Academi / Literaturetraining Pilot Project
clutching the cameo shell:
training for writers in wales
Because of this project lives have changed. It may sound dramatic, but I know my life has been touched by this, and that I am changing things.
Clare Potter
Touchpaper Writer–Participant
Clare, a writer of poetry and short fiction and a teacher, was a participating writer on one of two training pilots for writers in Wales. These programmes have offered a unique opportunity for writers interested in expanding their horizons and exploring new possibilities for their future careers. Touchpaper and its sister project, Reaching for Words, were the result of a joint initiative between the Academi and literaturetraining. The pilots were supported by the Arts Council of Wales, Denbighshire NHS Trust and the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea.
When the projects were handed to me in January they were then called Training Pilot 1 (TP1) and Training Pilot 2 (TP2). Clearly, my first task was to try and invent some suitable names. As TP1’s aim was to train writers to work in the field of health and social care, the title Reaching for Words seemed ideal because it gives the perfect visual image of the search for new ways to express emotions, thoughts and feelings. TP2, however, was quite different. As the objective was to train writers to work with
young people in out-of-school settings I wanted something with energy. The name Touchpaper (the paper used to light gunpowder) came to me one gloomy February morning. It was a vibrant, fiery image, suggesting a spark of inspiration, which I hoped would ignite the motivation of all the writers and young people involved. Reaching for Words ran between April and July 2004, and Touchpaper between May and October 2004.
There were six participating writers on each project. Those involved in Reaching for Words were Elaine Walker, Isabel Adonis, Anne Phillips, Gerrie Hughes, Alexandra Duce-Mills, and Lara Clough; and the writers involved in Touchpaper were Clare Potter, Anita Flowers, Viki Holmes, Emma Metcalf, and Deborah Fisher. They were all writers committed to making writing and creativity part of their everyday working lives.
When I worked as a therapist, people were always saying to me, ’You must be so patient.’. . . I don’t think I’ve ever been a patient person whether in or out of role, merely tolerant. . . . No, I’ve never really been patient. In my life and writing impetuosity has had a grip and I’ve often longed for inspiration to come pre-packed, earlier, ready-mix, all in a gush. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t. I’ve fallen asleep at night clutching the cameo shell my mother gave me, asked for
dreams to set me writing, for plots and plans in writing and life to unfold.
Alexandra Duce-Mills
Reaching for Words Writer-Participant
Alexandra Duce-Mills is a poet and was a writer-participant on Reaching for Words. I watched Alexandra and the other writer-participants flourish and develop as their dreams and plans for future writing careers unfold as the pilots progressed. Each month, for the duration of the projects, the writer-participants took part in workshops and a seminar. The workshop hosts for Reaching for Words were all within the Denbighshire NHS catchment area, and included a ward for the elderly at Glan Clwyd Hospital in Boddelwyddan; a stroke rehab. unit at H.M. Stanley in St Asaph; and Hafod, a mental-health resource centre in Rhyl. The seminars took place in Rhyl Library.
The Touchpaper hosts were all based in Swansea and they included The Step-Ahead Centre – a unit for young people who cannot attend school because they suffer from various kinds of phobia; the prevention scheme, React, managed by the Youth Offending Team; and the OWLS (Other Ways of Learning group) from the Daniel James Community School. Seminars for the Touchpaper writer-participants were held at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea. Reaching for Words was led by Rose Flint, a wise, insightful, and beautiful poet, the perfect role-model for anyone wishing to work n this field; and Touchpaper was led by multi-talented Phil Carradice, an energetic, ambitious, larger-than-life man, with years of experience behind him.
The inspiration in Alexandra’s cameo shell was just a part of the organic and almost tangible creative energy. I saw it emerging at the core of these projects, and this unfurling inspiration carried both pilots through, from the original concept around two years ago to fruition in the celebrations and readings that took place as each project drew to a close. Most notably, inspiration, enthusiasm and commitment were manifest in all the writer- participants, as well as in the lead writers, Rose and Phil; and then this dynamism was passed on in bucket-loads to the people in Denbighshire and Swansea with whom the writers worked. Pages and pages of beautiful poetry and prose were produced, but it is in the journals and the thoughts of the writer-participants that we see the inspiration that proves the success of these pilots. This is a good time for me to reflect and collate some of this as the evidence of all the good work done. At the first seminar for Reaching for Words, Lara Clough discovered a new journey and a new bent for her writing life, both as a soon-to-be published novelist, but now also as a poet in healthcare.
Paper Journeys
My son and I,
we have a map of where the birds go.
Alaska to Africa, Canada to Mexico.
A rhythm, a pattern, a way of life.
Flying high with powerful winds.
My son posts messages
under the door,
long past his bed-time.
And I write back.
I think we should save them,
all the papers,
and glue them up, pattern ourselves,
our journeys, up across the wall.
Lara Clough
Reaching for Words Writer-Participant
After the same seminar, Isabel Adonis, a writer from Llandudno, was struck by the way we use language. She expresses her belief that writing needs to encompass so much more than words on a page. Her desire to share the thrill of writing with others is evident.
