I've just completed a month of lyric-writing workshops at the YMCA. It was a satisfying set of sessions; in my experience it's generally true that the more streetwise people are, the more they know what they think and what they don't like, which helps the energy of the sessions because you can make more definite decisions with them about what to write rather than essentially putting your words in their mouth.

With lyric workshops I always hope they offer anyone a window into their imagination that they can access at any point they like afterwards; with the people at the YMCA this was really visible - everyone who did it became really focused on what they were doing once they were given the help on what to write about. The techniques to choose topics to write about are really simple but seem to be helpful to bridge that gap of being sat down with a pen not knowing how to start to being able to flow with your own thoughts and get carried away. It shows anyone has the capacity to write. It was a good experience and it's always interesting adapting to different mindsets.