Your Writing Sucks – the review

By Chris Solbé

Imagination. Inspiration. Telling human stories. Having conversations. Getting started. Getting stuck. Writing when you’re drunk. Sounding natural. Finding your own voice.

As writers, we worry about this stuff from time to time. And if we’re selling our words for cash, does this make a highly personal process even tougher? Or can commerce – and the deadlines that go with it – help catalyse creativity in the face of writer’s block?

An avalanche of glowing feedback confirmed the success of our enormously stimulating regional event in Nottingham, city of the famously re-branded wonky “N” and home to one of the UK’s largest creative communities. Sponsored by 26 and the Digital Arts Forum under the Creative Collaborations umbrella, “Your Writing Sucks” encouraged an audience of more than 50 writers, designers, marketers and students to find their own voice and turn it into something tangible.

Starting from the premise that “words are underestimated in business life”, co-chair Ben Afia introduced a panel of eight top-notch writers and consultants, from playwrights and games geeks to brand consultants and bloggers.

The afternoon’s workshop session was led by writer/performer Tim Crouch, a consultant to Unilever’s pioneering Catalyst project. With a ‘do anything you want’ brief from senior management, Catalyst invites a wide range of artists such as creative writers and circus performers, to bring fresh thinking and new modes of expression to communications in the corporate world.

“The more we restrict our creative muscles the more we feel them work,” urged Tim as the audience was whipped through a dizzying series of quick-fire writing exercises. Shaping words with one hand tied behind your back can be a strangely energising experience… and a liberating one too.

One corporate comms person was so inspired by the day that she’s already resolved to slip the corporate handcuffs and start writing for herself. Things wrapped with shouts of “more”. How often do you hear that at a conference?

posted by jim @ 3:58 PM