Courses, Masterclasses, Workshops & Retreats

I love to teach and there is no greater honour than a writer coming to me and trusting me with their tender, reaching dream to write a novel. For many even admitting to themselves that they are a writer, that they are presumptuous enough to want to at least try, is something hard-won and precious. My job is to help create the space and skill so that the tender reaching becomes an inevitability.

The Writing Room aims to offer writers a place to grow and learn through a variety of courses, masterclasses and retreats. The emphasis is on self-discovery, helping writers each find their own way through their work and develop habits and skills for a sustainable practice over the long term rather than prescribe a ten-point plan to bashing out a formulaic novel.

I have been teaching writing for nearly 10 years and believe very much in teaching skills that I have learned over the years as a writer some of which I have learned from my own mentors and peers but for the most part, strategies I have learned through trial and error. 

As a teacher of writing the basis of my beliefs is twofold. First, I very much believe that much of learning to write is learning to read like a writer and I will always suggest and encourage reading as the first and best teacher.  Second I believe that you can go on endless writing courses but these are all worthless unless you do the work and the work is always to simply sit down and write.

The Writing Rooms offers you small groups to maximise personal attention and personal, detailed support which does not end when a course is over. I believe in sustained practice and that means sustained support. A mentored community of peers is something that has always sustained my own work and I believe it to be an invaluable gift during the long and sometimes lonely path of writing a novel. 

Courses, retreats and writing groups are pitched at all levels from beginner to more advanced, each one created with a particular level in mind.

If you have questions about your writing and want to know of this is the correct place for you, please feel free to email me. Not every teacher nor every course is correct for every writer.  A creative idea is a precious thing and it is important that you feel you can trust your project to the person and environment that suits you. By the same token if I feel I cannot offer you what you need or your work is not best served by my style of mentorship I will always recommend other colleagues who are better placed to help you.

JULY

July 17th

General Q&A - Bring all your writing questions.  (Free Event)

Questions could be about how to get started, tenses, the first sentence, how to develop a more habitual writing practice, advice on getting an agent or how advances work. This is an informal, online session and is free to attend. 

You must please register so that you can receive the zoom link.

SEPTEMBER

Sept 4th, 11th + 1 follow up session (Online) 

Fear and Loathing

Working through blocks, baggage and self sabotage. 

All writers at every stage of their career have moments of doubt and fear.  This is normal. The trick is to not become paralysed by this. This is a two session course but with practical exercises to be completed in class and in the intervening week. These are strategies that you can use through your writing career. They include learning how to ask better and different questions, how to break the spiral of doubt, reframing negative self-talk and  returning to creative exuberance vs a negative spiral. Another follow up session will take place about a month after the taught course to check in with one another. 

OCTOBER

Reading and Writing Florence 

Oct 4, 5th, 6th Florence,  Italy (+ online sessions before and after)

Practical, on-site response to location but covering the basics of fiction such as plot, character, building tension, use of time etc. 

For more information please follow the link through to the Florence Writing Room.

Tutored Retreat, Vicchio, Tuscany

Oct 9th-14th (+ online sessions before and after)

A residential retreat in the heart of the Italian countryside.

For more information please follow the link through to the Vicchio Writing Room.

NOVEMBER

Getting Started: Foundational Elements

15th 16th 22nd, 23rd online ( + 1 follow-up)

This is a practical course for those with a great idea for a novel but no idea what to do next. These are the basics of getting your idea to a workable plan of action. By the end of this course you will know how to get going, strategies for keeping going and a solid scaffolding around which to build your novel. You will leave knowing how to start, what you are doing next and where you are going. 

Please note this is a taught course but also involves exercises and short assignments for you to work on during the course and in the weeks that follow as you begin to piece together how your novel will work, who is in it, and what is going to happen and how.  This is very much a workshop with practical application. 

For more information please contact me here

MONTHLY 

Ongoing writing groups. 

If you would like to join a writing group, a monthly session where writers get support for their creative project, get feedback on pages of they choose or simply need advice on how best to proceed, this may be for you. There is something about the support and accountability go the monthly meeting that keeps writers on track and helps them to remember that they are. In fact, a writer.