Posts

On Libraries

Image
 In 2022, the folks at Inspire Culture, Learning and Libraries asked Paper Crane Poets to write a commissioned poem for their annual general meeting. We spent two months working together on the poem, which includes contributions from nineteen poets from the collective.  The poem was inspired by our individual experiences in local libraries, and all the brilliant projects that Inspire provides to our communities too. This finished piece includes contributions from nineteen poets from the Paper Cranes Collective: Sue Allen; Sonia Burns; Edwina Crowder; Sarah Dale; Laura Grevel; Rose Harvey; David Hunter; William Kummer; Phil Langran; Katey Logan; Andrea Lucy-Hirst; Sue McFarlane; Tara Singh; Leanne Moden; Jade Moore; Rachel Jackson; Gail Webb; and Dave Woods, with additional editing support from Ann Parker. It was a joy to work on this project, and we’re really proud of the finished piece! Beyond the library door In the beginning, there was the word, and the word was  Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! 
Post a Comment
Read more

On Writing Constraints (Merbles)

Image
Univocalisms were first devised by the Oulipo , a group of writers, artists and thinkers based in Paris in the mid-twentieth century. The Univocalism is one of their most famous inventions: a piece of writing that excludes four out of the five vowel sounds.  Let me explain. For example, if you write an O univocalism, you're not allowed to use any words that include the letters A, E, I, or U, and if you do an E univocalism, you're not allowed to use  any words that include  the letters A, I, O, or U.  It sounds hard (because it is) but it's a fascinating challenge, and I really love it because it can get out of a writing rut, and help you create pieces that you'd never write otherwise! This is my favourite univocalism that I've ever written, and I think I really like it because it's so deeply, unrelentingly silly, and because it breaks the rule that it follows. I'm dead rebellious, me.    Merbles   Yer ersk mer ter explern merserlf  Bert mer rerply cernferses
Post a Comment
Read more

On Sharing Your Work (Kingmaker R&D)

Image
We did it!  In case this is your first time here (Hello!) my name’s Leanne, and normally, I’m a poet. But this year, I’ve been working with a team of creative people on a Research and Development programme for a play that I’ve written.  It’s called Kingmaker and it’s a comedy about good intentions, bad ideas, and finding a place to belong. Our story follows a tour guide in a sleepy rural village, and the problems that arise when an internationally important archaeological specimen is discovered in the local churchyard!  You can read more about my journey through the R&D process in the previous three blogposts .  Last Friday, we invited a selection of cool people to come to see a work in progress version of the show. The audience watched four scenes from the play, and heard from the creative team speak about their ambitions for next steps. Then, we facilitated a Q&A where audience members could give feedback on what they’d seen.  It was a really useful session, with some great
Post a Comment
Read more

On Writing and Re-Writing (Kingmaker R&D)

Image
I’ve just sent two weeks thinking, writing, re-thinking and re-writing. A couple of weeks’ ago, our creative team did a week of research and development , working on the script for a new play that I wrote earlier this year.  By the end of the first week of R&D, we’d removed the interactive elements, improved the narrative pacing, moved the interval, added five new scenes, and completely re-imagined the ending!  All in a week's work!  The next stage of the project is a sharing of the show with industry professionals and invited guests on Friday 6th September. So, I had two weeks to do all the re-writes, before rehearsals started up again.  Given how many notes I’d made, and how many changes we'd initiated, it seemed like a Herculean task. So, I did what I always do when faced with a monumental writing commission. I procrastinated.  One clean bathroom, two mowed lawns, and email inbox clear-out, and a fully-hoovered house later, I figured I’d really better get on with it.  T
Post a Comment
Read more

On Collaborative Working (Kingmaker R&D)

Image
 As a poet, I mostly write stuff on my own. I draft a poem, maybe I take it to an open mic, or to my crit group for suggestions, then I polish it up. Perhaps it even gets published somewhere – if I’m very lucky! But I'm used to a pretty solitary writing process.  So, I was a bit apprehensive going into the first week of research and development on a new play I’m working on, in collaboration with director Vivi Bayliss .  Theatremaking is often a collective process – the actors, director and other members of creative team get involved with writing or devising the story – and I was a little bit wary about that aspect of the project.  I – like many creative people – really hate being told what to do.  But, I also knew that Vivi is an excellent director and a very safe pair of hands. So, when I showed up on the Monday morning at the rehearsal space, I was ready to experience a new way of making work.  But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is an R&D in the context of theatre?  Any l
Post a Comment
Read more

On Writing a Play

Image
I’ve been writing poetry for about twenty years now, and I mostly write narrative poems. So, when I started going up to the Edinburgh Fringe in the late 2010s, I got really into the idea of producing long-form live literature shows.  The first show I wrote was called Skip, Skip, Skip , and it was an autobiographical, one-hour piece that I performed at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe. It was a nostalgic and heartfelt show about music, friendships, and accidentally becoming a teenage goth in rural Norfolk in 2002.  I really loved the process of writing the show. I liked telling a cohesive story in a long-form, theatrical context – something I’d never done before – and I loved making something that really seemed to resonate with people. But I found the performance side of the process really challenging, especially having to learn an hour’s worth of words. My brain just doesn’t work like that, and the nerves really got to me.  Next time I write something like that, I thought to myself, I’ll writ
Post a Comment
Read more

On Cowardice

Image
This year, I joined a writing collective called HOMEWORK. We meet once a month to decide on a writing prompt and share the poems we've put together over the previous thirty days.  It's been a game-changer for me, a real kick-up-the-arse for my poetry, and a way to give me the impetus to write something every month that I wouldn't normally write.  Last month, our prompt was oxymorons  so I decided to write about the bravery needed to admit your own cowardice.  The poem came out a bit dark, but maybe that’s the point…   Chicken Heart  This is the year of cowardice. Toad-belly pale and stagnant.  And I am yellow lichen, shade-quenched  and touch-starved. Soft as unexamined  unease. Better left unmentioned. Outside, my mother is dead-heading daisies,  bearing each wilting yellow flower in gentle, careful fingers. Chicken feather petals  falling at her feet.  I read somewhere that you can  hypnotise chickens with lines  drawn on pavements in chalk. God knows, I am a crime sc
Post a Comment
Read more