Tag Archives: Masterclasses

Autumn 2024 Updates

by Andrew | Leave a comment

A few updates.

1. I’m preparing masterclasses for the autumn, which include:

Perspective & Style, 16 September

Showing & Telling, 14 October

Genres & Readers, 11 November

Endings, 9 December 2024

You can find more information via the links above or at Masterclasses. Classes earlier this year paid attention to the narrative content that makes up our stories: character, setting, plot. In these autumn classes we’ll think about ways to enhance how we tell those stories and bring them to rewarding conclusions. We’ll also talk about practical matters and real-world contexts: readers, feedback, revision, knowing when to be done. All classes are stand-alone and run live on Zoom from 6-7.30 pm London time.

2. As a taster for Perspective & Style later this month, I made a post on Substack about literary style: A Case of Style. I used Kent Haruf’s Our Souls At Night as a case study, and also talked about classic prose style, minimalism, maximalism, and what I call blockbuster style. (Ah! How I miss blockbuster style.)

3. Over the summer I also posted a few of my older stories and essays on Substack: Fiction & Essays. I’m not sure I got many new followers – I’m not sure I’m very good at that part of social media, and you do wonder if you’re just adding to the noise. (I never want to hear the word coach outside of the context of public transport again – and it’s part of my job!) But sharing my stories was more satisfying than I expected – it was good to connect my writing with various friends, colleagues and other people who, e.g., don’t have access to literary journals gathering dust on bookshelves in libraries in Colorado.

4. I’m no longer using Twitter. You can find me on Instagram for work and play (which currently is mostly gardening, even if that too feels a bit too much like work at the mo). And Substack too, of course. I guess Substack might replace some of what I’ve done here on my blog, but for now I’m keeping this going with occasional updates, and there’s an extensive archive of resources here too.

5. A quiet summer. I visited Kew Gardens frequently. Enjoy a couple of pics below of the Palm House and inside the Water Lily House. Also enjoy this lovely profile of Kew botanist and water lily specialist Carlos Magdalena from the New York Times: Risking His Own Extinction To Rescue The Rarest Of Flowers.

Have a good start to September, wherever you are!

Palm House at Kew Gardens
Water Lily House at Kew Gardens

Masterclasses for Autumn 2024

by Andrew | 1 Comment

I’ve now posted details for my writing masterclasses for Autumn 2024 – see links below:

16 September, 6pm-7.30pm London, Zoom
Perspective & Style
Techniques to power your storytelling
Elevate your writing with this masterclass investigating the craft of perspective. We’ll discover how persona, point of view, tense and narrative distance can make your storytelling brighter and bolder, and sample a range of literary styles to help you develop a distinctive voice.

14 October, 6pm-7.30pm London, Zoom
Showing & Telling
Weaving scene and narration into stories
Find the balance of dramatic scene and narrative summary that’s required for any story. We’ll grasp the fundamentals of creating memorable scenes through action, dialogue, description and subtext, and understand the pitfalls that are best avoided. Using examples, we’ll also analyse ways to forge a strong voice for narrating your stories and captivating your readers from start to finish.

11 November, 6pm-7.30pm London, Zoom
Genres & Readers
What’s your genre and who are your readers?
Explore the conventions of writing genres for the ways they help in shaping and pitching our stories.  We’ll probe the intersection of taste and technique in various categories of writing, from page-turning commercial genres and upmarket fiction to literary works and experimental prose. We’ll also navigate feedback, survey the querying process with agents and editors, and discuss writers’ relationships with publishers and the book trade.

9 December 2024, 6pm-7.30pm London, Zoom
Endings
Resolutions, revising, and knowing when to stop
Identify ways to give a story a memorable conclusion. We’ll review the strengths of open, closed and ambiguous endings, and inspect plot twists, grand finales and other means of creating emotional impact for the resolutions of our stories. We’ll also survey some practical strategies in revising and drafting, and discuss how to know when your story is truly done.

The masterclasses carry on from those held earlier this year – Beginnings, Voice, Character, Setting & Situation, Story & Plot, and Form & Structure – but they are designed to be stand-alone, so that writers can drop in for a refresher on specific topics. You’ll also be sent reading suggestions and writing exercises to try in advance, and after the class you’ll receive a workbook packed with craft notes, recommended resources, and writing experiments to try at your own pace. You can click the links above to book your space.

I’m planning to repeat these classes next year, along with new offerings. There are a number of regulars from all over the world, both experienced and beginning writers, and the spirit of the classes is convivial, good-humoured and energetic.

I’m no longer blogging so actively here, but you can find me on Instagram and I am starting to use Substack – among other things, I’m going to start sharing some of my short stories there, and in due course I’ll post about the craft of writing and publishing too. You can also sign up for my mailing list here.

Have a good summer! (Or winter if you’re dialling in from the southern hemisphere.) After a wet spring the garden is finally blooming and livening up.