I choose Ty Newydd on the Llyn
peninsula in North Wales. The National Writers Centre for Wales is one of
the well-established residential centres and best of all, a long way from
London. Better than a holiday abroad it is, recalcitrant trains being
marginally easier to manage than recalcitrant planes.
I arrive, one of fourteen
students, plus two tutors and various staff. We all shake down together in a
comfortable, rambling old house within walking distance of the sea and the
pub and the bus stop, and Snowdon a few miles up the road
and Welsh-speaking
people all around.
With a lot of help, we take it
in turns to cook the evening meals and we eat and drink together round a
great square table. It is intensive and creative and stimulating. And fun.
Tuition every morning, sleep or walks or tutorials in the afternoon and
readings in the evening. Great bus service to Cricieth and Porthmadog and
Pwllheli which I even learn to pronounce properly.
Have I learnt how to write
short stories?
No, but the firm belief
that I can’t is punctured. What I learned is that I have the basic writing
skills, which will improve with practice. My imagination is unlocked through
the medium of the exercises we have done. Simple stuff such as a game of
consequences, talking about a dream, a film clip, followed by the hard stuff
– writing the stories that emerge.
Following the influence of
two good tutors with bags of enthusiasm and encouragement, I arrived home
with three stories on the stocks, lots of motivation and the confidence to
carry on. Stories are currently pouring out of my newly fertilised
imagination and I can’t get them down quickly enough.
Can’t be bad.
Courses at Ty Newydd run from Monday evening to
Saturday morning and all tutors are professional writers. Course fee was
£370 inclusive of meals.
www.tynewydd.org
Once
upon a time I was a probation officer. When I became a writer, people told
me I must have a lot of stories to tell. And I do. But my belief is that I
don’t know how to tell them. Where do you go to learn to write stories - and
is it really something that can be taught? 
