Rachel Marsh's Blog › Shortbread Roadshow

Shortbread Roadshow

Published 1 year ago

We’ve just come through the first ever Shortbread Stories writing course weekend (aka Shortbread Roadshow), and it was a pleasure to lead the class. The weather was perfect – pelting down with rain, not a patch of blue sky in sight to distract us from the topic at hand (editing) – and the students were lovely. It was a small group and they each were creative, dedicated and intriguing writers.

Yet, it wasn't just the bleak weather and talented writers that made it such a good weekend. It was the fabulous chat that made it such a special event. Of course we talked about writing, specifically editing, but we also discussed personal hobbies, families, and had extremely interesting discussions about life, the universe and everything. Robin Pilcher gave a talk on the editing of his own manuscripts and Karen Graham (editor of New Writing Dundee) came along to discuss how to submit your writing to a contest or publication.

However, even these ‘lectures’ were hardly lectures; they were open discussions. Robin told a very interesting story about being forced to pick up a hitchhiker who may or may not have been targeted by some form of corporate mafia. Karen discussed her academic work and her own writing.  Yes, there was much digressing, mostly lead by my own inability to stay on topic, but we always came back to the theme of writing and editing.

Incidently, I think a little digression can do a group good. I believe the best writing groups are those that speak freely. I love a writing circle that can discuss and share, always coming back to the point of writing – feeling that the act of sharing makes them each more creative.

This open forum for discussion is certainly prevalent on Shortbread Stories. One of my favourite Shortbread activities is to peruse comments left on other people’s work. The encouragement and constructive criticism found on Shortbread is not only helpful to those for whom the comments are meant, but can also be useful to a third-party passer-by. Often, I’ll find a comment on someone’s wall that could be applied to my own writing.

The discussion and openness often found on the Shortbread Stories site certainly made its way into the classroom last weekend. We shared and talked, and I came away knowing more than when I went in – despite the fact that I was teaching the class.

Writing skills (even editing skills) are a difficult thing to teach, but through discussion and general discourse an author can truly learn the nuances of writing, editing and creating works of fiction. I’m really happy that Shortbread Stories has started running courses, because the support, knowledge and inspiration found on the site is transcribed to a face-to-face setting.

So far, the next course is Shortbread Spain in October, and I can’t wait for all that it will have to offer.

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