I love chaos theory: a writer flaps her pen in Stockport and a pub hosts an open mic night in nearby Marple. You might suspect that I’m being a tad specific here, so let me explain: in the summer of 2016, six artists held an exhibition at Stockport art gallery celebrating 50 years of friendship and paint. They asked Stockport Write Out Loud members to work with them. We hosted a couple of successful open mic early evenings and a free writing workshop, which a new writer, Nicola Hulme, attended.

Nicola enjoyed the session so much, she immediately signed up for other writing workshops in the area, including one in Tatton Park, on writing in the style of Roald Dahl. Attendees were instructed to go into the garden for inspiration; Nicola spied a lonely pear, and a story was born.

At a writing group, Nicola chatted to a publisher and asked him if he’d be interested in her story.  He told her to submit it.  She did and he was, and Portia the Pear  was published on September 7 this year, more than doubling the average number of sales at a children’s book launch (Go, Nicola!).

While all of this exciting stuff was going on, Nicola became a regular at Stockport Write Out Loud and often chatted to her publisher about us. Matthew James Publishing run Marple book fair so when they decided to host an open mic night as part of the event last August, they asked Nicola if she would ask Write Out Loud members if they’d be willing to go along.  We’re poets who turn up, rain or shine, snow or hurricane – and even sometimes when the gallery is closed, but that’s another story – to read our work aloud: of course we said ‘yes’.  Actually, it was more like, “YES!  YES!  YES!  Oh, please, yessssss!”

The venue was the Samuel Oldknow pub in Marple town centre.  The room was about as big as a shed.  The audience outnumbered the poets, so we counted it a success before we even opened our mouths.  There were about 13 poets there, only two of whom were not Write Out Loud members.  To a packed house and an appreciative audience, we each read two or three poems in several rounds, following the format of our beloved Stockport Write Out Loud sessions.

As I said, it's a tiny pub, but it was still cool to see people sitting on the stairs to listen; and at one point they had to turn up the sound for the beer garden audience, who hadn't started out as an audience.  There were also many requests for more such events.  We pointed people in the direction of the Write Out Loud website.

So there you have it: a Write Out Loud writing workshop in 2016 led to a publishing deal, a hugely successful open mic night, and a request for this article.  Chaos is neat.

 

Portia the Pear is available from Waterstones, Foyles, Amazon, and Matthew James Publishing.

 

PIcture shows Write Out Loud Stockport member Nigel Astell at the mic