Good Morning and Happy Sunday to you! Fantastic to still see so many new writers joining us, week on week, adding their own unique voices and demonstrating what a dynamic and evolving project this is, for all of us! I'm also thrilled to observe the ongoing breadth and variety in returning writers' work. I'm so impressed at how you continue to experiment and push the form. Many of you are already accruing some very satisfying personal collections out there. And, I don't know if anyone has noticed but there's also been a couple of narratives that have started to grow across weeks - I wonder if those writers will treat us to further instalments, watch this space!
There has also been a stream of new contributors to the 'In Lockdown Project'. And, goodness, some of those accounts are so real and raw. One moment, I have tears in my eyes and the then next, I'm nodding and laughing in recognition. It just goes to show just how much is jangling about within us right now. I really hope this project can serve as an useful outlet for you, as well as documenting these surreal times for the future.
More info about how to get involved at the bottom of this newsletter, as well as a few bits and bobs of what I've 'been doing in lockdown'.
But first, to this week's nine words!
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Each Sunday, I pick out nine words from my special word bag, which I then place in my printer's tray, in a three by three grid (see below). Your invitation is to choose a line of three words (either top to bottom, side to side, or diagonally) that takes your fancy. The combination of these words will provide inspiration for your writing. Your response can be anything - fiction, autobiography, poetry or prose, or a mixture of any of these things.
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his week, your nine words are:
sign nylon alley
lid dew yellow
history hood doze
Top tips:
- Your writing will come more easily if you begin with a strong image or a physical sensation.
- You do not need to know what the writing will be about, or where it might travel to, before you get pen to paper. Simply let one line lead to the next and the next and be content to go on a journey with it. Review and reflect at the end.
- Treat this (and all other writing exercises from here on in!) as an 'opening up opportunity' - opening up in relation to your subject, opening up in relation to the techniques, and opening up in relation to yourself as a writer in this moment.
- Take any criticism or judgement out of the equation and proceed with open-heartedness and curiosity.
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Anyone who wants to share their writing, email it to me and I will collate the pieces into a single anthology. I will simply copy and paste into one document, I will not edit your text, or correct any typos. This will then get redistributed, as a pdf, to all those who sent me their work. Unpolished pieces are welcome and expected. Everything will be treated as a work in progress.
To participate in the anthology:
- Make sure your piece is no longer than 500 words
- Include a title and the name you want attached to your work at the bottom of the text. If you don't include a name I will just use your first name.
- To keep this a diversionary experience, steer clear of any reference to viruses, please
- Email me the work, as a word document (ideally, in Calibri font, size 14), by 5pm on Friday 1st May (I will try and send the collection back out on the following day)
There will be another nine words from the word bag next week!
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'Things I have been doing in lockdown...' Project
Inspired by the poem, Things I have been doing lately by Allan Ahlberg
Things I have been doing in lockdown:
Remembering the reality, moments after waking
Forgetting what normal life felt like
Removing blinds so we can see the outside world, and the outside world can see us - toys on floor, washing on radiators and all...
Blowing kisses, and hitching up sash windows to wave at friends passing by
Mixing paint on the top floor, two new colours per day, then carrying the pots and paintbrushes down to the garden
Painting a giant picture in our tiny garden, all four of us painting together
Hanging our picture in the kitchen
Pausing at the bathroom window, breathing in cold damp air, listening to the first murmurings of the dawn chorus, as the baby rests his head on my shoulder; Imagining The Heath Hospital, barely a mile away, over rows of rooftops and lilac-filled terrace gardens; imagining all the night staff, nearly at the end of their shift, but not yet.
Whether we are going out to work or remaining at home, in all likelihood, the narrative of our day has changed. This project is an opportunity to notice ourselves in action (or in inaction) during this extraordinary chapter.
Using the title, Things I have been doing in lockdown, you are invited to document, via little moments, the texture of your life, as it looks right now, to look back on and remember in the future.
The invitation is intended to capture the banal as well as the extraordinary; the brutal, as well as the tender; the slovenly, as well the industrious; the grim, as well as the luminous; the serious, as well as the down right daft; and everything in between.
The vision is to, ultimately, create a multi-voice, multi-perspective account of lockdown. You're welcome to contribute as many times as you wish.
Simply pop your 'Things' in an email and send to:
inlockdownproject@gmail.com
I am not able to respond to all these pieces in person but know that they are all safe and snug and preserved in date order, for the future.
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Well, that's all from me, for now.
Any questions about any of the above just drop me a line.
Otherwise, see you all next Sunday and happy writing!
Briony
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