Feedback from our latest 'coffee and cake' workshop:

Thoughttree

Setting: An upstairs room above a village teashop, furnished with an eclectic mix of vintage furniture and decorator’s paraphernalia.

Characters: Six men and women of disparate ages and appearance, among them two or three familiar faces but also some strangers, drawn together by an email invitation.

Plot: Starting from zero, an idea is introduced, individuals start to respond - recognising something familiar, draw into the conversation and gaining in confidence as others acknowledge their contributions. Within minutes the group are scribbling away, developing their own take on the theme and comfortable when it comes to sharing their writing. The creative work accelerates and the group marvel at how, in such a short space of time, everyone is enthused and inspired. The group reluctantly leave the little room, but each of them now eager and able to continue their unique texts alone. Until another Thoughttree email drops into their inbox.

Good to know our punters appreciate us - many thanks!

Greetings from Thoughttree!

It's September already - time for new beginnings and fresh challenges...so, come and join our next inspiring Writing Workshop: The Craft of Plotting Fiction

Consider this premise for a story: 'Four siblings go through a magical wardrobe into another world.' Intriguing, admittedly - but there's no plot. Add: 'They must defeat an evil queen who is enslaving the land.' This is the story's motivation. With it comes the possibility of choices, obstacles and unpredictable outcomes. In other words, a plot! How might you develop your idea for a story into a series of events and actions?

We'll dip into some great novels for inspiration and try out some step by step techniques for developing plot. As always, there'll be time to write and to share ideas in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

Date: Saturday 10th September 2016

Time: 10am -12.30

Place: The Village Paintpot Café, 55,Main Street, Elloughton, Brough HU15 1JP

Cost: £18 (including excellent coffee and cake!)

All levels welcome. Please book asap as spaces are limited.

Hope to see you there.

Best wishes

Deb and Ali

Of Steinbeck and GCSE Grades...

Today's text: Steinbeck's To a God Unknown. Bring on the environmental theory! Landscape defined in terms of sensory detail as per Of Mice and Men (which came later, of course). Love the shift from benign to capricious - nay, omnipotent! - natural world. Actually, love the shift from Of Mice and Men to different Steinbeck text altogether as have seen M and M soooo many times when tutoring for GCSE Eng.

On the subject of which... congratulations to GCSE students. Star of the moment: Nick - shifted from C in lang and lit to A grades in both (with the help of a little tutoring). Fantastic achievement, Nick!

Ali x

On matters of Wolf

Environmental theory I love you. Afternoon today spent exploring the natural world and blurring of animal/human in Angela Carter's collection of stories, The Bloody Chamber. Current favourite: #The Company of Wolves. Challenging the anthropocentric view of the natural world by celebrating moments where the animal exists in the text its own right and is not referenced to the human. Like 'they cluster... round your smell of meat'. V good. But 'the wolf... he's as cunning...' V bad - too human! How can we say wolves are cunning? Human characteristic! And is derogatory, to boot.

A level Study guide to #Ecocriticism in the pipeline! Note to self: keep publishers happy: keep writing...

Ali x

Update on thoughttree courses

Two more successful Thoughttree writing workshops to celebrate, both held at The Village Paintpot Café in Elloughton. (Our thanks to them, as always, for fab coffee and cake!)

In June we kicked Writer’s Block into touch with some inspiring writing tasks and lots of tips on technique – we even wrote with our eyes wide shut!

On a recent Friday in July we huddled around the ‘painting table’ – welcoming several new faces to the gathering – to Kick-start our Creativity. How? By creating ‘tension at the dinner table’ (or wedding, funeral, birthday party - any claustrophobic get-together will do!)

So, one way of revealing more about your characters is to hold them captive together for a while and see what happens. The breakfast, dinner or tea table scenario is ideal for exposing relationship issues. It is a mostly static setting, where harmony and disfunction can operate in turn, revealing niggling resentments, buried conflicts, laughter and tears - and the possibility of consequent dramatic action. We looked at how some of our great contemporary writers – Carol Shields, Ann Tyler, Ian McEwan – effectively exploit the potential of the dinner table scene. Then we wrote our own - and it was fun!

As author Evie Wyld says: ‘…writing fiction is a bit like organising a party – you can decide who to invite…but you can’t tell them what to talk about…’ So why not give it a go in your own story? You never know where your characters may take you.

Check our website for details of the next Thoughttree Writing Workshop – coming soon.

Deb x

To the Smoke!

Lovely to have thoughttree blog up and running again... We're now taking bookings for autumn workshops (too soon to get gothic? Yeh... bit too summery. But come October...) If you're East Yorkshire based and would like a workshop - get in touch!

Off to London tomorrow to record a podcast for York Notes. Specialist subject: The Handmaid's Tale. Still adore the novel even if its become rather familiar. A level students can check it out come the start of the new academic year by going to York Notes online A level resources. And on the subject of A levels...

Good luck to all A level students this week. Ali has been tutoring several A level students who have university places hopefully on the horizon - Amy and Alice you know who you are!

Ali x

We're Back!

Greetings all! After weeks of GCSE marking followed by a technological problem of stupendous proportions solved only by the return home for summer break of the university student - we're back!

So news: this morning Deb led our latest writing workshop: 'Location, Location, Location' at the Paintpot Cafe, Elloughton. No doubt a great time was had by all! We are finalising details for an autumn workshop with York Writers - fear and tension as main focus (odd bit of ghost story in there no doubt, then - whoooo). York Adult Ed are advertising us for their autumn season of courses (and look out for our 'one offs' in Huntingdon and York Central library). Ali is wading into writing her A level study guide for ecocriticism with - huzzah! - a publishing deal!

Some great stuff in the cooking pot then - and look out also for details of our autumn/winter workshops - coming just as soon as this next little bit of summer has passed...

Sooooo good to be back! Ali x