Joined Up Writing poetry challenge

A north-east man has created a Facebook poetry challenge called Joined Up Writing during lockdown.

Fin Hall, from Aberdeenshire, first posted about the challenge on his Facebook account at the beginning of May and created it as a way to keep everyone in contact. It has had over 40 contributions from all over the world, from New Pitsligo to New York, with one of the latest contributions coming from a radio presenter and comedian in California.

The local poet who hosts and produces the Everyone Has a Story events in Aberdeen and Strichen started the challenge by writing the first verse, the next person would follow on by writing a verse, and so on. There are no rules or themes to follow, except that the person writing the following verse should include one word from the last line in their first line. Fin explained, "They could write in any style, any length and didn’t have to follow the theme of the previous one. As it is everybody, maybe naturally, all have used the times we live in as the thread. One or two have drifted from the ‘one word’ idea. But it hasn’t distracted from the poem."

When asked what inspired him to create the challenge Fin explained, "During April a young man I know invited me to take part in a challenge called EscApril. Which involved writing a poem per day using pre-assigned prompt words. Staring with ‘Dawn’ and ending with ‘Dusk’ it was certainly a challenge to all of us involved."

The number of contributions was a pleasant surprise for Fin and he said, "People of all ages have contributed, several who have never written before. As well as poets, there have been contributions from authors, musicians, artists. And from everywhere from New Pitsligo to New York. Actually one of the latest ones is a comedian/radio presenter in California. I don’t know her."

Anyone is welcome to take part in Joined Up Writing and Fin is aiming to get 50 contributions.

He plans on debuting some of the work at the virtual Speakin' Weird, which will be held on Wednesday 27th May at 8 pm.