If you write stuff, and live in London, I recommend you pop along to WriteClub London casual chats with other writery-types, because in August they’re meeting at the Barbican, as part of the Hack the Barbican event.

Here’s the blurb from Al Robertson, the magnificent host of WriteClub London:

Exciting news! We’ve got a rather wonderful new venue for August’s meetup – we’re going to be hitting the Barbican, as part of August’s Hack the Barbican month. Here’s the blurb about it:

For four weeks between 5-31 August 2013 the cavernous foyer areas of The Barbican will be taken over by London’s biggest ever experiment in cross-disciplinary collaboration. Bringing together artists, technologists and entrepreneurs, Hack The Barbican sets out to explore new boundaries and reinterpret one of the world’s great cultural centres. Nothing is off limits. Everything is open to question.

And here’s the HtB website: http://hackthebarbican.org

In practice, what it means is that we get to talk writing and enjoy a drink or two in the splendid Brutalist vision of tomorrow that is the Barbican foyer. We’re in Alcove 1 of the Mezzanine – I’ll ping through an exact description of where that is once I’ve walked the ground myself. And being part of HtB should bring us some fascinating new tech, media and arts people to talk writing with , too!

More details to follow – in the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing you there on the 15th, as ever from 7pm until late. And of course, we’ll be back in our usual venue at the Yorkshire Grey in September.

Visit the WriteClub London meetup page for full details.

And if you’re in Brighton, don’t forget that there is a thriving WriteClub group for you too!

You are invited to a very special WriteClub event: BookMachine Brighton.

Join us on Thursday 7 February at 7:00 PM for an evening of networking with writers, designers, publishers, marketers, app developers and students.

BookMachine is a group for people in the publishing industry and anyone who loves books. They run events in Edinburgh, London, New York, Oxford and now Brighton!

Venue: The North Laine (pub), 27 Gloucester Place, Brighton

Thanks to Alice Reeves and the good people at BookMachine for organising this event.

For the past three years, writers in Brighton and London have met to chat about writing, reading, freelancing and everything else. WriteClub is a low-key, totally open and deeply informal gathering that happens twice a month.

If you write stuff, want to write stuff or want to talk about words, creating stories or even making a living as a writer, come along! You can share ideas and discuss methods with other writery-types.

Brighton

Morning: Meets once a month at Small Batch Coffee, Jubilee Street, Brighton. Meetings are on the second Thursday of the month 9:00 – 10:00(ish).

Evening: Once a month, this lovely bunch of people assemble at the Earth & Stars pub. Alice Reeves recently joined Helen Keevy and Rob Shepherd as an evening host.

– there’s not much difference between the two meetings, but the morning ones tend to be quieter (i.e. fewer people) and the evening ones have the added benefit of booze (though Small Batch coffee is a delicious and energising substitute).

WriteClub

London

WriteClub London is hosted by copywriter and ‘weird fiction’ writer Al Robertson. You can find out all about the London group by visiting the WriteClub Meetup page.

WriteClub, the informal meet-up group for all kinds of writers, approaches its second birthday. So here’s a little update on the group…

For the past two years we’ve met regularly in Brighton (WriteClub London meets once a month). Every month, a small number of writers meet for coffee (in the morning) or beer (in the evening).

Numbers vary at every meeting, attracting between 4 and 25 people (usually somewhere in the middle). Our conversations cover everything from the challenges of freelancing and finding writing work that pays to the craft of the creative writer. WriteClub regulars include copywriters, authors, poets, journalists, novelists and artists. Our get-togethers are friendly, informal and inclusive. We’re just a bunch of writers (and non-writers) getting together to talk, about anything.

A new venue for WriteClub Brighton mornings

The next WriteClub morning (morning meets are the second Thursday of every month= 8 September) is shifting venue to Small Batch Coffee on Wilbury Avenue in Hove. This is purely because a number of members asked if we could change location occasionally. So we’re moving to a new location that’s much nearer to my flat. How convenient!

Some handy links:

WriteClub website

WriteClub London meetup group

WriteClub Google Group (for WriteClubbers in any location)

All kinds of writers – journalists, sci-fi authors, poets, creative entrepreneurs and copywriters have gathered for the past nine months to mingle, mooch, booze and schmooze. Meetings were quiet, consisting mainly of friends, acquaintances and people off Twitter. But last month something changed.

Thanks to our new meetup.com profile, created by co-host Al Robertson, our last meeting was throbbing with new members!

Since that lovely evening we’ve had more new members joining the WriteClub London Meetup group, with 20 confirmed attendees and a few more ‘maybes’.

