Story is an inherent component of our lives and love of story has always been evident on the holidays on this Greek island holiday provided by Skyros Holidays (www.skyros.com).

Whilst many people might associate a Greek island holiday almost exclusively with sun worship, Skyros is living proof that this is just one part of the picture.

Of course there is the glorious Greek summer weather and the seductive Aegean, but in Atsitsa (one of two holiday centres on the island) there are added pleasures of lounging and chatting under shady pine, dining and 'playing' together as a group, and creating whatever we choose in specially designed spaces within the beautiful landscape.

This heady combination creates a natural habitat for us to sharre stories from our lives and make new stories together. 

Screenwriting workshops at Atsitsa take full advantage of the utopia, and participants - both novice and experienced writers alike - soon understand that:

• their mind is a camera;
• that memories play out like movies and aspects of their experience that have real resonance for them will start to appear in the writing that they craft.

Whether it's during one of the exercises we use for experimentation, or whether it's through the development of a character, a set-up or plotline, participants begin to understand what truly occupies them as a writer, and therefore they begin to discover a new aspect of their self.

In previous workshops I've been privileged to see both discovery and development of the craft. I've witnessed the amazement of participants when they see their inner screenwriter begin to emerge, and I've been humbled to see how moved a participant, and the rest of the group, are when a deeply felt truth is shared in this visual-narrative form. 

Simultaneously we've all rejoiced in exploring and relishing the practice of screenwriting whilst listening to the sea lap at the bay just feet away.