Dear all
If you are new here, hello and welcome! I am Mel Parks and I have been running creative writing workshops in Sussex, UK for ten years while being a freelance writer, researcher and editor. I began this Substack, Awen, in 2022 as a gathering place for my thoughts about the writing process and to share some stories and creative inspiration along the way. Awen is free to read and share.
I run a weekly Tuesday afternoon (2-3pm UK time) guided creative writing session on live on Zoom for paid members. If you’d like to join, click the subscribe button and choose paid membership for £8 per month or £80 per year. If you are not able to subscribe (or don’t want to!), then please email me for alternative ways to join.
Dear all
On the weekend, I took a herb walk with Kirsten Hartvig from The Healing Garden near my house. This is a continuation of the vow I made to myself to get to know the weeds and other plants growing in my neighbourhood. I enjoy my garden and allotment so much more when I make friends with the nettles, dandelions and cleavers and see them as nutritious food supplements and healing medicine. This time of year is amazing to watch the new shoots coming up.
Part of my method of making friends with plants is to research the stories associated with them. And so while drinking a pot of nettle tea, I read the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Wild Swans. In the story, the princess, Eliza has eleven brothers but their wicked stepmother turns the brothers into wild swans. One day, she goes off into the woods to find them, which she does. But they fly about in the day as beautiful swans and then at night they have to find a landing place as they turn back into humans.
A fairy appears to Eliza in her dreams to tell her how to break the spell. This is what she says:
“Your brothers can be released,” said she, “if you have only courage and perseverance. True, water is softer than your own delicate hands, and yet it polishes stones into shapes; it feels no pain as your fingers would feel, it has no soul, and cannot suffer such agony and torment as you will have to endure. Do you see the stinging nettle which I hold in my hand? Quantities of the same sort grow round the cave in which you sleep, but none will be of any use to you unless they grow upon the graves in a churchyard. These you must gather even while they burn blisters on your hands. Break them to pieces with your hands and feet, and they will become flax, from which you must spin and weave eleven coats with long sleeves; if these are then thrown over the eleven swans, the spell will be broken. But remember, that from the moment you commence your task until it is finished, even should it occupy years of your life, you must not speak. The first word you utter will pierce through the hearts of your brothers like a deadly dagger. Their lives hang upon your tongue. Remember all I have told you.” And as she finished speaking, she touched her hand lightly with the nettle, and a pain, as of burning fire, awoke Eliza.
Because she cannot speak and she is gathering nettles at night in a graveyard, the archbishop who sees her declares her a witch. She keeps working through her imprisonment and as she is about to be executed, she flings the eleven coats made of nettles onto the eleven swans who have appeared in the sky. However, “…the youngest had a swan’s wing, instead of an arm; for she had not been able to finish the last sleeve of the coat”! She declares herself innocent and the crowd bow before her when they see what has happened.
What I get from this story is the magical properties of nettles, which are nature’s multivitamins. But also, the incredible patience that she went through to save her brothers. I can’t help but relate this to the writing process, especially that of writing a book. Gathering strength from nature, the (painful at times) work to be done and the story to be told for a transformation when it all comes together in the end.
Textile artist, Alan Brown, made a dress out of nettles which helped him process the grief he felt when his wife passed away. It took him seven years - here is an article and film trailer about his process. It is the ultimate testament to slow living, connection with nature and the transformative power of seeing a creative project through to the end.
I have just begun my nettle research, so let me know in the comments if you know any other stories about them.
Creative Writing Workshops
Weekly Tuesday guided creative writing hour (2-3pm UK time) live on Zoom
First session: 16 April
Last session: 16 July
2-week break: 28 May & 4 June
12 sessions altogether. You can come to as many as you are able to.
There are three ways to pay for this group:
OR
2. Upgrade your Substack Awen membership to paid for £8 per month or £80 for the year.
OR
3. Donate an amount you can afford with my online honesty box link.
Monthly Tuesday evenings in East Grinstead (7-9pm)
Each workshop costs £30 but if you book all four at once in advance, they cost £100 (a £20 discount).
Book all four Tuesday evenings in East Grinstead.
Thursday mornings in East Grinstead (10-12noon)
Series of five weeks beginning on 18 April (18 April; 25 April; 9 May; 16 May; 23 May - no session on 2 May)
Series of five weeks beginning on 13 June (13 June; 20 June; 27 June; 4 July; 11 July)
If you attend my face-to-face groups regularly, you can also attend the Zoom group for no extra charge.
I have an online space where I post exercises and other resources so you can catch up if you miss a session or you'd like to return to something after the workshop.
Until next time…
This newsletter was created by Mel Parks, a writer, researcher and workshop facilitator based in Sussex, UK. Mel runs writing workshops locally and on Zoom and researches creativity in midlife as well as her personal connection to nature. She has been widely published and is currently working on a series of moon and plant-inspired essays.
It is free to read and share, but if you value my work, please do stop by my virtual honesty box and leave a handful of loose change.
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Photo by Paul Morley on Unsplash