Gatherings

Yesterday I ran a workshop for Writers on Tap at the Medicine Tap in Rochdale. It was inspired by gatherings: both the upcoming harvest season and exploring in-person gatherings.

We began with a story circle inspired by the following prompt:

The summer days are drawing to a close, even though it has been wet it has been warm. But the yellowing days and bonfire nights are coming. We are turning towards the harvest; this month is where the grain gathering begins. On the one day that was not raining, I was with two friends when we turned around and we saw…

This story went from running from the rain towards the houses, to gathering around a bonfire, drinking mead and singing. It was really special and I loved how everyone had a go with passing the “story stone” around to add their bit. If you fancy having a go at a piece of creative writing with that prompt have a go!

We then moved to freewriting that drew upon memories of Augusts past and how this month is like a stepping stone between summer and autumn; a liminal month, a transitional time.

Following this was a piece of writing that utilised the free writing work and was moulded into either a short story or a poem. And finally we played with character archetypes and placed them together in a gathering of our choosing - one participant wrote an amusing story about a funeral from this one. I have included a handout from this session which you can download from the Freebies section of this site :-)

Rochdale’s Medicine Tap was originally the town’s post office. Image from: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Post_Office%2C_Rochdale.jpg