VENUE TBC (MANCHESTER)

ALL SQUADS

Are you interested in writing a novel, but don’t know where to start? Have you started a novel or two but fizzled out? Are you intimidated by the idea of committing to such a substantial task? Does the thought of completing c.80,000 words seem unachievable? Do you have a lot of ideas but not know which ones might be the makings of a novel?

This workshop is designed to make the process of writing your first novel a lot less scary. We’ll talk about ways to make the whole process both manageable and exciting.

Some of the questions we’ll discuss are:

How do you choose your idea? How do you know if it’s big enough (or good enough) to sustain a whole novel?
How do you choose the narrative voice(s) for your novel?
How do you handle the structure of such a long project? What are some different approaches to planning a novel?
How do you handle characters in a novel, and how do you ensure that they have interesting character arcs?
How do you edit such a long document?
How do you maintain your interest in such a substantial project, and how do you keep up your momentum and motivation over months (or even years)?

We’ll share lots of practical tips to help you get over the fear of getting started, and to help you to keep going.

Open to anyone who would like some help to get off the ground with their first novel, whether you’ve previously been working in prose, poetry or scripts.

Note: This workshop is only open to members of The Writing Squad. It is not open to the general public.

Novel Writing for First Timers