Writing for children

You want to write for children but would benefit from professional support and advice. This short intensive course will help you identify and develop successful themes and approaches by combining practical, critical and creative exercises with an appreciation of the history and evolution of children’s literature.

Course Programme

Friday 13 April 2012

Please plan to arrive between 4:30 and 6:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 6:15. Tea and Coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms.

19:15 Dinner
20:30 Welcome, introduction, outline of the course and discussion of students’ principal interests
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Saturday 14 April 2012

08:00 Breakfast
09:00 Plot – what makes a good story
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Character – how to make characters three-dimensional and believable personalities
13:00 Lunch
14:00 Free
16:00 Tea
16:30 Point of view and narrative voice – establishing who knows what
19:15 Dinner
20:30 Dialogue – making it realistic and using it to progress plot and develop character
22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion

Sunday 15 April 2012

08:00 Breakfast
09:00 Creating a world readers can believe in
10:30 Coffee
11:00 Openings and endings – how to arrest the reader on your first page and release them on your last
13:00 Lunch

The course will disperse after lunch