Unblock Your Writing Using Creative Thinking
Thursday, 15th October, 2026 | 6-8pm UK Time / BST
Play and creative thinking techniques for writers are transformative because they are highly generative, unblock, produce original material and encourage us to ask, “What if…?”.
The philosopher Heraclitus described play as ‘the lightning-bolt which steers all things’. In this workshop, we will explore a brief history of ‘play’ techniques from from Plato to punk, Winnicott and neuroscience’s brain plasticity research. We’ll take a look at the spontaneous framework we need to enhance a strong creative practice and learn about the ‘3-step creative thinking’ model. Together, we will write using open-ended spontaneous and creative techniques to unlock potential, remove writing blocks and produce inspiring and inventive work.
In this 2hr Masterclass we will:
- Understand how ‘creative thinking’ works and how brilliant it is.
- Get to grips with our own experience of being ‘blocked’ or ‘creative’
- Practice writing exercises that generate imaginative and original material with ease
- Q+A with author, lecturer and clinical arts therapist, Susanna Crossman
Writing Using Visual, Musical and Drama Technique
Thursday 05th November | 5-8pm UK Time / GMT+1
When I am in my painting, I’m not aware of what I’m doing. It is only after a sort of ‘get acquainted’ period that I see what I have been about … the painting has a life of its own – Jackson Pollock.
In this workshop we’ll get inspired to write using creative techniques from the visual arts, music and theatre. Leading musicians, actors, and artists will share their use of creative thinking and how it relates to writing. From the visual arts we’ll examine tools like mind-mapping. From music, we’ll discover jazz technique how improvisation helps us understand the rhythms of language, and listening to our work. From theatre, will focus on specific improvisation/performance techniques, and an understanding what happens when we spontaneously write.
In this 2hr session we will:
- Briefly recap on how ‘creative thinking’ works and how brilliant it is.
- Discover ‘creative thinking’ practices from the arts and integrating these into our writing practice as seeing, embodying, and hearing
- Use visual, sound and drama writing exercises to generate wild and wonderful material
- Q+A with author, lecturer and clinical arts therapist, Susanna Crossman
Developing Your Brilliant Creative Thinking Writing Practice
Thursday 26th November | 6-8pm UK Time / GMT+1
‘When the image is new, the world is new’ – Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space
Are you interested in analysing your writing practice to undo the knots, recharge, and get fabulous? Do you remember when you first started writing, and the extraordinary feeling of inspiration and creation? In this final workshop on creative thinking, we’ll evaluate our individual writing practice (where, when and how you write) and projects. There are no right or wrong answers, instead we’ll be identifying our needs and solutions. as we develop and integrate creative thinking tools into the way we write.
We will use the ‘Change Star’ coaching exercise to evaluate our writing needs and what we want to change. We will also look at how you can integrate creative thinking into your writing practice in terms of your environment, routine and rituals. For this session, each participant will bring a current writing project with a problem that needs solving, as we’ll be learning how to use creative/divergent thinking tools to tackle your book idea/short story/essay.
In this 2hr session we will:
- Briefly recap of how ‘creative thinking’ works and how brilliant it is.
- Take a look at some coaching techniques, reconnecting with our amazing creative selves.
- Complete practical writing exercises
- Make an action plan for transofrming our own writing practice
- Q+A with author, lecturer and clinical arts therapist, Susannah Crossman
Tickets
This course is open to beginners and experienced writers, poets, essayists, novelists, short story writers as well as teachers. This event will be recorded for the purpose of sending to ticket holders who can’t make the event, and those who require the recording to meet their access needs. Tickets purchased after the event takes place will give access to the session recording until the 26th January, 2027.
