Pebble Beach Writing grew out of a series of free writing sessions Susanna gave last year during the winter lockdown. The weekly online meetings were a chance for people – many of whom had never done any writing before – to put aside time to reflect on their experiences of lockdown. Through simple prompts, thinking about activities we'd done and conversations we'd had, a friendly group of people from around the UK, and one or two Zooming in from overseas, wrote lockdown fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
In one session we thought about food. Most people's eating habits had changed somehow in lockdown, whether it was a new interest in cooking or finding that they'd acquired new comfort foods or food-related rituals. One participant realised that she had found herself eating nuts and seeds during lockdown and the act of writing about it made her wonder why this was. She wrote about it during the session, developed her idea into a poem and had it published here:
Now we head into the Christmas period with many of the uncertainties we had last year and perhaps a sense of dread about the weeks and months ahead. It looks as though we'll be writing online for a while longer. It may not be quite the same as being in the room together but we've learned that a sense of community is still possible and that there are some advantages to working this way. At Pebble Beach Writing, we always turn our cameras off when we're writing so we're only looking at our screens for a part of the time. This also means, of course that you can always walk away from the computer for a while to go and write by hand while reclining on your chaise longue, and even make a sneaky cup of tea while your ideas brew.
On Monday 10th January, 7.30–8.30pm, Susanna will be running a free NEW YEAR WRITING RESOLUTIONS session. Whether you're planning to write a novel this year, thinking of signing up for a writing course, submitting your work to agents or simply, for the first time, looking forward to seeing what it's like to put some ideas down on paper, you'll be very welcome. We'll work out aims and ideas, make some plans, chat about them and then we'll start to put the first words down, to write our way into 2022.
Email us to reserve a place at the free session. contact@pebblebeachwriting.com