5th September 2023

WRITESPACE STUDIO 5th September 2023

Please introduce yourself by telling us where you live (country, city/state/region) and what kind of writing you do.

Lynne: I'm Lynne, a linguist in Brighton, England, who writes about language for both academic and non-academic audiences.

Amy: I'm Amy, currently in London. I do art writing and currently working on some personal creative writing.

Hussain: Hi everyone, I am Hussain joining from Indonesia. I am Currently editing poem.

James:   James, Stockport UK. I write about design education.

phil: Kia or (hello) everyone. I live in Auckland nz, I’m a Medical Herbalist and Pharmacist, and do mainly technical writing about medicinal plants ('herbs'), for practitioners as well as the industry. I’m also a lecturer and practitioner myself, and used to work lots in the industry (herbal pharmaceuticals)

Stephanie: Hi everyone, so nice to be back here with you all! Stephanie on unceded Gadigal country (Sydney, Australia). Trying to finish my PhD this calendar year.

Vicky: Morning! From (a rather hot) Essex, UK. I'm a historian, working on my monograph on lodgers. Managing to squeeze to the WriteSPACE before I get on the train to teach this afternoon.

Bring our voices into the room: Describe a texture in the room

Creative warm-up: Think of a childhood story that you particularly liked. Why did you like it?

Now try to write one of the characters into your research project, for example, have a conversation with them- what would they say?
Then reflect on what you learnt from this interaction.

Hussain Shah Rezaie: Childhood story Buz-e-chini. The moral of the story is courage

Helen: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. My mother collected The Little Prince in different languages, so in addition to loving the story and illustrations, I associate the book with travel and learning languages.

phil: Mr Fox. Its a children's story, but with lots of meaning and messages in relation to real life, in which a father fox tries to provide for his family, using his cunning and resourcefulness, sometimes against the odds

Vicky: Roald Dahl, Revolting Rhymes. My grandmother bought the book for me, and even though we were taught to be seen and not heard, I got the sense she was showing me an alternative (strong, bold women). Be strong, be bold, but also have a plan, if you don't want to be eaten by the wolf (or have the piggy in the bank steal your money).

Stephanie: Baba Yaga: Slavic witch / Goddess who lives in the forest in a house on chicken legs. I always liked stories of feral women! I remembered that Baba Yaga is also a death archetype, but one grounded in natural rhythms.

Lynne: Can I say the Peanuts comic strip, and the never-ending Lucy-pulling-the-football-out-from-Charlie drama. The frustrations of being a child, wanting and not having control over how things go.

James: The Cat in the Hat. The poetic / surreal verse in combination with an Amazing illustrated world that slowly overtakes the ordinary house. That one space, in this case, the house the Cat visits, can be ordered, then playful, then chaotic, then messy, then ordered. Just like the design studio.

Amy: I used to love Calvin and Hobbs! I liked the playful nature of it, but there was always humour and another deeper layer beyond the cartoonish drawings. I tried to imagine what a 6yo and a tiger might say about my work, they gave me a confidence boost haha

Helen:   I did this exercise some years ago, and the Little Prince told me off for “writing like a grown-up.” He seems to be happier with me this time round.

phil: The Little Prince was wonderful, even when an adult

Amy: I used to be so scared by Babayaga when I was little, such a vivid story! haha

Stephanie: I recommend Clarissa Pinkola Estes' retelling!

Pre-pomodoro: what are you planning to work on?

Stephanie: I've been stuck on a paragraph about usurers for almost 10 days now... would like to move it along!

Vicky: the opening to a chapter/creative catalyst activity

Amy: I wont be able to stay for long, but I will do some brainstorming for a poem I want to write about the body.

Hussain: I will edit one of my poem that I did some edit on in the morning

James:   I plan to "foam out" a character for my research paper (the character is a sofa).

Lynne:   I am strangely not at the writing stage for any of my ‘live’ projects now, so I am going to work on a blog post that I promised a pedagogical blog a very long time ago. I hope they still want it!

Amy:      Happy writing everyone! I have to dash off, but I will see you all again soon I'm sure. Thanks Helen!

Post-Pomodoro: How’d that go? Please tell us one thing that you accomplished

Stephanie: eked out a couple of sentences

Vicky: I used Marie Belloc Lowndes 'The Lodger' to frame the opening of a chapter into a story

phil: Tidying up and starting to update, a monograph Im writing on a medicinal plant... Good going for me!

Lynne: wrote an intro-y paragraph and (mostly) outlined two sides of an argument I have to address

Hussain: It is an usual time of the day for me to edit or write. Though I managed to do some editing.

James: I wrote a couple of drafty paragraphs that introduce my character.

One-word poem:

Pleasure: mindful fun fire uncanny sofa