Thornton Heath Library has recently started hosting creative writing workshops.

These are small, well structured workshops run by Janice Hendry, that take place once a month. I missed the first worshop. By the second one, participants had already written pieces, either poems or short stories on the theme of 'waiting', which they read out to the group. We also received handouts, even one on 'Self Publishing', which has become very popular, and is no longer considered an alternative for manuscripts that publishers have rejected.

We also looked at 'Flash Fiction' as well the dozens, if not hundreds of Creative Writing websites, including one for the popular 'Writing' magazine. 'Flash Fiction' is an entire story in a very small amount of words, usually no more than 200, and is a lot harder than it looks.

, For my first week we were also set a writing assignment: a 400 word short story entitled 'The Gift'. As a Science Fiction/ Horror fan my ideas immediately took a supernatural turn which, thankfully, everybody loved when I read it out to them.

I also discovered the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden (which is a cultural hotspot anyway) and is worth checking out.

For more information about the creative writing group contact Thornton Heath Library at thorntonheath@croydon.gov.uk Based on information supplied by Tania Rahman.