Budding writers' scheme a success

Mar 2 2010 By Kate Fox, The Journal

ANYONE who's a writer, performance poet or stand-up comedian clearly has a way with words.

Newcastle-based Kate Fox is all of those things yet even she was impressed by the skills of a group of 13 to 19-year-old budding writers.

In a role created last year by New Writing North for its new Young Writers’ Group, Kate acted as an associate writer – a leadership project, explains the 34-year-old.

"I don’t think it’s been done before, so these young people were guinea pigs!" But such was its success that it has resulted in the publication of a collection of their poetry and prose.

The Book of Songs, out now, is a lovely piece of work. It also marks the end of Kate’s involvement and includes contributions from her and from other volunteer writers who helped on the project.

The 15 teenagers, drawn from across the region, with some coming from the SAMA young writers’ group - set up as part of South Asian Music and Arts festival, were clearly a motivated and hugely eager bunch.

Kate’s varied work has taken in school groups but here she was surprised at the commitment shown in the regular meetings, tasks, feedback and discussions. "I was really very pleasantly surprised," she confesses. "These young writers were a very different kettle of fish. I was working with writers as talented as any I usually work with."

The age range might seem wide but she says "being writers transcends age, it seems".

Kate, who lives in Tynemouth and is the current writer in residence on Radio 4’s Saturday Live, is known for her topical, funny writing. But in the group, they explored all avenues.

"They had pretty definite ideas of what they wanted to write," she says.

When they came to discuss a theme for their book, the teenagers initially came up with ghosts and horror. But the finally-chosen ‘songs and music’ were intended to inspire writing from a personal perspective.

"It was hoped they’d write about themselves and experiences of being young. An older person often thinks, ‘Oh, we must have the voice of the young, the gritty reality’. But actually they’re slightly bored with their own gritty reality. That’s why they want to write!" she laughs.

And so there are some highly original interpretations. While a song or piece of music did, in some cases, trigger a memory or link to their life, for others it opened up a door into an imagined world.

Kate clearly loved bouncing around ideas with the group, which New Writing North hopes to continue, and even extend, with other writers at the helm. "I think the more influences they are exposed to the better."

Kate could certainly see some of them go on to become professional writers but says, at that age, they are subject to different sets of messages, perhaps from teachers and parents.

"My message would be: if you want to write, what you must do is read a lot, write a lot and commit to it.

"The key thing is to carve out time to write.

"But I don’t think they need to rush; it’s probably better to live first."

Her own journey took its time and, looking back, she wonders if she was a little too cautious.

Growing up in Bradford, she started a school magazine and penned comedy sketches, but there were no groups like this one. "I think that would have helped me – learning that it’s not about just writing the first thing that comes into your head but about developing a voice. It took me ages to know that!"

It was only on rare occasions she saw poets – a Yorkshire one, then a ‘performance poet’ which she’d never heard of before – and seriously considered it as a possible career.

Even so, she became a journalist first: "my version of doing a sensible job". It was work at Metro Radio that brought her to the North East in 1998 followed, at Galaxy, broadcasting and writing her own bulletins but it hardly satisfied her creative urge.

Her foray into performing came on open-mic and charity nights but stand-up comedy was still not quite what she wanted. As soon as she added poetry, she found her niche.

Her clever, sparky poems, with their feel of think-on-your-feet spontaneity, have seen her hired to write for everything from TV’s Politics Show and Chelsea Flower Show to The Journal Culture Awards. Recently, her Radio 4 work so impressed fellow guest Sara Paretsky that the author asked for a copy of her poem.

She also won a New Writing North award. Now the end of her current role with them frees up more time to concentrate on her new one-woman show, intended for Edinburgh Festival and a national tour this year, with a possible showing at Northern Stage.

"It’s called Fox News and is my life story but mixed up with news events that happened. For instance, I lived in Bradford during the burning of The Satanic Verses and grew up in a dysfunctional family."

She describes her mother as a Margaret Thatcher type – "always right" – and tracked down her father, a down-to-earth Yorkshire businessman, not long before he died. Her show is peppered with the serious and the funny; as is life, she points out.

"I do mix and match the two. It’s my biggest challenge and I think I am becoming better." Her recent appearance at the Sunday for Sammy concert, the local tribute to the late actor, was pure comedy as that’s what was required. But she says that type of act will probably become more rare, although she always tunes in to what an audience wants.

It’s a knack she puts down to her upbringing: a need to be emotionally attuned to the dynamics around her in order to survive.

Either way, it’s brought her success.

:: The Book of Songs is published by New Writing North at £5. Any 13 to 19-year-old writers interested in joining the group can email contact details to Olivia@newwritingnorth.com