When we get stuck while writing, it is often because two competing energies are locked together in conflict. In this workshop, authors Yvonne Jewkes and Andy West show how to begin by writing from the unconscious and how to end with a lucidly crafted piece of work. They draw their inspiration from Betty S. Flowers’ essay The Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge.

One energy – we call her the Madwoman – is full of ideas, but can get carried away with enthusiasm or anger, and her writing is sloppy and incoherent. The other is the Judge – our inner critic, who tells us our writing is rubbish. He’s pedantic and carping. If we let him come too close to the Madwoman’s creative, playful energy, the ideas which drive our writing may never have the chance to surface. And then there’s the Architect and the Carpenter. Where do they fit into the writing process and how can we learn to use these four characters to combat the self-image problems that sometimes interfere with the writing process?

Suitable for all levels. Tea and biscuits are included in your ticket price.

Please note this venue has no step-free access.

Yvonne Jewkes is author of An Architecture of Hope: Reimagining the Prison, Restoring a House, Rebuilding Myself (Scribe, 2024), described by Kit de Waal as ‘Beautifully written, honest, and clever…a book we should all read’, while Joanna Nadin said ‘Life writing at its finest.’

Andy West is author of The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Philosophy (Picador, 2022), an Irish Times and The i book of the year. Geoff Dyer described it as ‘Tense and intimate…an education’, while Sir Lenny Henry said ‘Enriching, sobering and at times heartrending. A wonder’.

Andy and Yvonne are Writers-in-Residence at HMP Grendon, and teach creative writing retreats with Freedom to Write.

Tickets: £40