This is very much a weekend for people who are blocked or can't get started or who are stuck or who have pages and pages of ungovernable material!

We begin with some basic structural principles that you can use to test your material and take away. Then we do a series of exercises designed to interrogate and understand our ideas so as to work out where best to focus. From there, we start to look at the relationship between plot and character - how to manage and develop the one without losing the other. Again, the emphasis is on practical, repeatable, useable techniques. Finally, we look at style, voice, point of view and some of the more sophisticated aspects of prose fiction.

In short, this is an enlightening and instructional course with emphasis on the tools of the trade - a weekend from which you will take away refreshed confidence and a new way of approaching your material that will help you take your work to the next level.
The course will take place at the Guardian/Observer offices in London.

Profile of Ed Docx
Ed was born in the north of England. He went to school in Manchester and then read English at Cambridge. His first novel, The Calligrapher, was published in 2003 to widespread acclaim. It was selected by the San Francisco Chronicle as a best book of the year and is now translated into eight languages. In 2007, his second novel, Self Help, was long-listed for the Man Booker and went on to win the Geoffrey Faber prize. His third novel, The Devil's Garden, was published earlier this year. Ed lives in London.