The Writers' Lab by Jeremy Sheldon

After seven days of leading a two-week writing workshop at the Skyros Writers’ Lab, it occurs to me that “Lab” feels like something of a misleading word. It conjures up an image of egg-heads in white coats discussing and dissecting minute details of literary technique with clinical, intellectual precision.

Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, and there’s no greater proof of this than where we’ve been working together throughout the recent mornings. We’ve chosen as a group to hold our workshops on an outdoor terrace of the local museum dedicated to Skyrian life, art and traditions.

With the blue Aegean beating gently away directly below us and the light breeze moving through the leaves of the vines and trees around us, we’ve addressed various writing techniques over the last few days including plotting, point-of-view, characterisation and sense-of-place.

Even better, each member of the group has used the writing exercises and games as an opportunity to present situations and characters have been variously touching, terrifying and extremely funny. Who knows what next week’s sessions will generate? What seems certain is that Manos (the curator of the Museum) will keep bringing us fabulous coffee and that the members of the group will continue to push themselves to write material that is as moving as it is fascinating.

Jeremy Sheldon is currently running his course 'Fiction Writer's Toolkit' at the Skyros Centre on Skyros island, Greece. Jeremy is Creative Writing tutor at Birbeck College, University of London, author of two novels and script reader for film production companies. See www.skyros.com.