About Us
Swan and Railway, Wigan, 7pm to approx 9.30pm, 3rd Thursday of each month. Monthly meet up of writers to share and build a supportive community. All forms of writing welcome - written word, spoken word, original song writing. Share in a comfortable group and get to know the other writers.
What We Do
Welcome to Inspire Aloud! This is a completely new monthly group with quite a unique format. If you’re interested, please spread the word! It’s based on an online group I ran weekly for over a year during the pandemic, so the format is well established and I’ve experience running it, which all helps make it more comfortable! We will gather in the Swan and Railway’s cosy back room, with a bit of time to buy drinks and meet and greet, though feel free to come in earlier for more time to do that. Once we kick off, we will take turns to share what we’ve created, with time in between each piece to let the conversation flow naturally. I suggest you only bring one piece. The length will vary depending on the type and style of your work. It’s absolutely fine to bring something short, but the recommended maximum length is 5 minutes. It doesn’t matter if you don’t normally share or perform what you write. This will be a caring, sharing and supportive place, and not a performance group. You can bring any of the following and more Poetry Monologue Short story Short script Non fiction An extract from a longer piece Stand up comedy Journal Original song lyrics If you are a song writer, or write words with background music, you can bring an unplugged instrument for this. You can bring pretty much anything that is not offensive or derogatory. This might be a work in progress, something you’ve just finished, something you wrote years ago, something you want feedback on (but you’ll have to ask the group if you want critical constructive feedback), something we’ve heard lots of times before, something you think will provoke a good discussion, a throwaway piece that wants an airing, etc. The final 15 minutes will be a ‘guest slot’ in which one of our group members will have 15 minutes to do with whatever they want. The first guest slot will be someone from the online group who are used to the format, so don’t worry about this. Each month a different member can have a go. (If this isn’t for you, don’t worry, there’s no obligation.) Some things people have used that time for include Practicing a full 15 minute poetry set Reading a longer piece Hosting a discussion Sharing writing that has influenced them and asking us for ours Asking the group to bring and share work on a theme Reading someone else’s work A mixture of different things. There will be a mic in case the ‘guest’ wants to use it, but all the sharing will be unmiced.
All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.
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