[your writing sucks]

What a great name for a conference. On Thursday, I spent the day in Nottingham at Broadway Cinema, nope, not watching films but learning about the importance of words. The conference; "Your Writing Sucks: Creative and Digital Writing," was hosted by the Digital Arts Forum and 26. Wow.

Today really reminded me how the language we use can tell others a lot about ourselves. Award winning blogger, Mike Atkinson, started the first session off with an overview of how he began blogging and what it means to him. His one caveat: don't post anything about anyone unless you're willing to say it to his/her face. Good point. Mike concluded his presentation with the importance of finding a blogging voice. He has created a character, troubled diva, through whom he writes his (very entertaining) blogs but reminded us that we all need to find a voice that we are comfortable with.

Then came Paul Drury, a video games reviewer. Interestingly his gripe that video game reviewers should review games in the same way book reviewers review books, i.e. critically, is exactly my point about web fiction criticism. Too many theorists out there just describe how the fiction "works" rather than analysing what that might mean and how the plot develops, and, most importantly, what this different way of writing/reading means for literacy. After Paul, playwright Stephen Lowe spoke to us about writing and then read from the Brian Clough tribute, "The Spirit of the Man."

The afternoon was broken up into three parts. First there was another group of three speakers: Margaret Oscar, Sarah McCartney, and Neil Taylor. Now all three were excellent speakers and Neil's powerpoint was artfully done, but...I found Margaret's intro. really profound. She got to the front. Stood at the podium, and gazed out into the audience. We stared back at her. Margaret continued to gaze at us. We noticed the conference organiser looking a little nervous. Had Margaret forgotten what she had to do? Had she misplaced her powerpoint. Was she very shy? Then, 15 whole long worrying seconds passed - and she s p o k e. She said hello. Then explained that each of us would have made an image of her before she spoke but upon hearing her words, her language, her accent, we would change our image. Language is powerful. It tells others about yourself. If you know how to use language you can sell yourself. Margaret's presentation was amazing. I think her little opening trick is something teachers might use in a class when teaching students that saying "yo" or "innit" just won't hold sway in (for example) an interview setting. Well done Margaret. Then we enjoyed a lunch and I was able to pick Mike's brains for a bit but then had to share him as others were chomping on the bit to share a few words.

The most interesting and fun part of the day would have to be the last session in the

afternoon. Hosted by playwright Tim Crouch and Unilever's Katherine Mellor, we spent the last two hours of the day doing exercises designed to "get words flowing instinctively and creatively, to get us to commit to the written word whilst silencing that inner voice of self-doubt; to appreciate our own intuitive and individual response to words, ideas, and stories."

The very first activity involved us choosing three words from the story Tim read to us, three things we had seen on our journey in, and three people in our life. Then we had to choose ONE of the things we had seen (orange leaves) and write a sentence about it without using the word. This is what I did:

As we billowed past, naked trees sadly looked upon their falling friends.

Then came a range of activities asking us to write a
Guardian-style headling using our word, then write a
Sun news headling, then and advertising slogan:

Leaves: Just Rake Them

There were loads more hilarious activies like writing a story of 26 words using each letter of the alphabet, so the first word begins with an "a," the second word begins with a "b" and the final word of the story begins with a "z." Very entertaining and interesting to hear what other members in the group wrote and then to hear them performed!!! Fantastic. One of my favourites was by troubled diva, a.k.a. Mike.

Then we were charged with the task of writing another short short story. We were to pick the name of one of the three people we noted (in the very first activity) and that person's emotional state (which we had also picked at the beginning and which ALSO had to begin with the same letter). Here's my attempt using the letter "s":

Steve sees Switzerland. Sweet, significant sunset. Sliding. Setting. Setting. Setting. Simply said: stunning, stark. Saffron strands slither slightly. Still setting. Still suffusing. Still stealthily swell. Steve seizes sight.

The final activity required that we partner up. Gavin and I worked together. No conferring and no collaboration - only one word at a time. I would write the first word of the story, then pass the paper to him, Gavin would write a word, pass it back to me and so on. Tim Crouch gave a few warning notes before beginning this exercise. He warned that each partner might want the story to go in a different way and that we wouldn't want that to happen. He suggested that we let go and experience language...I think we had a great laugh producing this work of art:(I began and Gavin's words are in italics)

Willowy stream courses full-tilt through Scunthorpe. Gazing nuns menacingly reach an intersection; a transition from narcosis to telepathy. I believe. We don't. Luscious life lived!

Thanks to Tim for the enlightening activities. Not only did he give us great hints to battle against writer's (blogger's) block, but he really highlighted the effect words can have and how when choosing words we should really think about why we're using certain words, the sounds they make etc...