CREATIVE writing and drawing merge in a ground-breaking new course in Hamilton Hill next Saturday.

Local artist Susan Flavell and writing guru Alan Hancock have joined forces to teach people how to develop their visual art and story-writing skills.

Hancock is an experienced scriptwriter, author and university lecturer, whose scripts and short fiction have been produced by the ABC, the BBC and by professional theatre companies in the UK.

Closer to home he taught creative and professional writing at Curtin University for 10 years.

He says his FreeFlow method unshackles people’s mind and stop them from over-thinking every comma and semi-colon.

“It removes the pressure to get it right in a first draft, or to aim at perfection: no art is ever perfect,” Hancock says.

“It also teaches writers how to recognise their inner critic and censor, which can so often inhibit creativity. 

“This inner voice – of judgement – won’t go away, but you can learn to ignore it, and realise that in the early stages of writing it is always a hindrance to the writer.”

Hancock is currently working on a three-book graphic novel series called Heaven, which centres around Daniel, a lost soul in his early 20s who is drawn to another world by a mysterious angel.

Hancock says he was into graphic novels long before they became trendy and started filling the shelves on mainstream bookshops.

“I have been a reader of graphic novels since I lived in France, many years ago, and got into the wonderful French language graphic novel culture. An inspiration, along with the work of Neil Gaiman.”

Flavell, well known to Freo locals, has 30 yeas experience making and teaching art.

Her work tends to focus on animals, the environment, the unconscious, and even the monstrous and mythical.

She has exhibited at numerous galleries including Fremantle Arts Centre and Turner Galleries, and is currently working on pieces called Foaming Star, a sea goddess, and The Vase Maker to the Universe, a thunder and lightning goddess.

 Draw and Write – Together will be held at The Hub in Hamilton Hill and consists of five workshops on October 31 and November 7, 14, 21 and 28. Tix at eventbrite.com.au

By STEPHEN POLLOCK