We're surrounded by stories from the day we're born - and yet writing our own can seem impossibly hard. Whether you’re looking to grow your ideas, or would like some fresh sources of inspiration, this workshop will help you to start writing in a way that taps into your inner child.

Curated by acclaimed author Laura Dockrill, this fun, engaging and accessible workshop will help you to find your narrative voice, develop your idea into a story, create memorable characters and more.

Joining Laura will be Nathan Byron, award-winning children's author, actor and screenwriter, who will talk about will talk about writing in different mediums and working out what’s best for your story; and Alex T Smith, author and illustrator, who will focus on collecting ideas for stories and how to create work that is inspired by your own unique view of the world.

You needn’t have ever written anything to attend this class, and all questions will be very welcome. Just bring your curiosity and your creativity, and you’ll be well on your way.

Tutor profiles

Laura Dockrill is a writer, illustrator and performance poet. Her work includes the Carnegie Medal nominated young adult novel Lorali and the Darcy Burdock series for younger readers, which was also nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2014. In addition to her work as a writer and creative writing tutor, she’s been a roaming reporter for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and appeared on Blue Peter and CBeebies. She tweets @LauraDockrill.

Nathan Bryon is an award-winning writer and actor who has written for BAFTA award-winning children’s TV shows, such as Swashbuckle and Apple Tree House and critically-acclaimed Rastamouse. His book Look Up! won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize in 2020. A rising star in the world of screenwriting, Nathan co-created Sky TV / Now TV sitcom Bloods which will return for a 10 episode series 2 in March. He tweets @NathanBryon.

Alex T Smith is an award-winning author and illustrator best known for creating the bestselling Claude series of early reader books and the Mr Penguin series about an adventuring, mystery-solving penguin. Alex has also illustrated for a wide variety of authors including Enid Blyton, Dodie Smith, Eva Ibbotson and Juno Dawson. He has been the official World Book Day Illustrator and won the World Illustration Award for his work on The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Since the Claude books became an animated TV series, he now develops children’s TV projects alongside his publishing work. He tweets @Alex_T_Smith.

You will be sent a link to the webinar 2hrs before the start time of 3pm (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.

3pm GMT | 4pm CET | 7am PST | 10am 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

How to write for children: An interactive workshop with acclaimed authors