Creative Writing at Tatton Park
Here is a summary of the workshops in Tatton Park for 2025
to book follow the link below and select the month you wish to book for
Creative Writing with Joy Winkler (tattonpark.org.uk)
Tatton Park Workshops 2025
Unblocking creative arteries Wednesday 12th February 2025
Sometimes we feel the need to write, but the ideas seem to be out of reach or simply not there. In this workshop we will look at techniques to harness inspiration and unblock our creativity. This will involve some fun exercises and other ideas for methods of engaging with a reluctant imagination.
Of course we could use the theme as a plot scenario too. For example a story about a writer driven to extreme lengths to beat their block or about a harridan of a publisher who won’t accept that the promised sequel is not even a twinkle in their best-selling author’s eye.
Recollections, photos and fragments Wednesday 12th March 2025
Looking back and revisiting earlier times can be a great spur for a piece of writing but memories can be fickle or difficult to access. Therefore, photos and mementoes can help to revisit the past and keep recollections true. We will look at how a short poem or burst of writing can start a personal series of fragments – a literary scrapbook for a future generation to appreciate.
Each attendee in this session is invited to bring along an old photo or a small item from an earlier part of their life and share memories and experiences with the group.
Rhythms of life, musicality in poetry and prose Friday 11th April 2025
In this workshop we will look at how rhythm and cadence can give musicality to our writing. At how prose can be poetic and how poetry can sound melodic. Also, we will look at the natural rhythms and patterns of our lives or of our characters’ lives and how this affects the ebb and flow of each life’s journey. Or at how the change in the seasons affects a character’s mood. At how constant natural elements such as ocean’s tides and the moon’s patterns can be a constant to place a turbulent story against.
Food for thought Friday 16th May 2025
Food, its production, taste, availability, trends, can be a great item to include in a piece of writing. Just the names of ingredients or details of achieving a recipe can paint a mental picture or stir interest in a reader. In this workshop we will look at various ways that including growing, harvesting, cooking, serving food in our writing can be an integral part of creating atmosphere, a back story, of good storytelling.
Also, we can include as ‘food for thought’ scenarios that use the trends of healthy and unhealthy food habits to maybe develop a character. For example, we could develop a character who only eats tomatoes or someone who tries to impose their own predilections onto their family and friends.
Making Waves Friday 20th June 2025
Disruption and trouble can be great elements to have in a story, but it isn’t easy to involve these as we are always eager to get to the happy ending. In this workshop we will look at how to include problems and crisis and pace in our storytelling. How to excite and stir the reader well before the waves settle and are subdued and a quiet ending can occur.
We will also consider the idea of ‘making waves’ as a theme or plot or even more literally how to invoke the energy, sound and scent of crushing waves as a soundscape for a poem.
Tangled Webs Wednesday 16th July 2025
In this workshop we will look at building a three-dimensional plot not just a one-dimensional narrative. We will discuss backstories, character sketches, red herrings and twists and turns. We will look at other techniques that we could use to manage the many threads and how to pull them together in a seamless and convincing way.
Also, as the theme involves tangled webs and the way they can deceive, we will consider how to include intrigue and duplicitous characters in our writing.
Listen, do you want to know a secret Wednesday 13th August 2025
Secrets can be the bedrock of captivating stories. They are versatile. As writers we can decide what they are, when to share them and who with. We can build up tension by letting the reader know the secret before the character who most needs to know. Or save the secret to the very end of the narrative. We could personify a secret and let it tell its own story. We can use the secret to blackmail another character or as a form of control. Tricky things, secrets. Let’s have some fun with them.
Tying up loose ends Friday 19th September 2025
The ending of a poem or a piece of writing is as important as the beginning. Yet often we read something only to be disappointed that the author has rushed the ending by tying up the loose ends too quickly. In this workshop we will discuss possible pitfalls over too hasty endings.
Also, we will look at how our characters might be seeking to tie up loose ends in their own life situations leading to the possibility of a tragic/comic/emotional ending.
Dark Days and Redemption Wednesday 15th October 2025
As we move towards dark nights, we will look at the celebration of Halloween and other related myths and stories. It will be fun to look at themed costume parties, garish pumpkins, bonfires, apple bobbing and stories of hauntings. But as well as being inspired by horror and dark deeds, we will look at how a story or poem can also address redemption. As this will be the final workshop of the year we will want to go home with warm thoughts and peace in our hearts.