Ask a Creative

I’ve reached the end of my poetry writing workshops with Year 9 students at Didcot Girls’ School. It looked a bit like this:

3 weeks

270 teenagers

a storm of unique voices

dozens of mind-freeing doodles

a symphonic display of ideas & imagery

hundreds of doors opened

AND

a flurry of post-it note questions posed.

One aim of these sessions has been to give young writers an insight into being a professional poet/writer/artist (a career they might have dismissed as not having ‘career status’.) So I encouraged them all to ASK QUESTIONS!

Here are some of the many and varied things that they were curious to find out about:

QUESTIONS

• Why do you write poetry?
• How many poems have you written?
• What’s your new book called?
• Are you a famous poet?
• Did you go to school at DGS when you were younger?
• Is the subject of your new book real or imagined?
• Do you get paid as an author?
• Is being a writer fun – would you recommend it?
• What’s your favourite part about writing poems?
• How much do you earn?
• What inspired you to become a writer?
• Why did you decide to become a poet?
• Do you find it easy to title your poems?
• Do you have a main topic that you write about a lot?
• What’s your favourite genre of poetry?
• What’s your favourite poem (that you haven’t written)?
• Would you give up poetry if you could get another dream job?

It’s been a privilege DGS – THANK YOU! And as I continue the year as your Patron of Writing (with more creative opportunities to come), let’s keep this dialogue going…

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