Who would have imagined that the evil tendrils of international tyrants would have wound their way into the heart of my family and the Bournemouth Writing Festival? My sister in Australia had planned her latest two month holiday to encompass various cultural delights including the fourth Bournemouth Writing Festival. Her flights were booked well ahead. There is so much to do over the three days of the festival it is hard to focus. Last year this had resulted in a friend and I only making it to the free poetry on the bandstand. So this year we needed to plan properly and book well ahead. After much shortlisting and Facetime consultation I had booked six events at the festival.

Shortly before her departure WW3 erupted in the middle east, airports closed, governments issued warnings to their travellers. My sister was traveling in comfort to visit all her English relatives, not to have an adventure. Her favourite airline Emirates was due to leave Perth, stop in Dubai and onwards to Gatwick. Suggestions by some that she could fly over the North Pole were not appealing. When Emirates announced full refunds available, she cancelled her holiday.

The spare tickets were happily taken up by others in my writers group, though by this time I had forgotten what I had booked and why we had chosen them. A sunny weekend made it very pleasant to wander through the gardens between the various venues. Everything was taking place in Bournemouth town centre so easy for everyone to walk, cycle, skate, paddleboard, come by bus or train. Car parks are expensive and stressful from my non-driver observation so to be avoided if you can.

There was a real buzz about the festival and a buzz in town. Festival team members wore bright yellow T-shirts so it was easy to ask for help and they greeted everyone enthusiastically. I can only give my humble impressions with so much happening. But we have always been impressed with how well organised and supported the festival has been right from its inception. If you want to meet other writers of all ages this is the place to be. You could be on the go from the moment you got up till bedtime with breakfast, lunch and dinner meet ups at local eateries. In between talks and workshops you can chat and look around.

In the Pavilion you could buy books written by the speakers, while at Bobby’s any author can book a table ( well in advance I gather ) to sell their books. There were interesting and colourful characters from far and wide.

There were two workshops I particularly enjoyed.

 ‘Stop your Plot Deflating like a Sad Balloon’ with Helen Comerford

If you run out of ideas or have writers’ block just spend five minutes writing a list of What Ifs, as silly as you like. We did this and then wrote our favourite on post it notes which we stuck all around the room and read what ideas others had come up with. We then wrote a plot for our What Ifs.  I wrote ‘What if you go to a writing festival and realise you have all been taken captive.’ Some of us read out plots out.

Adrienne Dines’ workshop on creating conflict had the tag line ‘How to make it bad, make it worse then make it personal.’ She gave us an opener, chap walking home from the pub late one night and comes across a road accident… and we all had to offer make it worse contributions… ‘he knows the victim in the crash’ soon became a whole complicated family story!

Next year’s festival is already being planned, last weekend in April again. Other events go on all year round so writers can continue to meet up.

Write by the Sea™ / Our writing events in Bournemouth, England

What ‘What Ifs’ would you think of?