Tutors’ autobiographical details are on the Tutors and Guest Authors page.
We welcome all levels of writers at our workshops.
January/February 2012
Six Wintry Sunday Mornings – Creative Writing Workshops with Brandon Robshaw. Venue: Orford House Social Club, Walthamstow, E17. The six Sunday morning sessions, 11-1, from 22 January 2012 to 26 February 2012. The cost is £95.
SESSION 1: Stimulating creativity. How to use freewrites, clusters and what-ifs. Drawing on autobiography as a source for both fiction and life writing.
SESSION 2: Representing character. Giving your characters depth: relationships, agenda, inner conflict.
SESSION 3: Life writing 1. Using the techniques of fiction to write biography or autobiography.
SESSION 4: Writing for children. How is writing for children different? Looking at character, genre, writing for boys and girls, grabbing the reader’s attention from the word Go.
SESSION 5: Life Writing 2: Using autobiographical material in poetry. Looking at different verse forms and free verse.
SESSION 6: Course overview. Deciding on the genre that’s right for you. Where to take your writing next. How to go about getting into print.
NB Each session will include some writing exercises. Writing tasks will be given between sessions and part of each session will be workshopping of students’ work.
‘The Train Now Departing…’ at St Pancras International, Saturday, January 21st, 2-5, with Nichola Charalambou, founder of Creative Writes. £25.
St Pancras International is the setting for this Creative Writing workshop with Nichola Charalambou, founder of Creative Writes. With plenty of free-writes, writing prompts and exercises we’ll take inspiration from this grand central station to create new stories, play around with poetry and words, develop new characters and see them off on new journeys.
Poetry with Tamar Yoseloff, Saturday, January 28th, 11-4. Venue: Orford House Social Club, Orford Road, Walthamstow, E17. £45 including lunch.
This poetry workshop will celebrate what is positive about the urban landscape – both in terms of the built environment and brownfield sites. During the workshop we will look at a number of different techniques to describe our environment emotionally and spatially, including the anti-pastoral, collage and prose poetry. Based on exercises during the session participants will produce a draft urban landscape poem to share with the group.
Objects of Desire with Nichola Charlambou, founder of Creative Writes, Monday, February 27th and Monday, March 5th, 7-9. Venue: Orford House Social Club, Orford Road, Walthamstow, E17. The two workshops work as a mini-block but you can book for each separately. £25 per workshop, book the pair, with 10% discount.
Discover the power of the free-write. Experience the myriad of stories and words that objects can inspire. Be prepared to be amazed! Nichola will guide you through a range of free writes and writing exercises introducing you to innovative ideas for writing over these two workshops. Creative Writes workshops teach an approach that is different from many other creative writing workshops. The group is guided through a series of free flow exercises, with the emphasis on building writing practice and breaking down barriers. There is no feedback on the writing.
March 2012
March 11, 2-5, ’3 pubs, 3 pints, 3 pieces of writing’ a creative writing and literary pub crawl around Grays Inn Road with Brandon Robshaw. £12 excluding pints. This event involves visiting three pubs in the historic Grays Inn Road area, and in each case exploring the elements of character, setting and plot through the prism of the three pubs. Guided writing exercises will be set in each of the locations. Walking between pub locations will be an opportunity to explore the idea of psychogeography and the writing experience. Patrick Hamilton’s ’20,000 Streets Under the Sky’ will be a key text although participants will not be required to read this prior to the workshop as extracts will be provided.’
March 24, 11-4, Script Writing with Guy Meredith at Orford House, Walthamstow, E17. £45 with lunch. This workshop is suitable for those with an idea for a script and who would like to learn more about bringing it to life and for those with a script-in-progress. Guy will help participants build their characters and story structure. In this workshop we will give participants the opportunity to discuss their idea with the group with feedback from Guy on how to develop the idea further and for this reason we are limiting numbers to 8 on this workshop.
March – May 2012
Write Around The Monopoly Board site specific workshops inspired by the Monopoly board. If you like London, like writing and want to explore your creative process come and join the game. All workshops cost £25 and run from 2-5. Numbers are limited to 8 participants for each workshop.
Malika Booker: Pink – Saturday, March 31
Malika Booker: Yellow – Sunday, April 1
Brandon Robshaw: Brown – Saturday, April 21
Brandon Robshaw: Dark Blue – Sunday, April 22
Nichola Charalambou: Light Blue – Saturday, April 28
Nichola Charalambou: Chance – Saturday. May 5 (2-4)
Ben Rogers: Orange – Sunday, May 13
Catherine Smith: Dark Orange – Saturday, May 19
Catherine Smith: Green – Sunday, May 20
Cath Drake: Liverpool Street – Saturday, May 26
Cath Drake: Kings Cross – Sunday, May 27
