Swanwick 2022: A Different Kind of Swanwick

Writers not pictured due to heat

It's that wonderful time of year again; my annual visit to the Swanwick Writers' Summer School. I know folks are disdainful about Christmas songs in the summer, but I suppose I often joke about getting excited for Swanwick like a kid getting excited for Christmas. This year was my sixth visit to Swanwick, but it was my first year serving as a member of the school's committee, which provided a completely different experience. I got elected at the end of last year's Swanwick, and took on the role of co-ordinating the school's TopWrite scheme, which offers subsidised places to 18 to 30-year-olds who are looking to start their writing journey. I also ended up being assigned to the tech team, which meant sitting in the control booths at the back of the hall and making sure that the microphones and screens were working.

That sanitiser was standard committee issue

Like last year, I ran a course at Swanwick on the Tuesday morning; specifically a single-session course about writing action scenes. I'd initially put it forward as a two-part short course, but then agreed to compress it. I didn't get many attendees, but that's the time of the week when a lot of people are flagging (myself included, so it was kind of comfortable). That said, those who did attend came to me and said they enjoyed it and got a lot out of it.

Anyway, let's do the breakdown of the week. Courses at Swanwick are divided into three categories: Specialist courses, which comprise four hour-long sessions spread throughout the week, which run after breakfast; short courses, which comprise two sessions which run before and after lunch; and workshops, which comprise a single session which is run either after the afternoon tea break or in the morning sessions on the Tuesday. Since I was on the tech team, I had to be on hand for certain courses, but I was mostly able to be at the courses I was interested in. I guess we're the only people who have to book our courses in advance.

Specialist Course - Short Stories

My chosen specialist course this week was on Short Stories, taught by Ingrid Jendrzejewski. Short stories is what I normally write, so I wanted to make sure I was on track for that. I'd blown the dust off an air pirate story I'd started for one of my final year modules at university, and was using that in the exercises. The first part of the course looked at writing the endings first, which is something I don't normally do, but it's definitely something that's worth thinking about. There was also an exercise which involved making the protagonist's shopping list, and another involving writing something in different points of view. I hope to apply it to subsequent Kestrel and Scar stories.

Short Courses

Promoting Your Work

On Sunday, I attended Joan Harthan's short course on Writing Groups. I was originally in a writing group in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, which was how I ended up discovering Swanwick in the first place. The course offered some great pointers about how to set up a writers' group, including a group exercise in which one person facilitates and times a writing prompt, along with shared feedback. It came up with some fun or dramatic pieces. I'm looking to set up a writing group on Discord, and I think I came up with some interesting pointers.

Monday's course was Promoting Your Work with Val Penny. The sessions looked at various platforms and strategies, along with things to avoid (like vanity publishers). This is something I'm struggling with at the moment. I'm aiming to use social media (mainly Twitter) as a marketing platform, but I don't want to degenerate into repeatedly tweeting "buy my book". I'd been distracted by an issue with one of the screens (not to mention the heat), but I might have ideas about where to go. In fact, I was on the radio to discuss it yesterday. But I'll talk about that tomorrow.

On Wednesday, I attended Writing Believable LGBTQ+ Characters, taught by Spencer Meakin. They ran this course in the previous year, but I'd been unable to attend due to a clash. Ever since I exhibited Kestrel and Scar at university, someone once asked me "Do they f***?", and was very disappointed when I said they hadn't (because I don't write any explicit sex scenes). Since then, I've been thinking about their sexual orientations. The first session discussed the various orientations, and discussions of pronouns along with acceptable language. The second session looked at the various LGBTQ+ stereotypes, and provided pointers on how to establish a character's orientation through subtle hints. As someone who favours the "show, don't tell" school of thought, I think it gave me a lot to work with.

Thursday's course was Writing Competitions with Vivien Brown. This is an avenue that I haven't really touched upon, so it provided an interesting insight. The first session involved looking at handouts for different contests and filling in a worksheet with what they're looking for, entry fees, prizes, and who is eligible to take place. I looked at one called To Hull and Back, which involves submissions of funny stories, and I'm seriously considering entering something. The second session looked at common blunders to avoid when submitting.

Other Sessions

In previous years, I've avoided the single-session workshops so I can use the time to write. This year, I was on hand for tech in a couple of those sessions. One of these was the Prize Winning Readings. Every year, Swanwick runs a series of competitions judged by Writing Magazine, in which the prize is a place at Swanwick. This can be either a poem, a short story, or a children's story. The winners are all invited to this event to read out their work, and I heard some truly poignant pieces.

On Tuesday morning, I attended Toni Bunnel's session on book covers. She provided some decent pointers, and I received a nice reminder about cover formatting, having previously looked at it at university. There was also an activity which involved matching titles to covers, which was a nice bit of fun. Of course, there was the pointing out of one elephant in the room that's Amazon's shambolic paperback cover formatting. When I published Gentlemen of Fortune last year, I fell afoul of that to the point that I decided to make all subsequent titles e-book only until I have written enough for a decent-sized collection.

Wednesday afternoon added a new feature, known as Swanwick Success stories. A number of delegates - myself included - were invited to speak about the role Swanwick played in their writing journeys. I largely improvised my speech, but I think it went well, and it was a great way to show new delegates what they could be going on to do.

In a one-off event, I attended a special screening of How to Avoid Death Forever, a short film by Ella Muscroft. The story follows a pair of teenagers who are suffering from inoperable brain tumours, who decide to find ways to enjoy what little life they have left. It provided a great mix of comedic and dramatic moments, including one line about the characters' hometown being suffocating that made me tear up (something that resonated with me thanks to my own lockdown experiences).

Evening Events

As always, Swanwick isn't just about the courses. There are an array of events in the evenings, along with after-dinner speakers on some nights. I don't usually attend the speakers because I like to use the times for writing (which often ended up being spent setting up for later events). But I do enjoy the evening events. This included "Birds of a Feather" on the Saturday night, in which writers could meet and network with other writers of the same genre. There's also a poetry open mic, a prose open mic, a busker's night, two quizzes, and a fancy dress evening. There's also the Page to Stage, in which delegates can submit a short play before the school, and then they can be picked up by directors to perform them one night. I was on hand for that, and enjoyed a mix of comedic and dramatic pieces.

One of the new events added this year was a Firepit Singalong. Although it had been threatening rain, and quite frankly I hoped the event would manipulate the laws of Karma and Sod into making rain, it was a fun night spent toasting marshmallows and singing a few campfire songs (including sea shanties).

The theme of this year's fancy dress was "Another Night at the Movies", and I decided to go as the harmonica-playing gunfighter from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. It was a fun night, and I did manage to do my gun spinning in a (relatively) fluid motion. But I still haven't mastered the macarena. There's also the final night, in which delegates are invited to suit up, including a farewell

Wrap-Up

If there's one thing I wasn't able to do this week, it was get some writing done. My committee responsibilities kept me busy, and there times when things got hectic. But I expected this. I'd finished a draft before I travelled out, so I could use this week to let it rest.

All in all, the Swanwick magic is still there. It was great to be back, great to see people again, and great to feel appreciated for the work the committee had put in. I'm still on the committee, and I'm excited to get things ready for next year. But for now, I think I need a rest.

Happy writing.