then went to Author Business Foundations led by Kate McCormick (also known as Elizabeth Ducie) which was so useful.
Having a lovely time getting books signed by their authors too.
I took part in The Big Quiz. My team came fifth (there were loads taking part). An honourable result. It was a mixture of general knowledge and literary questions. Ironically for a writers’ conference, most of us prefer the general knowledge sections! Why? I guess the literary questions will show up what we haven’t read!
Tuesday 8th August
I’m back to Perfect Plotting with Val Penny today. Her course has been a specialist four parter. After lunch, I will be at Whose (Story) Line Is It Anyway? This is led by Zana Lamont.
And then after the afternoon tea break I’ll be running my one hour workshop called Editing: Both Sides of the Fence. In 2020 I was on both sides of the editing fence at the same time – I was being edited (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) and editing someone else. My third book has been given the nod and it is quite possible I will find myself in this position again.
But it does mean I can (and did) talk about editing from the viewpoint of an author, an editor, and as a competition judge too. I’m not one for the fancy dress disco (my contribution to dancing is having two heavy left feet!) but I will enjoy listening to the evening speakers, Sue Moorcroft and Juliet Pickering. Ironically the theme for the fancy dress disco is fairytales, a topic I love. It’s just the dancing bit which does for me.
Was thrilled I had a massive turnout for my workshop (about 40 people). Good feedback too. Much appreciated by me. You learn from these things and develop further. This is a good thing.
Wednesday 9th August – Final Full Day
How has Wednesday come around so soon? I ran the early morning writing exercise session, Lift Up Your Pens, today. I’m looking at classic themes and encouraging people to dig deeper to explore what can be done with these. My short course today was The Tricker Bits of Fiction led by Sue Moorcroft and I went to Social Media for Writers by Jennifer Wilson (whom I’ve interviewed for CFT before). Jennifer’s course is one of those which will always be useful and will often need updating.
The recent (and ongoing) furore about Twitter (aka X, which is just silly in my view) shows how much can change so quickly online. The day will end with a farewell evening where awards will be given out (for various competitions) and the prize draws will be made. The school runs a raffle every year, proceeds from which go to support the school and help subsidise places for younger writers via their TopWrite scheme and for others with their Assisted Places scheme. All worthwhile supporting.
Thursday 10th August – Home Time!
Many of us will part company for another year at Derby Railway Station but the great thing with social media is it does make it easier to stay in contact with people. We generally do too.
Conclusion
I have much appreciated (and continue to do so) the advice, tips, and all I have learned from going to events like this. There is something special about Swanwick though where writers get together for a few days and we can celebrate the joys of the written word, learn to improve our craft, network etc. I can’t wait for next year’s one!
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
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