Stories From Our Streets at Vita Nova

Every week, for the last five weeks, our Creative Writing for Wellbeing group has gathered around the

table at Vita Nova, a brilliant arts organisation and recovery community in the heart of Boscombe,

Bournemouth.

With cups of steaming tea to fuel us, the group writes. We start with a brilliant practice shared by

Antosh Wojcik who is a facilitator and producer at ArtfulScribe: we describe our week through the lens

of something else entirely: eg ‘Write your week as a wild animal moving in its habitat’ or ‘Write your

week as the weather’. It’s a fun way to awaken the inner storyteller and express ourselves in a more

metaphorical, abstract way than we might normally use to talk about our week.

At Vita Nova, we recently wrote about the week as if it were a meal. From cafes with slow and sloppy

service, through to the finest, most delicious food, we shared in a visceral, verbal feast and delighted in

the imagery and imagination in each piece!

The atmosphere is always supportive within the group. Often, when writing, it is our own inner critic

that is the loudest. We created a rule in our writing group: no apologising for our work, no prefacing it

with ‘It’s not very good, but…’, no comparison to other’s and no putting ourselves down.

This is crucial when creating anything or learning any craft: to practise being one’s greatest ally and

supporter, to cheer ourselves on as we boldly (or sometimes tentatively) step through the trials and

challenges that are part of the creative path.

There’s also plenty of fun to be shared along the way. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being

surprised by a plot twist or intrigued by the ‘hooks’ that have us wanting to know more as the audience!

We laugh a lot, too.

This sense of community is integral to the warmth of the sessions, we’re inspired by both the creative

writing everyone so generously shares, but also by hearing everyone’s creative process. Especially after

the pandemic, it means so much to be able to come together, in encouraging company, and to create.

We’re practising new skills and honing old ones. We’re watching ourselves and each other flourish as we

grow further in creative confidence. In the welcoming space of this group, we all feel nurtured and

ourselves and stories are heard, seen and celebrated.

We’re currently fine-tuning our editing skills as we work towards our individual pieces for the Stories

From Our Streets Project. We look forward to sharing them with you!

If you have a story to share or are curious about creative writing, or simply want to explore creativity in

company, get in touch to join one of the many free sessions offered by the Stories From Our Streets

Project across BCP. We’re creating a community story map and we want to make sure everyone’s voice

is part of it with a story from every postcode.

To join us, get in touch via stories@artfulscribe.co.uk.

Stories From Our Streets, is an ArtfulScribe project supported by Arts Council England and

BCP.

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