Writing Away the Days!

The Young Writers’ Retreat is one of my favourite events of the year! Fifteen or so young people with a love of expressing themselves in written form all sharing ideas and collaborating generously, brought together in one place to play around with words. After two years away (no event in 2020 and a split series in 2021) we were back at Chalkwell Hall and welcomed by Metal into the Essex Writers’ House.

The sun shone, which meant we were able to lunch and write in the park, and our amazing guest authors lead us in some fantastic workshops. From fantasy characters and world building with Holly Race and Annaliese Avery, Comedy writing with Simon James Green and building stories through character and their relationships with Justin Somper. Every workshop brought the best out of our young writers and allowed them to develop their ideas in new ways. The rest of the time was spent growing ideas through story games and activities, and workshops as far ranging as writing genre and writing nonsense. We watched our young writers grow in confidence, and friendships both reignited and developed.

A massive thank you to all who took part for sharing their work, to our authors for their generosity of time and ideas and to Metal for hosting us in such a beautiful space. I can't wait for the next retreat; in fact, I’m already planning 😊

To find out more about our authors books and purchase via bookshop click here!

- Jacqui