What you can expect from WriteClub London

Many people question their own status as a writer, thinking that to come to WriteClub you need to be a professional writer, or published. But that’s nonsense. We’re a group for all kinds of writers and non-writers, so even if your writing achievements have been limited to intentions or daydreams – you’re very welcome to join us. WriteClub is a very relaxed group, and one of our goals is to create a space for people to think and talk about writing. You may find inspiration or renewed enthusiasm for writing after spending an evening with similarly-minded folk. And of course the conversations are not limited to writing – chat tends to drift off in all kinds of unexpected directions.

We meet in a pub that’s open to the public. You don’t need a ticket and there’s no cost to attend. We don’t do formal introductions or group discussions. We don’t have rules or a format. There’s no big agenda either. The group is here for you, to be whatever you want it to be. See you there!

WriteClub now has a logo!

WriteClub has always been a loose connection of people, tumbled together with a light sprinkling of organisation, but the opportunity to have a logo and give our group an identity was warmly received.

WriteClub owes a massive thanks to Ayse Kongur, the graphic designer and WriteClub member who designed our lovely logo. Thanks Ayse! Ayse is a very experienced graphic designer who also travels widely, reporting on the graphic design industry and interviewing talented designers around the world.

What can you expect from a WriteClub get-together? That’s a question that lots of people ask, so here’s a sketch of last week’s WriteClub.

A total of 8 people were present. Including: two science fiction authors, two copywriters, an entrepreneur, a web designer (who writes short stories), a journalist and a project manager.

The Book Club is a loud and lively pub, so we just chatted in pairs and trios. Despite many of us meeting for the first time, it felt like we were a gathering of old, familiar friends. Perhaps our shared love of writing was enough to unite us, or maybe it was just the booze talking.

We variously discussed work, writing for pleasure, reading our work aloud, improving performance skills, the purpose (or lack thereof) of WriteClub, day jobs, freelancing and yurts (and loads of other stuff that I wasn’t privy to).

If you’re looking for a massively popular high-powered networking event, ask someone who wears a suit to recommend something. If you want to talk to people who share your love of writing, then come to WriteClub.

For the past few months Al Robertson and I have been meeting in a London pub and inviting other writers and non-writers to join us. And it’s been jolly nice. We’ve met journalists, science-fiction writers and copywriters that we would not have met otherwise.

But the venue was never quite right and we eventually decided that a subtle shake-up of the time and place might help us attract a bigger crowd of writers (and non-writers).

So we’re moving to the appropriately-named Book Club and starting earlier at 6pm.

Our WriteClub email list is growing and currently has over 60 writers. It’s a handy place to pass over work that doesn’t suit you and equally handy for finding work that does!

Join us, or miss out:

WriteClub starts at 18:00 and lasts as long as it lasts. Come and go whenever you like. Bring friends, family or acquaintances. All kinds of writers and non-writers are welcome, so don’t worry if you’re just starting out or not even a writer – you’re as welcome as everyone else.

The Book Club

100 Leonard Street
London EC2A 4RH

Nearest tube: Old Street (The Book Club is a <10 minute walk from Old Street)

Future WriteClubs

As summer unfolds, we may venture beyond The Book Club and mingle in parks, with cans of lager, boxes of wine and packets of chip-sticks.

Want to support WriteClub?

The value of a group like WriteClub is the members – we all benefit from knowing each other. And I don’t mean we benefit financially; we benefit through making friends, through learning about our profession or our craft, through sharing hard-earned wisdom and we benefit in deeply intangible ways just from leaving our usual enclaves and meeting new people.

So the only thing WriteClub needs is people. You know people that WriteClub doesn’t. Please tell your friends about WriteClub. And even if you’ve never been, please write a blog post about WriteClub, or tweet about it, and make sure you come along.

This Thursday, WriteClub returns to London.

So if you write stuff, or occasionally think about writing stuff, then join us!

WriteClub is a friendly, informal networking group for all kinds of writers. It’s a chance for people to meet other writers, swap tips, ask questions and meet good people to pass work to.

We’ll be in the Yorkshire Grey pub. To spot the group just look for books.

Full details: http://write-club.net

The first WriteClub went swimmingly, so there will be more.

15 (or so) copywriters, journalists, proofreaders, authors, travel writers, novelists and bloggers chatted over coffee in Cafe Delice (who very kindly opened 30 minutes early just for us).

Given that the plan for WriteClub was to form an open group for all kinds of writers (and non-writers) to meet and mingle, it’s fair to say that the first meeting was a success.

To help organise the group and to help people find it, there is now:

write-club.net (where members can feature their blog posts)

WriteClub – the Google Group (so members can chat to each other and find out about new meetings)

The next WriteClub

Is an evening meeting: Tuesday 13 October, 20:00. Location: TBA (a pub in central Brighton)

The next morning WriteClub

Is Tuesday 27 October, 08:30. Location: Cafe Delice (upstairs)