The Seventh Swanwick

 

It's that most wonderful time of year, and I'm not talking about Christmas. One of my favourite times of year is my annual visit to the Hayes Conference Centre for the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick. This was my seventh year attending the School, and my second year serving on the committee. In addition to co-ordinating the TopWrite scheme, which offers subsidised places to young writers starting out, I also assumed the role of co-ordinating the tech team.

One thing which made this school different was a reduced day, which meant having to shift things around and take things out of the programme. It also meant the course structure was slightly different: "Specialist Courses", which consist of four hour-long sessions, were taught on the Sunday and Tuesday mornings, with single-session "Workshops" in the afternoon sessions. The Monday sessions and Wednesday morning sessions were dedicated to the two-part "Short Courses".

There was an interesting array of courses this year, but being on the tech team meant I wasn't always able to attend everything. I tried to ensure that my volunteers were on hand for the courses they wanted to attend, which sometimes meant having to cover the gaps. Looking back, I think I'll need a tech team of at least six (including myself). Of course, facilitating courses could often mean not getting much out the courses due to being preoccupied with making sure the mics and screens work (sometimes in two rooms at once), or having to briefly dip to obtain cables or missing flipchart pens.

Anyway, the specialist course I facilitated this year was "How to Write Your First Novel" with Della Galton. The course included discussions on writing blurbs and synopses, coming up with titles, the first page, and where to publish. I don't write many novel-length stories myself, but I tried to apply what I picked up in that workshop.

Short courses I attended included:

• "The Path to Publication" with Simon Hall, which included some similar pointers about opening sentences, along with how to pitch manuscripts. There was also a good refresher on Simon's "Iceberg" model of planning out characters.
• "Writing Historical Fiction" with Samantha Ridgeway, which talked about where to find research, and what to consider about the chosen era.
• "Creating Characters Through Dialogue" with Neil Zoladkiewicz, which discussed how to give variety to characters through their verbal communication, including excerpts from several plays.

Workshops I attended included:

• "Promoting Your Work" with Angela Lansbury, who had attendees partner up to rehearse interview techniques.
• "Writing a Synopsis" with Sumaira Wilson and Nikki East of Spellbound Books, who provided pointers on writing a synopsis and applying it to a story conceived in a short course they ran the previous day (but one I was unable to attend).
• "Editing: Both Sides of the Fence" with Allison Symes, which discussed the finer points of editing (including where to find them and what not to do).
• "Competition Tips & Tricks" with Val Penny, which provided some sound advice on submitting stories to competitions.

Of course, there were plenty of evening events too. The first night had the "Meet and Greet", a musical chairs situation in which attendees were askes to sit in two circles. The inner circle asked questions, while the outer circle moved to different seats to answer them. It's the second time the School has held that event, but the first time I attended myself.

There was also a poetry open mic, a prose open mic, and a buskers' night. I missed the buskers (I'd been on hand for the prose open mic which took place before, and decided I needed a break), but heard one of the attendees sang an operatic aria which resulted in a standing ovation. That said, I did read out a pantoum at the Poetry Open Mic (which is published on my other blog here), which even got special mention at the end of the night.

Of course, there's also the fancy dress disco. The theme this year was "Fairy Tales", but I didn't dress up this time. Also, my Macarena still needs work. The final night had pre-dinner drinks on the lawn, an award ceremony for the numerous contests held during the week, and a singalong at the firepits outside.

All in all, I didn't do much writing while I was there, and my committee duties did get hectic at times. But it was worth it. I'm on next year's committee, and I'm definitely going to aim for a bigger tech team (that way people get a chance to attend courses or get some free time to write).

I'm already counting the days to the 2024 Writers' Summer School, which serves as their diamond jubilee. I'm sure it will be great.

Happy writing.