Last year in the Hub, one of our resident writing groups, Writing Wrongs volunteered to do the community spotlight session at our ALISS in Wowland Friday community drop-in. They shared some of their writing and the audience cried and laughed and enjoyed the readings so much, but, as is often the case in the Hub, it led onto new opportunities. Last September in my community engagement update I shared the poem ‘Where Does It Go? by one of the group’s writers, Michael Goodman. He was so inspired by the Women of the Weekday Wow group who were at ALISS that day and their zest for life in later years that he went home and rewrote the ending of this poem about time.

However, there was something else that Michael left with. It was an idea. Michael realised that so many people have a story to tell, they just don’t know how to get started, especially if they have never written before. Determined to make storytelling accessible, Michael spoke to Lorraine Queen, who runs Writing Wrongs, and Terry Brennan and others from the group and with their support, he approached me to propose a Memoir Writing Workshop at the Hub. I suggested running multiple sessions, giving time to promote and build momentum and ensuring flexibility for those unable to attend one specific date so this became three workshops, one a month in March, April and May.

Lives on Paper

Michael came to Hub Monday to promote the workshops which he called ‘Lives on Paper’ and again, members of the group shared some of their work to inspire. We promoted on the usual channels and people started to sign up. We had 13 people  on our first workshop plus four members of Writing Wrongs. Some people were coming to the Hub for the first time. Some were already writers but in different styles – in copywriting for example and some had never written before but what they all shared was being new to memoir writing, which as we learned is different to an autobiography. Memoir Michael describes as ‘short pieces, 1, 2 or 3 sequences of events’ where autobiography is the story up until where you are now’.

Through the workshop, participants had the opportunity to try ‘spontaneous writing’ to prompts. Captivated by Michael’s baritone voice and passion for writing and inspired by one another, each person wrote something that day out of those initial reflections to prompts, developed further through thinking about settings and characters. Some even stood up at the end and shared their writing with the wider group. What emerged was profound: snapshots of life spanning wartime memories, reflections on childhood in care, moments on a tree swing, and even the impact of a single public building throughout a life course. Having been encouraged to ‘show rather than tell’, the beautifully crafted sentences and descriptive imagery transported us elsewhere, momentarily pausing time itself.

A group of people attending a writing workshop in Clarice Pears building.

When bookings came in for the second workshop, it was clear that these would need to be a progression as people wanted to come back and develop their writing. We did also get a few new people, but the third workshop was then only for people who had already been to one of the other two as by then Michael, was like a composite class teacher trying to get people to catch up (I am sorry, Michael!)

When people returned and showed that they had continued to write just from that one two-hour workshop, it was amazing. It was how I felt when all the Communiversity people returned for week two as well. It seems like such as a small thing but it's not. There are not many places where people from such different backgrounds and cultures and experiences can come together in this way and share different perspectives and even with everything else going on in their lives, choose to come back. Their motivations for doing varied from wanting to document stories for grandchildren to helping in a recovery journey. In most cases, it was just doing something for themselves for once and several people said that they only wrote so much because of the environment. One participant couldn’t stop, pages and pages she has now written. Although in and out looking after other things in the Hub, in session two, I wrote two sides of A5 in 10 minutes about my couch when prompted to write about a challenge I had overcome. You'll have to ask me if you want to know that story!

These workshops have allowed people to connect in a special way that only strangers can. In some cases, these strangers have become friends. One has joined Writing Wrongs.

Michael said in one of the workshops:

"We all have a story to tell and there are so many different reasons for writing it down on paper."

When reflecting on Lives on Paper, participants said:

“Excellent workshop. Helped unlock talents I never knew I had. Also helped me express my feelings and emotions on paper. Amazingly laid out and great facilitators”.

Another said:

“Lives on Paper is a safe writing space, that allows you to revisit personal memories and events. This experience has helped my writing and as well as made me feel seen; while connecting with other lovely people. If your curious about writing, whether you’ve ever written before or not, I would recommend this workshop. I really enjoyed it.”

Michael said:

"All these workshops have been about is to encourage and enable people to put pen to paper to write about their life experiences, especially those who have never written before even though they have been encouraged to do so by others or had thoughts that they might one day write. I just want to use my passion for writing to help people get started, that’s it.”

The key takeaway for me is ‘just write’. Grab a notebook, open your laptop or your phone, and start without worrying about an audience, simply to release thoughts from your mind. And once the memories and reflections begin flowing, you might just have the makings of a memoir.

If you are interested in a future memoir writing workshop, please email byreshub@glasgow.ac.uk

A table with people writing on paper, pencils, and paper coffee cups.

So what about the Weekday Wow Women who inspired the workshop? A few of them have come to the sessions but Michael has continued to work with the wider group alongside a mural project they have been doing with SWG3. Michael's role has been to help the women tell their stories in audio form. He played them at ALISS last month and each one was so powerful because they tell snippets of stories of people who have no notoriety or fame in life but who each have their own remarkable stories of endurance and resilience to overcoming challenges and of how coming to a social group like Weekday WOW has really changed their lives and the many others who they have each supported. Michael and the group are now considering how they share wider, ‘The Women of the Weekday Wow’. Watch this space.

Health n Equality

We heard the same messages on 1st May in the Hub when Chance2Change, a peer support group in Drumchapel were in the Hub to screen their new films and launch their new exhibition ‘Health n Equality’ advocating for social prescribing for things like social groups, not medication. It’s the same story again of the power of connections, of friendship, of hope for people at their darkest times. The films are screening in the Hub through May alongside the exhibition dedicated to the memory of Kevin Harvey of G15 Youth Project and Drumchapel TV, a talented filmmaker and youth worker who also worked with our Scottish Learning Disabilities team on Drumming for Change. Watch a taster of the films featuring a poem by Leanne McBride and thoughts from members of Drumchapel Live’s Chance2Change.

Byres Hub Community Day 2025 ‘Celebrating Connections’

The theme for this year’s Community Day is Celebrating Connections. Everything I’ve seen at the Hub reinforces just how vital it is for people to connect. Sometimes, a connection happens between people who share a familiar struggle. Other times, it emerges from listening to an experience vastly different from our own.

Like the writing workshops, ALISS, and every other skill-sharing opportunity at the Hub, these moments are only possible because of you. So thank you, to each of you, for showing up, sharing, and growing together.

I hope to see many of you at the Community Day, forging new connections that might just change everything.

First published: 12 May 2025

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