Save 20% when you buy two weekend workshops.
We're celebrating the launch of our new series of comprehensive creative writing workshops with a limited number of discounted tickets that will save you 20% on your purchase of two weekend masterclasses. You'll save 10% on this course - and 10% on 'Create a captivating character in a weekend with Sophie Mackintosh' - when you buy the two together.
Under the guidance of renowned novelist, Shelley Weiner, take a dive into the magic and mechanics of narrative structure to explore the techniques required to create a gripping plot and come away with a newly minted story.
As an aspiring writer, you’ll have encountered stories with a plot that lingers long after you have come to the end. You will also have read others you instantly forget. What distinguishes the first is the powerful sweep of the narrative - the forward momentum of the plot, propelling you onward like the sails of a boat. This can be achieved with technical skills you can master during a single rigorous weekend.
In two intensive days, Shelley Weiner will take you deep into the fundamentals of plot, examining the idea of it, and exploring techniques and concepts that can be applied to your fiction writing projects.
In advance of the class, you will be sent an exercise to consider and work through, so that you can arrive ready to immerse yourself fully into the schedule. There will be a writing exercise between the two days to expand upon and consolidate the course contents.
By the end of the two days, you will have expanded on the ideas you may have brought to the workshop and emerge with a deeper understanding of the mechanics of plot, and how character, setting and perspective are fundamental to moving your story forward.
With its combination of lectures, seminars discussions, breakout sessions and at-home exercises, this hands-on masterclass is essential for anyone with a desire to address the skills required for crafting a compelling plot.
Course content
- What is plot? Understanding universal stories and locating the shape of your own
- Character and motivation - the engine of causality
- Creating compelling scenes
- Sustaining momentum, creating suspense: conflict through obstacles and the pressure of time
- Planning tools demystified
- Who tells your story and how?
This course is for…
- Writers at all experience levels. You will create a new story during the workshop so you do not need to come with an existing project
- Writers who want to look at plot intensively and find a fresh perspective on their storytelling
Dates: Saturday 8 May - Sunday 9 May 2021
Times : 2pm - 5pm (BST) each day
Tutor Profile
Shelley Weiner is the author of five novels, and a renowned creative writing tutor/mentor with a passion for nurturing and guiding writers at all levels. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies in print and online, and have been produced for BBC Radio 4. Shelley has taught and run masterclasses for, among others, the Guardian, Faber Academy, The Literary Consultancy, Gold Dust Mentoring Scheme, The Art of Writing (Florence), and Skyros Writers’ Lab. She has lectured on the Creative Writing MA at Anglia Ruskin University, as well as for Birkbeck College, the Open University, the Taliesin Trust, the British Council in Israel, and Durham University.
Please note, if you purchase a bundle ticket for both writing weekend masterclasses you will also receive a separate Eventbrite ticket for the second event in due course. If you have not received this ticket a week before the course start date, please get in touch.
You will be sent a link to the webinar 2hrs before the start time of 2pm (BST). 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 BST | 3pm CEST | 6am PDT | 9am EDT
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
