If a fictional character is a boat, the setting is the ocean. Within that ocean is everything that will add flavour to your story - from a blustery house on a hill to a flickering light in a hospital corridor. To put paid to this overused cliché, atmosphere is an essential ingredient for any story that has an impact, and it goes without saying that your choice of time and place will not only enrich character development and plot, but will give your work the unique identity it needs to resonate with a reader.
In this virtual creative writing masterclass with Natasha Pulley, the award-winning author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, you will learn about the importance of setting for crystallising your story and activating your plot. From conveying the mood of a historical moment to raising the stakes in a relationship, Natasha will take you through how to capture an effective sense of time and place, and how research can be used to lend authenticity and weight to your setting.
She will also demonstrate how to build out individual scenes in a way that feels cohesive, complete and specific - and which supports your narrative framework - and how to draw on real-life observations to flesh out a fictional world.
This is an essential workshop for anyone with a desire to learn more about the essential craft of capturing a sense of time and place to invigorate their writing.
Course content
- The importance of setting
- Building out individual scenes
- Practical techniques for introducing atmosphere
Tutor profile
Natasha Pulley was born in Cambridge. She read English Literature at Oxford before doing an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. In 2013 she went to Japan on a scholarship from the Daiwa Anglo Japanese Foundation. She lived in Tokyo for a year and a half, learning Japanese and researching her first book, The Watchmaker of Filigree Street. More recently she has spent time on sailing ships researching her upcoming novel The Kingdoms, courtesy of the Arts Council and Darwin 200.
You will be sent a link to the webinar 2hrs before the start time of 2pm (GMT). Please email masterclasses@theguardian.com if you have not received the access link within one hour of the scheduled start time.
This masterclass is available globally. If you are joining us from outside the United Kingdom, please use this time zone converter to check your local live streaming time.
2pm GMT | 3pm CET | 6am PST | 9am EST
All Guardian Masterclasses are fully accessible but please contact us at masterclasses@theguardian.com if you have any queries or concerns.
Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website
