The first WriteForTheStage WritersLab was a great success. There were 6 of us and we read 4 new pieces of writing, all of which we discussed in some really great depth, and we shared ideas and feedback with the writers. All online and in the comfort of our own homes.
This first session was really a bit of experiment to see how it would work. I used to attend a student-run WritersLab during my MA in playwriting at Salford University. It was a great experience - possibly the most valuable thing I got out of my time as a student. It ran every Tuesday afternoon and gave us all a deadline to get some writing done. And if we hadn't written anything, we'd come along and read and give feedback, which would generally encourage us to write something for the next week. It was great to have something regular and peer-driven - we formed strong friendships and we have continued to support each other when the course ended.
So, I've been itching to get another WritersLab up and running, but now that we don't have a regular space at university, it's been a problem to find somewhere that could be regularly booked that would be easy for everyone to get to. I would also love people from all around the UK (and even around the world) to join in as well - so online seemed like the most accessible place.
I've been using video conferencing (via Zoom) for the WriteForTheStage courses for a couple of years now and it's been a really effective way of getting the group to someone who couldn't travel to the session venue. Indeed, as part of the Producing course, one of our participants has been in Greece since Christmas, and she's been joining in from her computer over there. We've had a couple of teething problems, but I've worked out how to overcome those, so I was really keen to use the same technology for the WriteForTheStage WritersLab.
I wasn't sure how multiple participants would work online, but it's a really easy system to use and everyone commented on how effective it had been as a way to create a group conversation and for everyone to discuss and read the work. We had some audio feedback at one point, until it was suggested that we use headphones or put ourselves on mute if we weren't speaking, and that seemed to solve the problem.
It was a very successful session. The work we read was great and really interesting and it was a great opportunity to discuss the progress of the piece. I acted as the facilitator this week, but next week I'm going to bring a new piece of work along as well. I want to hear my words out loud and to make sure I'm making sense.
If you'd like to join in next week, join the WriteForTheStage WritersLab Facebook page. Then I'll invite you to the Messenger group where I'll send the link for next week's meeting. We're going to run this for a couple of months as a free trial - to make sure that the tech is up to it - then there'll be a small quarterly fee to support the conferencing costs once any tech issues are observed and addressed.
You'll need the Zoom application. It's free and really simple to set up. Get in touch via the Facebook page if you're having problems.