Creative writing in itself is not enough for it demands creative thinking. It is not merely about writing well but having something to write about, some purpose for writing. It must fulfil a certain want – provide a way of looking, a way of ordering the world and giving it meaning. And in finding this want, this desire – for language is desire – a personal reflection or image in the mirror of life creates myriads of possibilities for communication and change.
Isabel Adonis
Reaching for Words Writer-Participant
It became clear that all the writers discovered that working in either of these fields was not going to be easy and would test their self-belief and emotional strength. The mirrored image, or the reflection, the peering inward in order to look outwards is echoed in much of the work produced by the writers throughout the pilots. At a Reaching for Words seminar with guest speaker, poet David Hart, Anna Phillips was drawn to explore herself in ways she did not expect.
Absent friend.
No one came.
He didn’t arrive,
his place lay vacant. My desire for
desires and longing for longings remained unfulfilled.
He didn’t arrive.
No prayers or incantations can summon him now.
He is absent. The whole of our circle ripped out.
He lies, far away in the land where Sun and
Moon meet in the blaze of darkness and the cool of the day.
He is everywhere and nowhere, everything and nothing; yet no matter how often
called, he is
Absent.
Anne Phillips
Reaching for Words Writer-Participant
Lara, also in David Hart’s seminar, explored her own feelings of the work she undertakes in the residential home. She too found herself exploring inwardly, reflecting.
I thought of a conversation I often have with one of the ladies in my residential home. From that I came to a poem. It wasn’t a particularly comfortable process and I didn’t realise I was angry about that. This particular lady is always asking to go home and see her dogs, both long gone and I thought about the offending nature in the end of an endless placatory voice when really you want to say, ’of course you want to go home, it’s only natural, this isn’t your home really’.
Mrs E.
Residing at this address,
you tolerate our attempts,
stare through to your other place.
Sturdy eyes, unflinching,
you pull strong on the cords of the past.
Slopping out your present,
dressing your vacant shop,
you diminish us.
We hold fast to one compliment
one clear reflection in your eye.
Lara Clough
Reaching for Words Writer-Participant
Clare Potter wrote about a tough experience in a Touchpaper workshop with the young people attached to the Youth Offending Team. In her journal, Clare expressed her frustrations with a girl we shall call Deb, a challenging young woman who at first just did not want to write. Clare’s journal entry shows how the experience led to a sense of achievement, and a personal development for her own self as a writer and a
teacher, as well as representing a mammoth achievement for Deb who never attends school.
September 9th
I worked with Deb . . . ’I don’ wann be here’ . . . ’this is crap’ . . . ’I don go to school anyway’. She was looking for some kind of reaction, I think, that we would be mad at her if she didn’t do as told her. I tried getting her to write a postcard. It was hard . . . ’Who would you write to Deb?’ . . . ’I dunno do I’ . . . ’Do you like this postcard?’ . . . ’Nuh’ . . . I quit and started talking to her . . . asked her about her locket . . . who was in it . . . her nan . . . we wrote a card to her nan . . . well I wrote it . . . I read it aloud. In the next exercise it was like pulling teeth, but I got her to add a word or two, though I really wrote it. In read-around this time, she wanted to read it. Next exercise, she wrote and she read aloud. Wonderful sense of achievement on her face . . . she looked at me . . . ’I dance you know.’
And Viki Holmes, another participant, discovered difficulties too. But through these difficulties she learnt of skills she did not know were within her.
Acting - that’s important. Not just how you read your stuff out, but how you present yourself. Acting confident makes you confident. Though it’s taken a few sessions to work that one out. I really didn’t think I could do it at first, seeing Phil, how at ease he is with it. I thought I was confident, knew my stuff, passionate about poetry - how hard could it be? Pretty bloody hard, is the answer. But by 3pm today Richard had written a poem. Richard, who wouldn’t even show me his work the first couple of sessions. And if I can get Richard to write a poem, then maybe teaching’s not quite such a terrifying prospect after all.
Viki Holmes
Touchpaper Writer-Participant
We have travelled a stunning journey, and what has struck me most is the way each project took on a unique character and colour, with friendships developing and common ground found in the most unlikely of places. Each group of writers solidified into a diverse, yet functioning and supportive network of friends and colleagues, all with a passion for sharing their love of literature and creative writing, and all determined to use the pilots as a springboard to their future successful careers.
It was a lovely group – great chemistry. Writers who have never taught, teachers who write, writers who teach - is there a difference?
I plan to write more, publish more, establish my reputation while still teaching, work for a few more years then jump out into freelance work. I’m excited!
Clare Potter
As Clare says at the start of this piece, ’lives have changed’. She, like many of the other writers involved in both projects, has a new plan and a new determination to achieve her ambitions and goals. Viki Holmes has just been employed as a teacher in Hong Kong, Gerrie Hughes is working on community projects in partnership with Swansea University, and Anita Flowers is working in schools all over West Wales. Many of the other writers are beginning to act as writers in various community settings, and others are incorporating it into their regular day jobs. These pilots have been innovative, life-changing and significant. I think it’s true to say that all of us have begun to find the dreams that set us writing, and to watch the plots and plans of our writing lives unfold. I wish all the writers with whom I have worked the best of luck as they begin their new exciting, creative careers.