Malu’s Story

First Story has supported and inspired me massively. It’s allowed me to discover a new creative outlet and helped with stress management, and really was a highlight of secondary school.

I hadn’t done a lot of creative writing before; I hadn’t been exposed to it, other than very minimal creative writing exercises in school. So, when I first heard about First Story, I was nervous but also really excited – to write on my own terms, in a creative, supportive space. I went to the first session, and I met Pete Hobbs [First Story Writer-in-Residence] and was shocked at how personable and cool he was (don’t tell him I said that!). First Story and Pete’s sessions exposed me to a community that I hadn’t really experienced before, a very creative community, full of people all seeking creative outlets, just like I was.

I’m quite a stressed person. Finding an outlet for my stress, or an escape from that, was really important. I do a lot of dance and sports, but to find different kinds of outlets that aren’t as physically straining felt really special. I was really excited to go to the sessions every week.

I got a lot more out of it than I thought I would. I became a lot more confident, in my writing but also outside of First Story. I was able to be more confident in my creativity; find different creative outlets and embrace those. First Story really helped me to do that. To be able to sit comfortably with my thoughts and write was extremely rewarding.

I didn’t just go for the cookies (like some people), I mean, the cookies were pretty good… but Pete brought so many different writing exercises every week and we’d just sit there and write, and then people would read out some of their work (or not, and that was fine too), and it was really supportive. It felt very homely and close; a community. After the First Story Young Writers Programme, I had GCSEs and Year 11 and I wasn’t really writing much. I got more stressed but then didn’t remember to release that stress through writing or creative outlets. Through the Folio Academy Mentorship, I was able to get back into writing and really embrace and focus on the creativity and creative outlets I lost in Year 11.

Meeting Caroline Bird [Folio Academy Mentor] really renewed my interest in creative writing and gave me the space and support to start writing again. She would give me loads and loads of writing prompts, and just tell me to write a lot of gobbledygook, no matter how bad it was, to just write and keep it going, keep the spark going. 

We found a good rhythm, me and Caroline. We’d meet at 2pm on a Tuesday in the British Library with her coffee and my mocha and just talk about poetry. I’d bring poems to the meetings, and she’d give me loads of prompts and then I’d go home and write as much as I could, or as little, and it didn’t really matter.

Caroline really did help me so much to improve my writing, and edit my work as well, because that was something I wasn’t good at beforehand. We would hone in on every single comma, capital letter… and I really enjoyed doing that. I found a love for editing.

I’ve learned what it is to be a professional writer; Caroline talked a lot about her work and how versatile life as a writer is. She said, ‘If you’re a poet, you’re a poet. And you are a poet – if you write, you’re a poet.’ That was really helpful, to not put as much pressure on the words and the profession and the job. It really inspired me.

I found my own voice in poetry, and that’s what made me want to continue writing. I see myself as a poet, and that’s Caroline’s doing. My work is a lot more experimental and a lot more me.

When I first did First Story, I wouldn’t talk to my friends about it much, but now, with the Folio Academy Mentorship scheme, I’ve been more confident in what I’m doing and able to be like, Yeah, I’m doing this thing, and it’s really cool.

Before, I was a lot more focused on dance. Now, poetry and dance have evened out. I think they blur as creative outlets; in dance, choreography is a very similar form of expression to writing poetry, a way to make sense of emotions and the world around me, and I love thinking about how they can go side by side. So, if I choreograph something for dance, maybe I’ll write a poem about that same thing and then see how they interlink. It would be interesting to choreograph something to spoken word – my own words or poems – I think I could, and it’d be really interesting and fun to do.

First Story has made me have a bigger love for English, and for the way writing works. By writing myself, I’ve been able to analyse other people’s writing better and appreciate other people’s work, understanding it in more depth. I’m applying to uni and I want to do an English course (either on its own or combined with theatre studies or philosophy), and I’ve also been looking at courses that have creative writing modules. The idea of creativity that First Story has implanted in me has really helped with that decision.

I think that I will always write, and I’ll always love it, and, no matter what I do in the future, I’m a poet to me, and that’s fine