Ilkley | Andrea Mann

If you build it, they will come (on the first and third Wednesdays of each month)

For just over a year now, twice a month, every month, I plonk myself down at a big table in a cafe in my hometown at 10am and stay there for two hours. The reason I always bagsy a big table – and why I always stay there for two hours – is that I go to this café with the specific purpose not just to write, but to write alongside others. I called it the Ilkley Write-In, and as well as being one of the biggest sources of caffeine in my life, it’s also proved to be one of the biggest sources of joy. Here are five reasons why that’s the case – or to put it another way: five things I’ve learned setting up and running it for a year.

1. If you create something inspired by a need or want in you, you will probably be fulfilling it in others too

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I’m starting a fortnightly ‘write-in’ at wonderful local Ilkley café Outside The Box.

I’m usually writing a) from home and b) alone, so thought it would be nice to start up something like this for anyone who’s in a similar boat. I’m hoping that, in the words of a certain great screenplay/novel: If you build it, they will come. 😀

The write-in will be at the café on the first and third Wednesdays of the month (so: 5 June, 19 June, 3 July, 17 July and so on), between 10am and 12pm.

It’s not a writers’ group – ie. there’s no need to share or even talk about what you’re working on – just a friendly space where you can meet fellow writers and work alongside each other in a supportive environment. (And eat cake, if you so wish. Although by definition I think the mere presence of cake counts as ‘a supportive environment’.)

Everyone’s welcome, whatever your age and whatever you’re writing – whether it’s for work or pleasure, fiction or non-fiction, a play or screenplay, poetry, short stories, articles… or something else!

Just bring your laptop (or pen and paper!), and come down for the whole two hours, or just an hour, or half an hour… drop in/out whenever you like.

Outside The Box has a great full food menu – as well as serving fabulous coffees, teas and cakes, of course – so it’s a great place to stay on afterwards for lunch, too.

Any questions, just drop me a line at andrea@andreamann.com. And hopefully see you there!