I continue to be busy preparing and presenting themes for my Touch Paper workshops. So far we’ve had Sonnet or Not, and at the end of October the topic is Fear in time for Hallowe’en. Workshops are a fantastic way to take a deep dive into ideas around a given subject, and to look at exemplar poems and see how published poets have gone about it. I always link prompts to these poems and give participants plenty of writing time and they go away with a resource booklet so that they can continue working and editing long after the workshop is over. Sometimes ideas take time to incubate but they often start in the two-hour workshop, especially if you share what you’ve written in order to get some feedback. However, if sharing isn’t for you, it’s not compulsory at all. There’s nothing quite like meeting up with other writers, whatever your level of experience, to chat about poetry and your process – you can learn so much and really gain confidence. The group has a core of poets who rarely miss a session, but folk just turn up when they can, sometimes simply because they’re on a visit to the area. It’s a safe space for exploring your writing in a relaxed and friendly setting.