Once upon a time, there was a group of UKG writers who would go to the ends of the earth in search of inspiration. They travelled far, and wide, looking for the next thing to spark their imaginations… and in November… they found it… in Wales.
As a team of writers we all have days where we stare at a blank page and think “Oh-my-god-oh-my-god-oh-my-god… my mind has literally gone as blank as this page, and I can’t stop thinking about the blankness of this page, and I don’t know what to put on it to stop it from being so blank!”
So when we were told we’d be heading out for a weekend writing retreat to help re-ignite that creative spark, we threw our pens up in the air in celebration (not really, that would definitely be a health and safety issue).
After a long scenic drive with a Disney soundtrack as company, we arrived in idyllic Wales to begin our journey of creativity!
After our arrivals, introductions and a few canapés, it was straight down to business! The lovely people running the retreat had us absolutely smashing the “writer’s block” so many of us stumble over from time to time. Some of the highlights included:
- Finding new ways to approach our writing, using the five senses as inspiration (keep your eyes peeled for some very evocative greeting card copy coming your way!)
- Learning new writing techniques to help get us in the creative mind-set when we’re writing new copy
- Rediscovering the storytelling aspect of our writing, and how we can apply it to greeting card products to give us a creative edge
- Using techniques such as meditation (yes, you read that right) to get us in a more open and relaxed creative frame of mind- and it showed in our writing!
- Being encouraged to take risks with our writing, to try new angles on copy that we write for our cards- after all we’re always looking for new directions for greeting card copy- we’re all about being pro-active!
- Banishing clichés in favour of new, fun and interesting phrasing!
The writing retreat was a fantastic opportunity and we had a lot of fun playing around with words! We came back brimming with ideas, and new techniques and we were ready to take on the world… of Greeting Cards, obviously. All I’d say is – watch this space- there are some very exciting things coming your way!
