Writing made easy

Editor Ann Mbuti

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Vlora Mulaku regularly runs the ‘Creative Writing’ course. It’s surprisingly easy to get started.

At 10 am on Saturday morning, Zurich’s old town is quiet. The crowds of tourists who usually throng the narrow streets at the weekend have yet to arrive. Outside the shops, the owners are going about their business at a leisurely pace, cleaning the windows that separate their displays from the world. A young man places a sign in front of the shop door, on which today’s lunch menu is advertised in neat handwriting: Shrimp salad with new potatoes, CHF 12.50.

A strong smell of fried fish, which seems completely out of place in the morning, fills the street, and the few passers-by in front of the shop hurry on, wrinkling their noses. The young man shakes his head. How many times has he told them not to open the small window facing the high street in the kitchen? Ever since he took over the Ankerklause from his aunt at the start of the year, he had been fighting for the respect of the staff, who had worked for Regula for decades and saw him as nothing more than a clown in trousers that were too tight – according to their own accounts. He pushes open the door to the kitchen and cuts off the sous-chef, who was just about to launch into his drawling greeting. If he’d learnt anything during his holidays on the North Sea with Aunt Regula, it was how to swear.

Writing exercises like these were part of the ‘Creative Writing’ workshop I attended at the beginning of March. In this regular series, the editor and actress Vlora Mulaku continually introduces new strategies, exercises and playful approaches to help participants find their writing flow. No prior experience is necessary, and the tasks and tips vary from session to session, so that the 90 minutes always offer something new, even for those who attend repeatedly.

The idea came to her years ago when she attended a writing course herself, which was inconveniently scheduled for a Wednesday morning, Vlora explains. She wanted to create a programme that would allow people to combine their interest in writing with their everyday working lives. At the weekend – on Saturday mornings at 10 am, when it is still quiet in Zurich’s old town – Vlora’s course takes place in a relaxed atmosphere at ‘Karl der Grosse’. After a brief round of introductions among the sizeable group of writing enthusiasts, everyone dives into the group exercises.

Today’s programme features a dice game is on the agenda, which calls for a playful approach to the depicted concepts: The motif that comes up on the dice must be incorporated into the text; free association is encouraged. The scissors, the clown, the fish, the crab and an anchor set the direction for my first creative writing experiment, and the writing flow quickly takes hold. In just 5 minutes, short texts and passages emerge (see above), and in small groups the participants compare where their thoughts have taken them. The new connections broaden the range of possibilities with each person and show that there is no right or wrong, as Vlora emphasises at various points during the hour and a half. All it takes is the desire to get started.