Article I wrote for the school paper about us :)

We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action – F. Tibolt

The action for me was going on a poetry course in Ty Newydd, where I met other young poets who went on in their separate directions to all, each in their way, continue to bring poetry into the everyday. Once you realise you are not alone in your passion to write, to read and above all, to be heard, you can’t go back to life that doesn’t involve sharing your love for writing.

When I came home after the course, an idea emerged. Why not create my own writing society, where everyone has a right to share their writing and gets the weekly incentive to develop new ideas. There had to be a purpose to it too, which is what I outlined in the first meeting – we were all to become self-published authors on a blog that I created ashbycreative.blogspot.com , where everyone agreed to post things that they’d written in the meetings.

So, every week on Tuesday after school we meet in B18. Normally I come up with the concept for each meeting, be it rhyming tournaments, haikus, the theme of love or any other writing exercised that I can find. These I’ve found on the internet and from English teachers, but the majority I think of myself. For instance, this week’s exercise is that each member gets a sealed piece of paper that has a certain perfume/herb/surprise smell that the recipient has to identify with a word. Then the seal is broken and the real name is revealed. Then, a paragraph is written about what that smell associates with and why it is different/the same as the original.

In addition to the weekly meetings, we have writing-related film nights. Last year, I hosted a fancy dress creative writing party that allowed us to be inventive in a more relaxed atmosphere. I tend to vary the location of the meetings as well – in the summer we often have picnics, or in the winter we enjoy the comfort of the heated flooring. Mostly, the meetings take place in a ‘squirkle’ of tables – square that seems to help everyone be involved in the discussion, also relative to the name of our blog - Quirk. At the end of each session, we read out and peer asses each other’s work.

Finally, Quirk has been a place for opportunity to participate in writing competitions, to go on poetry workshops and even to perform at The Curve theatre and Leicester Love Festival.

What I was looking for in this project was other people in the school that have passion for writing. What I found was so much more. The club started out as a gathering of my friends and grew, letting me meet amazing people with touching, beautiful, quirky, funny, inspiring, frightening and amazing stories to tell. There’s so much talent here. Come and see for yourself.