WRITING SALON

The Writing Salon is unlike any other event for writers.  It seeks to draw inspiration from unlikely places as it dissects genre and narrative, explores fiction and non-fiction, and dives into all forms of storytelling.  Through a mixture of video, audio, theory, practical exercises, interviews with guests, and a very social and engaged membership it will make you feel energised about your writing. Everyone is welcome, as well as all writing genres and formats. Some members have no previous writing experience – others write regularly for stage, page and screen.  Whatever your level, you’ll get a warm welcome.

To kick off 2026 in writing style, this Salon asks a deceptively simple question: what happens when the problem isn’t a person? No villain. No mastermind. No one to defeat.

On Tuesday 20^th January join host Mark Heywood as we look at stories shaped by systems, environments, time, culture, and inherited rules. Forces that resist change not because they are cruel, but because they are vast, impersonal, and unmoved by individual desire and guided by the quiet pressure of the world as it is.

From The Wire and Chernobyl to Children of Men, Never Let Me Go, and Middlemarch, we’ll explore how writers create tension when there is no single enemy to confront, only a structure to endure. These are stories that refuse neat resolution and easy catharsis. They are not about victory. They are about cost. This is a Salon about friction rather than malice. About pressure without intent. About how mood becomes plot, and how stillness under strain can be a form of resistance. We’ll look at how writers externalise abstract forces, how environment and systems can behave like antagonists, and why some of the most powerful endings don’t solve anything, they simply tell the truth.

There will be a practical section, so grab your pencil cases, and we’ll see you there.

The session starts at 7pm but please feel free to book a table at the Club from 6pm to enjoy a bite to eat, or arrive a little early in order grab a drink before we begin (you can also book a table for 9pm to have your supper afterwards!)

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