On Wednesday 16 October at Ayr Writer’s Club, we had the opportunity and pleasure to meet and listen to a short story workshop, presented by Sarah Smith a historical fiction writer. Sarah was both an engaging and an informative speaker, she began her workshop saying that she hated the words, “her process,” she said coming from her it sounded pretentious, and she preferred to call it how she worked and created.
Sarah used a slide show to enhance her talk and presented a fun warm up task called three little words, she used an app called What3words, the worldwide app gives a unique combination of three words and is primarily used to find an exact location on the earth surface. Sarah gave each individual three words created by the app and asked each of us to write a short piece using the words given, some of the words given were quite challenging but fun to try and create a written piece about.
Sarah talked about where she got her ideas and how she constructed the characters in her books, she spoke of listening to people on trains and taking notes as she didn’t want to forget what had been said by her fellow passengers. Sarah also said she was fascinated by some of the historical pieces she found online and in libraries, she used the example of her book, Hear No Evil, where she wanted to take a historical event and elaborate on the characters thoughts and feelings rather than just the historical facts. For me, I can relate to that fascination as there is nothing more intriguing than delving mentally into the psyche of a person, be it on a train or in a written news report, what the person felt and why they did what they did, sometimes for me like Sarah the bare facts are just not enough.
Sarah rounded up the workshop by talking about focus and what could prevent a person from reaching their potential. She spoke of imposter syndrome and setting goals and rewards to try and prevent the mind from slipping into, ‘not good enough mode.’ Sarah also mentioned that those that suffer from imposter syndrome, tend to work harder, and achieve their goals so try not to be so hard on yourself, and even rejection and failure is sometimes the best way of learning and growing as a writer.
All in all, an interesting and informative evening which was enjoyed by all attendees.
Jacquie Strathdee