Now the 26 Treasures exhibition is over at National Museums of Scotland, we're delighted to hear ways in which the experience of taking part in the project has inspired different writers. Several are adapting facets of the project to tie in with ongoing work...

You never can tell where a writing initiative will lead. In 2011 I worked with a group of new writers in the village of Powfoot, where I live.  Our aim was to create a publication about our experience of life in this small coastal community. We met monthly with lots of e-mail exchange between and the resulting book, illustrated with drawings and photographs, sold its first 100 copies within the first week of publication. It has since been shortlisted for an Epic Award (Visit www.epicawards.co.uk)  one of six community arts projects in Scotland, which will be judged this month. One of the most valuable aspects of this activity has been the interest stirred in these writers in the broader world of writing at a national level. When they saw the 26 Treasures chapbook they were quite captivated by the variety of response and I was subjected to some very close questioning about my own object - the serf's collar. Fortunately I had taken along the background material that the National Museum of Scotland had provided along with my own researches so between us, we could answer all but one question.

How had the collar ended up in the waters of the Forth ? 

So I invited them to speculate and produce their own explanation.

Today I am sitting with some very fine stories, everything from an adventure story with a meticulous political and historical framework to a saucy romance between a grand lady and servant and the subsequent revenge taken by her jealous husband and a piece that uses the geography of the upper reaches of the Forth to great effect in a persuasive story full of foreboding and foul weather.  Reading the pieces, and remembering how all the Powfoot Writers started their writing adventure by stating variations of  'I can't write', I can't help but conclude that it takes very little to tip people into creativity. Most of us can visit a museum from where we live and I wonder if there should be a National Treasures Month in Scotland, especially for schools, when everyone is invited to go and see and respond to an object just as the 26 Treasures writers did.

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