Back in 2005, the original members of the group met on a creative writing course led by Rebecca Smith of Southampton University. When the course came to an end, they decided to carry on meeting, sharing their work and learning from each other.
All these years later, Waterside Writers is still a dynamic and supportive group of people, who encourage and push each other to write more and write better.
We meet in Marchwood every second Thursday during term-time, from 9.30am to 12pm. Usually, during the first half of the session, we read out a piece of our original work, and in the second half, take turns to give a talk or lead a workshop based on various aspects of writing; from sparking story ideas to approaching agents and everything in between. In addition, over the course of the year we analyse novels, critique Long Reads (longer pieces of members’ work) and invite guest authors to lead sessions.
It’s important to us to cover topics that are particularly relevant to our current membership. At the moment this includes a poet, a writer of memoir, a children’s writer and several novelists, so the content is very varied!
We take pleasure in helping each other and it's wonderful to see everyone’s confidence grow over time as their work improves.
Please contact us if you’d like more information.
All stock photography courtesy of Unsplash