In this masterclass Damian explores tips, tricks and secrets for kickstarting your writing, working up a head of steam, and keeping going through the various stages of primary creation, redrafting and cutting material. This is the rhythmic working life of a writer and we all have to make friends with it, but sometimes it’s not easy, whatever stage of our writing life we are in. We’ll look at taking the fear out of a blank page and seeing in it a magical summons to create. In contrast to ideas of writer’s block, we’ll explore how writing can be a loyal friend that helps the writer to navigate challenging life circumstances. A key matter discussed in this class will be keeping an eye on the pieces of writing that truly inspire you and knowing which prompts will spark you into action. Writing is all about finding a path that works for you and by the end of this session we hope you will feel more empowered to keep constructing your path and keep it feeling enchanted.

It’s said that everyone has a novel in them… What’s yours?

This six-month course has been designed to increase your writing confidence, help you find your voice, and start writing your novel. You’ll find the beating heart of your story and begin working on your first draft. Through close reading analysis and writing exercises, you’ll learn all about plot, structure, setting, character and voice. There will be opportunities to share your work in progress four times over the course and receive constructive feedback in a supportive and creative space. I limit the class size to eight people so that everyone gets a good amount of attention. You’ll receive a course outline and reading list when you sign up.

Memoir is no longer the preserve of the rich and famous. We can all write about our lives.

Have you been thinking about writing your memoir for some time? Have you made a start but are now struggling to make progress? Would you like to receive warm support, guidance and inspiration so that you can make headway with your memoir?

Join me on this six-month course where you’ll learn all the key components of memoir writing. Through the study of published memoirs and writing exercises, you’ll learn how to develop your ideas and improve and experiment with your writing style. You’ll find the right structure for your memoir and there will be no holding you back!

*If you’d prefer to make payment for this course in three instalments of £300, please email me: carla@rawwriting.co.uk or use the ‘Enquire’ button.

It’s said that everyone has a novel in them… What’s yours?

This six-month course has been designed to increase your writing confidence, help you find your voice, and start writing your novel. You’ll find the beating heart of your story and begin working on your first draft. Through close reading analysis and writing exercises, you’ll learn all about plot, structure, setting, character and voice. There will be opportunities to share your work in progress four times over the course and receive constructive feedback in a supportive and creative space. I limit the class size to eight people so that everyone gets a good amount of attention. You’ll receive a course outline and reading list when you sign up.

It’s said that everyone has a novel in them… What’s yours?

This six-month course has been designed to increase your writing confidence, help you find your voice, and start writing your novel. You’ll find the beating heart of your story and begin working on your first draft. Through close reading analysis and writing exercises, you’ll learn all about plot, structure, setting, character and voice. There will be opportunities to share your work in progress four times over the course and receive constructive feedback in a supportive and creative space. I limit the class size to eight people so that everyone gets a good amount of attention. You’ll receive a course outline and reading list when you sign up.

Memoir is no longer the preserve of the rich and famous. We can all write about our lives.

Have you been thinking about writing your memoir for some time? Have you made a start but are now struggling to make progress? Would you like to receive warm support, guidance and inspiration so that you can make headway with your memoir?

Join me on this six-month course where you’ll learn all the key components of memoir writing. Through the study of published memoirs and writing exercises, you’ll learn how to develop your ideas and improve and experiment with your writing style. You’ll find the right structure for your memoir and there will be no holding you back!

*If you’d prefer to make payment for this course in three instalments of £300, please email me: carla@rawwriting.co.uk or use the ‘Enquire’ button.

It’s said that everyone has a novel in them… What’s yours?

This six-month course has been designed to increase your writing confidence, help you find your voice, and start writing your novel. You’ll find the beating heart of your story and begin working on your first draft. Through close reading analysis and writing exercises, you’ll learn all about plot, structure, setting, character and voice. There will be opportunities to share your work in progress four times over the course and receive constructive feedback in a supportive and creative space. I limit the class size to eight people so that everyone gets a good amount of attention. You’ll receive a course outline and reading list when you sign up.

*If you’d prefer to make payment for this course in three instalments of £300, please email me: carla@rawwriting.co.uk or use the ‘Enquire’ button.

Come and join Alex Robins for a two-hour workshop where you’ll learn the fundamentals of writing a play. This workshop has been designed for absolute beginners and no experience is necessary – you just need an enthusiasm for trying something new and an interest in being in a creative space with like-minded individuals.

This four-week course addresses and helps you to overcome imposter syndrome and that critical inner voice. It will stop you from comparing yourself with other writers. I’m going to get you to a place where all your brain space and energy goes into your writing, not having to manage the obstacles and barriers that eat into your writing time. I’ve worked a lot on overcoming these challenges, and want to share with you how I did it. If I hadn’t, I doubt I’d have got a two-book deal with Hachette, and become a published author!

