By sheer good fortune, our most recent Young Writers’ workshop happened to coincide with National Flash Fiction Day.

Most writers are not known for their brevity, so our celebration of National Flash Fiction Day provided an opportunity to honour all that goes into the search for the perfect word.

To start with we asked the participants to write about a fleeting negative moment, and then turn the spotlight on a fleeting positive moment. The resulting narratives clearly demonstrated the power of a single choice.

A characterisation exercise on waiting provided the writers with an opportunity to reveal something about their protagonist in relation to their environment – ‘Show, don’t tell’, as the classic writing advice goes.

The recent climate strikes have demonstrated a desire amongst many young people to become politically active, and our young writers are no exception. Olivia and Max led us in insightful exercises about slogans and protest poetry.

The work that came out of these exercises clearly indicated topics that matter to the creatives that we are working with. They have a lot to say, and they express themselves well. It was a privilege to watch them engage with the exercises that Max and Olivia had set.

We challenged the young writers to pen letters to future generations, which would be opened in 100 years from now. In these powerful and evocative letters, the young writers talked about the things that they hoped would change, including the abolition of single use plastics, and renewed efforts to clean up our oceans.

These talented young people have a real sense of their place in the world, and they aren’t afraid to use their voices.

We look forward to seeing what emerges from the final session on the 13th of July.

Next session: 13 July at The Writers’ Block

Time: 10am – 1pm

Cost: £7.50

Blog by writer and workshop leader, Casey Bottono