A story is just the stuff that happened; plot is the intrigue of how and why. Yet in writing courses, guides and workbooks, plot is often the poor relation of those apparently superior skills of characterisation, dialogue and style. This course aims to challenge the view of plot as inferior and demonstrate how it is exactly what draws many readers to a novel in the first place.

Through a series of practical exercises, workshops and discussions, Kate Mosse will explore the importance of plot and how, without it, no amount of sizzling dialogue or exquisite description or beautiful language is enough.

Paying special attention to how plot keeps a reader in a novel and holds them there, Kate will reveal how a sensitive writer shows the plot, while allowing the reader’s imagination to paint in the background, to hear the hesitation in the character’s speech without being told what to make of it; how the reader begins to own the story and, when finished, hold up the book and tell their friends: ‘You should buy this!’

Kate’s course is suitable for both novelists and playwrights.

Profile of Kate Mosse

Kate Mosse is the author of two non-fiction books, one play and four previous novels, including the multi-million selling international No 1 bestseller, Labyrinth. Translated into 37 languages and published in 40 countries, it won 'Richard & Judy's Best Read' at the 2006 British Book Awards and chosen as one of Waterstone's Top 100 novels of the past twenty five years. Her novella for Quick Reads aimed at adults with literacy issues, The Cave, was published in 2008 and her short stories have appeared in a range of collections including Midsummer Nights (Quercus) and The Book Lovers' Appreciation Society (Orion). A guest presenter for A Good Read for BBC Radio 4, Kate is also is a book reviewer for BBC Breakfast News, for Simon Mayo and for Late Review. The Co-Founder & Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction, she is a Trustee of the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum in West Sussex. In 2006 she was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Chichester. She is also Co-Director of the Chichester Writing Festival with her husband, author and translator, Greg Mosse.