Moniack Mhor
By Juliet England Juliet England heads for the Highlands and a fiction writing break with the Arvon Foundation
It may be the middle of summer, but a fire is crackling away in the grate at Moniack Mhor to combat the Scottish chill as we arrive for the Arvon Foundation’s fiction writing course, fresh off the train or plane in Inverness, 14 miles away.
The warm welcome, and the wine which is cracked open the minute we arrive, set the tone for the five days ahead. Over introductions, we discover we are a diverse bunch, with a museum curator, a school librarian, an obstetrician, a business analyst and a freelance journalist among our number of 15 or so, all brought together by a love of putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard.) For this is one place where you can introduce yourself as a poet, storyteller or novelist without running the risk of being sneered at.
 Animated chatter soon fills the old, stone-walled centre, comprising the main, off-white two-storey building and a converted crofter’s cottage containing the computer room and some of the bedrooms. There are shelves crammed with books everywhere.
The emphasis on comfort rather than luxury. (Most bedrooms are shared, as are all the bathrooms, and everyone pitches in with cooking and washing up. This is definitely not a break for those who seek to be pampered. Nor, indeed, does being hunched over a laptop by 9am most mornings constitute most sane and rational people’s notion of ‘holiday’.)
We get to know each other over the first of five fabulous dinners, prepared tonight by centre staff. For the other evenings, we will be put into kitchen teams to cook for each other, while breakfast and dinner are help-yourself affairs. The food is undoubtedly fantastic, and there’s plenty of it. Indeed, there may be those who view the whole experience as an eating and drinking break, with a bit of writing thrown in.
The tutors, novelist Alison Fell and short story specialist Brian McCabe, both of them Scottish. join us for supper, and will stay at the centre themselves for the duration.
We are taken through the format for the week ahead – morning workshops followed by individual tutorial sessions after lunch. As these only take up half an hour, there’s plenty of time in the afternoons to do whatever takes your fancy - writing, reading, walking amidst the spectacular Highland scenery, or just snoozing by the fire.
In the evenings, there are readings, with guest writer Angus Dunn visiting us on the third night, and a chance to hear the tutors’ work on the second. On the final two nights, there are slots from the students, in which even the most reluctant performer is gently encouraged to take to the stage and give a public rendition of something they have penned.
This was not a course for beginners at the craft of fiction, although I class myself as such, and students had to be prepared to subject themselves to fairly searching, but constructive, criticism from both tutors and fellow wordsmiths, and to read their work aloud for the group.
Although I trembled when it was my turn to do this, my fears proved groundless, for the environment is a supportive one. People laughed in the right places, which was one surprise, and laughed in places I didn’t expect them to, which was another.
Afterwards, I was left with more confidence, and ideas of how to take my story forward, the tutors and writers having spotted things I would never have dreamed of.
 As well as critiquing student’s pieces, the workshops also included sessions on various aspects of fiction – place, characterisation and so on – complete with exercises. We drool over a short story by Annie Proulx, which is so technically brilliant, so complete in such a short number of words, that we are quite green with envy.
The tutorials are equally inspiring, with both teachers somehow finding the time to go through everyone’s work meticulously before the sessions.
In one of mine, Alison pulled no punches as she told me the story I had penned would never be published in the magazine I had in mind for it. This is not as harsh as it might sound, she also gave me a very clear idea of what I needed to do to make it work. It was worth pressing on with, it just needed major surgery, “for its heart to be ripped out” as she put it.
On the Monday after the weekend the course finishes, we return to our day jobs. That literary masterpiece may still be eluding us. But, for five days at Moniack Mhor, we have lived the dream.
The Arvon Foundation runs a range of writing courses at its centres across Britain. Check arvonfoundation.org for more details. The phone number for Moniack Mhor is (01463) 741675. Email m-mhor@arvonfoundation.org
Juliet England travelled to Edinburgh for ?90 with Easyjet (easyjet.com) and then took a three-hour train ride to Inverness for ?19.50 Apex return (firstgroup.com/scotrail. Moniack Mhor arranges shared cabs to the centre from Inverness, costing around ?8 per person per journey. |
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