Creative Writing

Enjoy creative writing by people from BS13 who have worked with us on one of our free Creative Writing projects.

a story in the making...

Following on from our first collaboratively written children's book Hop Aboard! which was created by people living in BS13 who attended one of our creative writing courses, we are right at the start of creating our second children's book, which will be shaped by young children living locally to Hartcliffe City Farm.

We are taking inspiration from a fantastic dragon sculpture who proudly guards the entrance to Hartcliffe City Farm, which was created by the Bristol-based Women Teaching Fabrication.

Cooking and Storymaking Sessions
Hartcliffe City Farm, BS13 0QH
Thursdays, 10.30am - 12noon
Weekly between 2nd November - 7th December

Sessions are free for local families but please book a space in advance by emailing

nicky.orr@windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk

Writing Hidden Histories
Visiting writer: Jane Duffus

The group all expressed an interest in meeting Jane Duffus, author of "The Women Who Built Bristol".
We were fortunate to welcome Jane to the group in March 2022.
Jane shared her many research techniques which enabled her to uncover the hidden histories in her work.

For a while we're literally flicking through Jane's books, a group member says "STOP!" and we take inspiration from the hidden history we've landed on. One week we landed on the entry for Sarah Siddons, famous actor (1755-1831) who is said to haunt both the Bristol Old Vic and Bath Theatre Royal.

Writing song lyrics
Visiting writer: Jack Drewry

We explored lyrics to favourite songs, investigated why we liked them, then wrote our own.

Our artistic director Gill Simmons set lyrics by one of the participants, Cola Conneely, to music.
The song is called "Professor Charlie Stephens" and is about a fantastic Bristolian daredevil.

The making of the song

Historic Fiction
Visiting writer: James MacVeigh

Writing Dialogue
Visiting writer: Mike Akers

We looked at dialogue in plays and fiction, noticing different styles, before writing our own.

We took inspiration from the photography of Bristol-based photographer Shelby Alexander.Images below are shared with kind permission from the photographer.

Shelby Alexander's website
Instagram: @shelby_cameralicious

PomPom Christmas 2019

Image: Shelby Alexander
Text: Aimee Hesterr

Two Elvises for the price of One

Image: Shelby Alexander
Text: Aimee Hester

The Ladies of Elvises, Porthcawl 2019

Image: Shelby Alexander
Text: Jacob Bouyer and Aimee Hester

Ladies of the Elvies

Image: Shelby Alexander
Text: Aimee Hester

Writing for Young Children
Visiting writer: Stevie-Jane Wade

Members of the Creative Writing group collaborated to create a new children's story which was shared with local BS13 children through local children's centre staff.

We commissioned an illustrator, Liv Rose Whitfield to create images for our story.

Here's an animated version of Hop Aboard!

Illustrated by Liv Rose Whitfield.
Find her on instagram.

Sound design & music by Gill Simmons.

Download the story

Download a dyslexia-friendly version

Hop Aboard colouring in and doodle sheets

Buy a paperback copy of Hop Aboard!

Creative Journalling
Visiting writer: Barbara Bloomfield

Thrillers
Visiting writer: Gabriel Dylan (author of YA thriller Whiteout)

We took inspiration from the BBC audio drama The Piper, a thriller version of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and co-created our own audio trailer. Deadline, a thriller-style reworking of Cinderella.

This trailer was written and performed by Jacob Bouyer, Katie Chalk, Aimee Hester and Paul Lawless.

Sound design and editing is by Gill Simmons.