Workshopping your writing with others and even sitting down to write together as a group can make the world of writing feel a little less lonely and provide valuable criticism.

At this event you will be invited to submit 500 words of prose beforehand which will be workshopped during the session. There will also be the opportunity to write during the afternoon so everyone will leave with a new piece of work to develop.

The Secret Garden Writing Club present some different ways of working together, demonstrate best practice, and lead a discussion on how to set up groups, productive ways to give and receive criticism, and pitfalls to avoid.

Lyndsey Garrett took a bit of a wrong turn after school and ended up as an accountant for the next several years. As a current Creative Writing BA student at Birkbeck University she’s now working hard to remedy that! Lyndsey was a Notable Contender in the 2017 Bristol Prize. Lyndsey co-manages the MIROnline blog.

Rebecca Hales studied English Literature at QMUL and Politics at LSE. She makes a living by finding the right words: tasty words for cookery books; legal words for newspapers and magazines; and plain English words to help citizens understand the government.

Melanie Jones is a Creative Writing PhD student at Birkbeck College researching anxiety and truth in life writing. She is the Managing Editor of MIROnline and a member of the MIRLive Team. She is also a teacher and examiner.