{"id":162,"date":"2013-11-05T19:52:35","date_gmt":"2013-11-05T19:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/?p=162"},"modified":"2013-11-05T19:52:35","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T19:52:35","slug":"happiness-creative-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/2013\/11\/05\/happiness-creative-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness: creative writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The creative writing workshop on Tuesday 5th<\/sup> November, facilitated by Evlynn Sharp, was enjoyable, insightful and uplifting.<\/p>\n

The workshop took place in the Latest Music Bar, Brighton; a light and airy venue with comfortable wooden chairs, high ceilings and large windows. Good coffee, herbal tea and biscuits were provided.<\/p>\n

Before the workshop started, we introduced ourselves to each other. Although we only spent 4 hours together, the intimacy of the workshop meant that we got to know each other quite well.<\/p>\n

Evlynn is a poet whose passion lies in working for the community. She encouraged us to \u201cpick up the pen and find the power of our own voice\u201d<\/strong>. As well as being a talented writer, she was supportive of our work and always found at least one positive thing to say about each piece.<\/p>\n

We wrote about happiness, prompted by questions such as:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were looking for happiness, where would you find it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would you give someone to make them happy?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you could relive an event, what would it be?\u201d<\/p>\n

We were introduced to a technique called free writing, where we wrote continuously until we were asked to stop, without worrying about things like spelling or grammar. At first I found this quite difficult because I\u2019m a perfectionist, but free writing pulled down this barrier. I transferred my thoughts onto the page as they happened.<\/p>\n

After each piece we wrote, we read out our work to the rest of the group. Because I\u2019m self-critical, I don\u2019t normally like to share my work with others unless I\u2019ve had a chance to re-read and improve it. But it didn\u2019t feel daunting in this workshop because there was a supportive atmosphere, not a judgmental one. Everyone had a distinctive voice and it was intriguing to hear the different responses.<\/p>\n

It was heartening that the session brought strangers together from different backgrounds and walks of life to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The creative writing workshop on Tuesday 5th November, facilitated by Evlynn Sharp, was enjoyable, insightful and uplifting. The workshop took place in the Latest Music Bar, Brighton; a light and airy venue with comfortable wooden chairs, high ceilings and large windows. Good coffee, herbal tea and biscuits were provided. Before the workshop started, we introduced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[117],"tags":[265,255,256,4215],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/specialcollections\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}