Devotion: Strange World: David Lynch
Thu 6 Mar 2025 6:00 PM - Thu 3 Apr 2025 8:00 PM GMT
Online, Zoom
Description
In a white picket-fenced suburbia of perfectly pruned rose bushes and manicured lawns, the discovery of a decapitated ear interrupts the idyll. So begins David Lynch’s 1986 film Blue Velvet.
Strange World is a brand new writing workshop from Devotion. Across five weekly workshops (and optional Tuesday screenings) we will use David Lynch’s films as a springboard to enhance our writing practice. Like Lynch, we will turn toward the shadows – both our personal shadows, and the shadows of the world at large. We'll work with ideas of dream, imagination, the underworld and shifting and splitting realities. We'll write from prompts based on the films of David Lynch and explore what happens when we look at what we’re afraid to look at. Topics explored will include:
Doubling, mirroring and parallel worlds
Working with dream, vision and nightmare
Extended metaphor and allegory
Subtext and speech
Creating powerful imagery and themes
Working with metafiction
Workshop syllabus:
Join us for weekly screenings on Tuesdays (and avoid the work of searching for each film online!) or watch in your own time:
Week One: The Straight Story (1999)
Week Two: Blue Velvet (1986)
Week Three: Dune (1984)
Week Four: Lost Highway (1997)
Week Five: Mulholland Drive (2001)
Live workshops are recorded and available for attendees – if you're unable to make every workshop you are welcome to watch back in your own time (recordings remain available for six months). The materials discussed in the workshops are collated for easy access on Padlet. There is no preparation required for any Devotion workshop. No homework, no obligation to share written work, and no prior experience necessary.
Workshops will take place on Zoom, Thursdays 6pm to 8pm UK time, on the following dates:
Thursday March 6 2025
Thursday March 13 2025
Thursday March 20 2025
Thursday March 27 2025
Thursday April 3 2025
Devotion workshop testimonials
‘Despite years of formal education, I never had as meaningful an opportunity to develop my craft. Devotion fosters and nurtures a thoughtful, inclusive space for people to grow in their writing and their practice.’
‘I have attended every Devotion workshop so far & every time has been incredible. The mix of poetry, music, film & art as inspiration makes it so stimulating & like a little party for the heart - because that's what Devotion seems to access, subtle connections to feeling.
‘Devotion has become a must in my life now & I would probably cancel most other things to be there because it does something that nothing else has ever done for me in my writing & has changed me in other more spiritual senses too. The space is nurturing & allows for everybody to be who they need to be on any given day.’
About Devotion
Devotion is a practice-based creative writing workshop for everyone. It nurtures writing practices through communal writing sessions that foster accountability, solidarity and collective learning. All experience levels, forms and genres welcome 🌹