In this online workshop, whether a seasoned writer or complete beginner, you’ll learn how best to leverage competitions and the writing you produce for them by:

• · Exploring the importance of writing competitions
• · Considering what different competitions are looking for
• · Gaining insight into how other writers plan for and enter competitions
• · Drafting an entry for a competition of your choosing

You’ll write lots on this workshop and read anything aloud that you’d like to (no pressure if you’d rather not). Should you wish, you’ll receive positive, constructive feedback on your work and will leave with a better understanding of the important role competitions can play in your writing. You’ll also develop a framework/strategy to funnel your own competition entries through.

We will explore how to:

• Get going on a new writing project or continue an existing one

• Come up with ideas for what to write

• Build up your writing confidence and portfolio

• Leverage new techniques and specialised skills

• Discover and perfect your writer’s voice

• Know what to look for when editing/redrafting your work.

You’ll write lots on this workshop and read anything aloud that you’d like to (no pressure if you’d rather not). Should you wish, you’ll receive positive, constructive feedback on your writing and will leave with a clearer understanding of the direction your work should take – be that something you’ve already been working on, or something you develop during this workshop.

We will explore how to:

• Know what characters you need in your story

• Create 3D characters

• Draw readers deeper into your protagonist’s psyche

• Make readers relate to and care about your characters

• Strengthen reader interest in your story.

 You’ll write lots on this workshop and read anything aloud that you’d like to (no pressure if you’d rather not). Should you wish, you’ll receive positive, constructive feedback on your writing and will leave with either a number of new characters in development or a clearer understanding of characters you have already been working on.

We will explore how to:

• Using vivid descriptions
• Evoking emotions
• Choosing words that keep your writing fresh
• Developing the details of your setting.

You’ll write lots on this workshop and read anything aloud that you’d like to (no pressure if you’d rather not). Should you wish, you’ll receive positive, constructive feedback on your writing and will leave with a better understanding of how to make your work linger in the mind of readers long after they’ve read it.

In this workshop, whether a seasoned writer or complete beginner, you’ll learn how to write more believable dialogue – dialogue that serves a purpose in your story by exploring:

• • What makes believable dialogue

  • How characters in conflict converse

  • How to inject subtext into your dialogue

  • How dialogue can inform character

  • Revealing story through dialogue

You’ll write lots on this workshop and read anything aloud that you’d like to (no pressure if you’d rather not). Should you wish, you’ll receive positive, constructive feedback on your writing and will leave with a better understanding of how important good dialogue is and how to write it.

We will explore:

• • What plot and structure are

  • Brainstorming of new ideas

  • Shape/structure of a story

  • Storyboarding and storytelling

  • How to plot using story arcs and diagrams.

You’ll write lots on this workshop and read anything aloud that you’d like to (no pressure if you’d rather not). Should you wish, you’ll receive positive, constructive feedback on your writing and will leave with a better understanding of how important it is to plot and structure either a novel, short story or poem so that readers keep reading.