Creative writing workshops are on the rise in several French cities, with surveys estimating that two million French people nurture a desire to write a book.
The trend took off during the Covid period with many companies entering the market, such as The Artist Academy, Les Mots, Rémanence des Mots and Aleph, as well as Lire Magazine and Ouest-France, plus local libraries.
Most sought to put an end to the longstanding French cliché that writing – or becoming a writer – is restricted to geniuses.
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Who attends writing workshops?
The workshops attract mainly women, but participants come from all walks of life, from university students to 80 years-plus retirees, interviewees told The Connexion. The workshops have a limited number of participants per course and are available online or remotely.
They have helped throngs of writers in turning their publishing dream into reality. However, simply getting published is not necessarily what motivates everyone, as the workshops are also seen as an opportunity to meet people or use writing as catharsis.
“Around 1,000 people have taken part in one of our writing workshops,” said Astrid Pourbaix, the head of advertising and communications at Lire Magazine, which has been offering workshops since Covid.
The idea to offer writing workshops as a new service was inspired by the newspaper’s annual special edition on writing tips, which often turned into bestsellers.
Lire Magazine offers 16 workshops at €99 each, covering every aspect of the creative process, from the idea itself to convincing a publishing company by exploring many different genres.
Julie Heraclès, winner of the Stanislas 2023 literary prize, Joëlle le Morzellec and Roxane Lauley are some of the writers who have attended one of Lire Magazine’s workshops.
Writing as a hobby
There are three particular student profiles at such workshops, said Frédérique Anne, a creative writing teacher since 2010: the largest number of participants use writing as if it were a hobby or an occasional sport; the second try out workshops to gauge their writing standard; and the last group is people seeking additional help to perfect their novel pitch.
Creative writing workshops have never been much of a thing in France, a country which tends to afford writers a kind of elite status.
Elisabeth Bing, a French teacher, is considered the pioneer of creative writing workshops in France, which she introduced in the early 1980s. For a long time, they were only available to prison inmates and were used to rehabilitate them into society.
It took another 30 years before University Paris VIII opened the first creative writing Master’s course in 2013.
Gallimard, one of France’s most prestigious publishing companies, was one of the first to offer workshops, the ateliers de la NRF, in 2012. But it retained the traditional narrative of elitism via its pricing. Each workshop – a pack of several courses – cost a minimum of €1,250.
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Les Mots was one of the first companies to buck this trend and slashed prices before others jumped on the bandwagon. Four courses in one current workshop cost €275.
Rémanence des Mots, a Paris-based company created in 2018, turned it into a sustainable business after six years, co-founder Théo Pucheu said.
Writing rules
Workshops are built on several principles that participants must abide by – most often a constraint on time but sometimes on posture too, as some workshops ask that the writing be done standing up!
After the writing comes the reading out loud in front of other students.
“There is often a lot of emotion because the written words are often heavily loaded with intimacy,” said Lola Sorrenti, a creative writing teacher who hosts several workshops in partnership with Lire Magazine or Les Mots.
“People are often baffled at their capacity and what they can produce,” she added.
The Connexion readers are more than welcome to take part in such workshops, our sources said, all adding that language-barrier was not a problem – conversely, it would enrich the experience.
“I am not here to scan the grammar and correct mistakes. I am seeking an emotion, a purpose, a sense,” she said.
“There are loads of anglicisms in French writing anyway,” said Mr Pucheu, adding that he too does not care about grammar or vocabulary mistakes.
“We call it a “poetic accident”,” he added.
