Hi all! After going through the beauty that is the Lemn Sissay experience at the end of March, and whilst waiting for Michael Sauter's event to come around on the 23rd of April, I decided to divert off the main path and try out another creative writing group, that is based near to where I live - the Wolsey Writers group!
So, what is this all about? Well, Wolsey Writers is a creative writing meetup that was originally set-up in 2015 by Katie Ward, a former creative writing lecturer at the University of Suffolk, and a published author of two novels, having written Girl Reading in 2013, as well as Pathways in 2024. Each month, the group dives in to different literary topics, and external speakers from the Suffolk literary community are invited into the group from time-to-time to give talks in areas that are within their area of expertise.
It is based at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich, and the meetup usually takes place on the first Saturday of every month from 10:30am to 12:00pm, with the exception of the month of August, when the meetup doesn't run. However, when the New Wolsey Theatre put on their children's Easter shows on the first Saturday in April in certain years, the meetup is rescheduled to take place on the second Saturday in April, as was the case this year.
Wolsey Writers is something that I have wanted to join for quite some time (I was originally planning to attend in March, but got sidelined by the International Women's Day events in the Hold, so didn't go to that one), and that temptation got even stronger when Amanda encouraged me to go round to the group, so I did. And surprise, surprise, I just happened to pick the best possible time to join the group - the theme of this month's meetup was about Terry Pratchett and his Discworld novels... and here on this blog, we go into all things fantasy map-related, so consequentially, it was the perfect place to start on this little adventure.
Enough of the football talk, let's drag ourselves back into the world of fantasy. The first task of this month's meetup was to gauge overall interest in the Discworld novels amongst the group, and judging by the length of time that some people had their hands up for, I was actually astonished by the serious dedication that some people had in terms of reading the series - after all, Pratchett published 41 novels that relate to the Discworld theme.
Among the Discworld fans, there were opportunities to share about what fascinates them about the series. There were mentions of Guards! Guards!, a novel about governance in the city-state of Ankh-Morpork; a place where the anti-heroes become heroes, and a classic example of Pratchett's tastes around political satire. Equal Rites also proved to be another powerful novel amongst the group - it's not just about the birth of an 8th son, but it's also about sending a message about promoting equal rights for women.
And for those who have never read Pratchett's novels, the airtime was given for those in that boat to chat about the fantasy genre and whether it is less serious than other forms of literature; but of course the response to the latter question was antithetical, as there was a general sentiment that fantasy was actually even more serious than historical fiction or any other galactical literature realm - particularly as it opens up politics to those who wouldn't be interested in it in real life, the realistic environments that cartography and worldbuilding can bring to stories, as well as providing opportunities for people to develop their philosophical thinking.
With the Pratchett talk over, it was time to put pen to paper for the big writing exercise, the prompts inspired by themes that Pratchett has written in his novels. The prompt themes were really wild in character, as themes included exaggerating the mundane, worldbuilding something that no mankind will ever recognise, and even prompts about God and the afterlife. And for those who still aren't tired of Pratchett's novels after the 30+ minute talk, you could even write a 250 word essay about your favourite Discworld moment.
I decided to go with the worldbuilding prompt, and for this exercise, I chose to write about Faeren, a fantasy world that goes 5000 years into the future, and where robot citizens decide everything, from voting in robot politicians to run Faeren's parliament, as well as unorthodox debates about improving economic conditions for its "botizens". Here is what the full story looked like:
By 11:45am, everyone was called around to come together again, and a few of us had the opportunity to share our own stories. The stories being shared in the room were just as wild as the Discworld talk that came before the writing exercise - there were stories about afterlife memories of living in airport terminals, making magical things mundane, and the weird and wacky things that come with having magic stones, just to name a few.
And of course, you can't forget the story that I read out about Faeren. Katie felt that the story that I had written was really beautiful, and I must say that some parts of my story generally attracted loads of humour from the audience as I was reading it (especially when I was putting on the robot persona when I was talking about the things that were going down in parliament about the state of the economy).
With that, the Wolsey Writers meetup came to an end, and I went off to go and get some lunch, proud of the things I had done, and ultimately, that joining the group had really worked out for me.
Conclusions
Despite this being only the first meetup that I have been to, I have to say that Wolsey Writers is probably one of the most unrivalled creative writing groups that I have been to anywhere in Suffolk, and potentially the wider eastern region. The atmosphere in the New Wolsey cafeteria is so lively and the people in the group are so incredible in terms of the level of interaction, with some people being very committed in their interests in the topics that are discussed in the group, and consequently, they really do work their socks off to help out in giving ideas for others to bounce off from. No wonder that this meetup ends up constantly getting interest from other people in the Suffolk literary community.
In terms of the writing exercises, I felt that the Terry Pratchett exercises were well on point, as the topics for the writing prompts were really diverse in nature, and also encouraged participants who may have never thought about fantasy mapping or worldbuilding before, to try writing something that relates to creating an imaginary world. And who knows, maybe start making maps of those worlds as well in the future.
Would I come back to a Wolsey Writers meetup? Yes, although given the next meetup in May clashes with Writing Children's Literature Day at the Hold (an event that I have booked to attend), it will be a while before I get another chance to attend the group.
Anyways, I hope that you have enjoyed this little adventure into the world of Terry Pratchett, and I shall see you on the Michael Sauter event, where instead of fantasy, it'll be traditional cartography that we're going to be up against.
Signing off now.
Jakub
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