Writer’s art, writer’s world I. Essential skills

Everybody brings a particular talent, attitude and set of experiences to the writing workshop, and we will be using this unique environment to remove some of the unhelpful mystique of creative writing while preserving the magic. Working on the basis that we develop most rapidly as writers when we can share and mutually support new discoveries, students will be encouraged to flex their creative muscles and try new things in order to develop their own distinctive voices.

We will discover that writers’ skills are transferable – novelists can learn from playwrights, poets from life writers and biographers from screenwriters. We can also develop our confidence and technical range by considering what existing writers and their traditions can teach us.

‘Essential Skills’ uses stimulating exercises to engage with a range of challenges writers face, from getting to grips with the blank sheet (or blank screen) in the first place to shaping and refining subsequent drafts. Students will be encouraged to see their work as an evolving process, requiring different approaches at different stages of its creation, moving from subjective to objective, art to craft.