This four-week course addresses and helps you to overcome imposter syndrome and that critical inner voice. It will stop you from comparing yourself with other writers. I’m going to get you to a place where all your brain space and energy goes into your writing, not having to manage the obstacles and barriers that eat into your writing time. I’ve worked a lot on overcoming these challenges, and want to share with you how I did it. If I hadn’t, I doubt I’d have got a two-book deal with Hachette, and become a published author!

In this two hour workshop, you’ll learn how to make your own short video game. We’ll be using the program ‘Twine’ to create branching narratives; you’ll learn the basics of coding and writing stories within the software. If you don’t consider yourself technically-minded, don’t worry! Everything we’ll use is accessible via your web browser, no downloads required. The focus will always be on the exciting possibilities that open up when we can interact with our fiction.

Experiment with different forms including the short story, mindful writing and memoir. This four-week course has been designed so you can try out a variety of types of writing and have a great time while doing so!

Experiment with different forms including the short story, mindful writing and memoir. This four-week course has been designed so you can try out a variety of types of writing and have a great time while doing so!

Memoir is no longer the preserve of the rich and famous. We can all write about our life. If you’re keen to write your memoir, join me on this five-day course and learn all you need to get started. I’ll cover memory and truth, how to write about other people, setting, structure and more.

Each day will begin with a two-hour masterclass in an aspect of memoir writing. After lunch, you’ll have time to write with tasks and prompts inspired by the masterclass. There will then be the opportunity to share what you’ve written or how you found the process.

You’ll also be given two one-to-one sessions over the course of the week to discuss your work in progress and receive bespoke feedback on areas that are specific to your memoir.

The group will be limited to eight people to ensure all have a decent amount of time and attention.

Full course outline and recommended reading list will be sent to you once you’ve signed up. If you’d like to have a chat before signing up, please get in touch. I’d love to hear from you.

Carla Jenkins, whose debut novel Fifty Minutes was published on 16th May, will share with you how she got a two-book deal with Hachette, and her ten tips that could help you to get published. She’ll be covering the psychology of writing, imposter syndrome, work ethic, resilience and the craft of writing itself in this informative and fascinating talk that’s suitable for anyone who writes.

Talk is tricky. Stephen King says dialogue is the one thing a writer is either good at naturally or they aren’t. Author and editor Trevor Byrne agrees – but really that’s just the starting point, and every writer can improve their dialogue.
In this masterclass, we’ll look at examples of excellent dialogue from film, TV, stories, and novels, with a view to understanding why some talk just seems to work; why it sounds right. We’ll also look at bad talk in good books – partly to make ourselves feel better, but mostly so we can avoid the mistakes even acclaimed writers sometimes make.

We’ll explore the function of dialogue in fiction, and how we can make sure we’re using it to best effect. Dialogue develops plot by releasing new information, and helps build the storyworld. Dialogue is characterisation; dialogue reveals the speaker even if they don’t mean it to. Dialogue makes the reader laugh or gasp or cringe. Yet dialogue, crucially, is also action – talk, in fiction, is tension. Talk is conflict.

No matter the function, the clever work that your dialogue does shouldn’t draw attention to itself. Everything a character says should ‘sound’ like real talk, for its time and place: we’ll look at accent and idiom (should you use it?), at the rhythms and cadences of real talk.

Sometimes great dialogue in fiction is the sly, loaded,  impossibly tense verbal sparring between Cromwell and More in Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light, and sometimes it’s Vincent and Jules in Pulp Fiction chatting with delighted, faintly disdainful disbelief about what Parisians call various McDonald’s menu items.

By the end of this workshop, you’ll have the tools and tricks you need to create vibrant, authentic, muscular, effective dialogue.

Tasha Coryell lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. She holds an MFA in creative writing and a PhD in composition and rhetoric from the University of Alabama. Her first novel, Love Letters to a Serial Killer, was published by Orion in 2024. 

In this Masterclass, Tasha will be focusing on inciting incidents: i.e. the event that puts the rest of the novel into motion. How can we come up with inventive ways to launch our characters into action that excites both readers and publishers?

How to write compelling short fiction, including flash and ‘sudden’ fiction for submission, publication & competition entry to prizes such as the BBC short story prize, the Bridport, The Manchester, The Sunday Times, Myslexia, Bath & many more.

 Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th January 14.00-18.00

You will be asked to submit between 1000-1500 words of your short story at least fourteen days before the start of the course which will be read by M J Hyland and your fellow course attendees. M J Hyland will give feedback on these stories over the course.

After the weekend intensive, you have the option to redraft your story and resend it to M J Hyland (within two weeks).

You will then receive comprehensive written feedback on the second draft.

This course is limited to eight people.