Come and explore approaches to dialogue writing in a supportive, informative, encouraging environment. This 2-hour workshop that will allow you to gain practical skills, ideas, and techniques you can use to strengthen your writing and improve your dialogue writing. Whether you end up adding a new tool to your toolbox, or whether you end up honing or sharpening existing skills, you’ll find something to boost your techniques.
We’ll be exploring three approaches to dialogue – the spoken words themselves and what they can reveal about characters; ways of dealing with dialogue tags; and some hidden magic to improve dialogue writing – after all, there has to be something to pique your interest on the day!

The session will be a mix of formal skill-based taught techniques and group-led voluntary/optional peer sharing and feedback.

The workshop is a great low-cost opportunity to test out how well the approach fits what you’re looking for as a writer in terms of writing support.

OUTLINE:

1. Introduction and ground rules (c. 15 mins)
2. Practical session: Spoken words and characterisation (c. 30–35 mins)
3. Practical session: Dialogue tags (c. 30–35 mins)
4. Practical session: ‘Hidden magic’ to bring spoken words to life in print (c. 30–35 mins)
5. Voluntary sharing, option for feedback, and group discussion (c. 50 mins)
Bring your thoughts on dialogue to share.

Live sessions take place in South West London, near Wimbledon Park
Wheelchair-accessible venue (please contact for details)
Underground: District Line (Wimbledon Branch)
Overground: Wimbledon, then Tube, Bus, or Taxi to venue
Bus: 156
Details of venue shared on booking

2-hour Writing Workshop

Our characters’ life experiences are inevitably interlinked with the rising and falling tides of emotions. How can we best paint the emotional landscape of their stories with our words? How can we best ‘show not tell’? And what lies beyond ‘show don’t tell’?

This 3-hour creative practical workshop is an opportunity to explore an intuitive approach to writing with emotion than you might normally find, informed by oral storytelling traditions and the art of rhetoric. It’s instinctive and body-based on the one hand; intelligent and practical on the other. We’ll be focusing on writing exercises which combine theory and practice: analysing techniques and relating them to the effects we are aiming to have on our readers.

OUTLINE:

1. Introduction and ground rules (c. 15 mins)
2. Sample readings – your work or work of a writer whose work you admire (c. 40–45 mins)
  a. What emotion did you want the reader or listener to feel?
  b. What did most readers or listeners get?
  c. Valuable chance to get feedback, confirmation, new information, identify any gaps and explore ways to minimise these.
3. Practical theory: An easy way to understand emotion (c. 40–45 mins)
  a. Writing exercise
  b. Sharing
4. Practical theory: beyond ‘show don’t tell’ (c. 40–45 mins)
  a. Writing exercise
  b. Sharing
5. Voluntary sharing, option for feedback, and group discussion (c. 20 mins)

Bring your thoughts on emotion to share.

Live sessions take place in South West London, near Wimbledon Park
Wheelchair-accessible venue (please contact for details)
Underground: District Line (Wimbledon Branch)
Overground: Wimbledon, then Tube, Bus, or Taxi to venue
Bus: 156
Details of venue shared on booking

3-hourwriting workshop

In this workshop, we will explore three key centres of the writing life in a supportive, informative, encouraging environment.

The head can be viewed as the seat of ideas and inspiration. In focusing on this centre, we’ll explore exercises to develop imagination, to spark ideas, to develop imagination, and to release creativity.

The hand can be viewed as the seat of the craft of writing. In focusing on this centre, we’ll explore exercises from twelve elements of the writer’s craft to develop a deeper understanding, appreciation, and sense of awe and wonder at the mystery of language.

The heart can be viewed as the seat of the art of writing. In focusing on this centre, we’ll explore the reader’s journey and the different techniques we can use to bring about a range of effects and reactions in our readers or listeners through our use of words, sounds, rhythms, and other techniques, drawing inspiration from oral storytelling traditions and the art of rhetoric.

Another way of thinking of this threefold approach is to see it in the light of the ‘three cauldrons’ of the Irish Bardic tradition. The lower cauldron being the seat of instinct; the middle cauldron being the seat of emotion; the upper cauldron being the seat of inspired skill.

OUTLINE:

1. Introduction and ground rules (c. 15 mins)
2. The head: Exercises to free up creativity and inspire imagination (c. 40–45 mins)
3. The hand: Exercises to develop technique and hone craft (c. 40–45 mins)
4. The heart: Exercises to shape the reader’s journey (c. 40–45 mins)
5. Voluntary sharing, option for feedback, and group discussion (c. 20 mins)

Bring your thoughts on centres you write from to share.

Live sessions take place in South West London, near Wimbledon Park
Wheelchair-accessible venue (please contact for details)
Underground: District Line (Wimbledon Branch)
Overground: Wimbledon, then Tube, Bus, or Taxi to venue
Bus: 156
Details of venue shared on booking

Release the writing magic that brings your characters to life.
In this workshop, we'll be looking at key technical ways of exploring character.
We'll look at what effect each has on the reader.
You'll learn new ways of interacting with your characters imaginatively, new ways of describing them in words, and new ways of looking at what they're doing between sentences so they continue to live in your readers' imaginations - even when you aren't writing about them directly.
The aim is to learn to describe characters which live on in your readers' minds, hearts, and souls way after they've put your book down.

OUTLINE:

1.  Introduction and ground rules (c. 15 mins)
2.  Practical session: Imagining characters (c. 30–35 mins)
3.  Practical session: Describing characters  (c. 30–35 mins)
4.  Practical session: Animating characters in your readers' imaginations (c. 30–35 mins)
5.  Voluntary sharing, option for feedback, and group discussion (c. 50 mins)

It’s not a critique session, and any comments should follow clear ground rules.

Duration: 3-hour workshop

Price: £60 per person

Concessions: £40 (on request – on an honesty basis)

Skill level: open to all – everyone is considered a writer – whatever your level, whatever your experience, come to share; come to learn

Ground rules: here

Number of participants: 6–8 people

In-person sessions only.

3-hour in-person writing workshop

What makes story 'story'?
What's the hidden code that makes stories work?

This course provides a clear answer to these questions.

Based on the methodology outlined in my multi-award-winning book, Story and Structure: A complete guide, it covers six key story structures in detail and gives an overview of a further fourteen structures identified to date.

Writers, storytellers, narratologists, literary theorists, systems theorists, political analysts, historians, narrative therapists, and story lovers generally ... this course is for you.

Taught online in a live group format mainly via Zoom and Nearpod, supported by detailed course handouts and exercises.

Course details will be shared on booking.

Entry is selective, based on pre-screening and interview. Start the process here.

12-week intensive course on story structure

Selective. By application only.
We meet fortnightly to share and critique each others’ work, support each other through all aspects of the writing process – from editing and revision to publication, publicity, and marketing.
For committed, advanced writers interested in stretching their boundaries, honing their craft as writers.
A safe, supportive space with interaction based on clear ground rules.
Sessions last 2–3 hours, allowing ample time for critiquing and discussing approaches to writing.
Entry is selective, based on pre-screening and interview. Start the process here.