Add some sparkle to your January with an online weekend workshop.

Find the freedom to write more like yourself, yourselves, and all the other selves you become in your writing.

Quality prose comes in dozens of different flavours, but shares a surprising number of strengths. Whether you prefer baroque, minimalist, playful or transparent prose, explore ways to develop your styles and polish your prose so it sparkles.

Explore the essentials of poetry through the lens of poems as gifts: gifts of insight, gifts of attention, gifts of wishes, and straight-up presents. Seeing poems as gifts helps you strike that subtle balance of creating meaning without hammering it home. It also opens new freedoms in writing, where craft is an act of love, not proving oneself, and playfulness is a freeing generosity.

• 20–21 Jan 2024 10am–12:30pm UK time. (Jump to What time is that for me?)
• Online, open to bookings from anywhere in the world
• £65 total for both mornings (Currency converter)
• Maximum 16 students
• All levels welcome: all my courses and workshops cater for a range of experience, from beginners to published writers
• Live workshop, with discussion, group work, and individual writing

Workshop overview

Part One: Exploring Styles: On the Saturday, we’ll explore what good writing has in common and the different stylistic features of a range of styles. We’ll look at our own personal tastes, what changes our style, and when we might want a different style. We’ll also experiment with writing in different styles. By the end of the first half day, you’ll have a deeper understanding of your own style and styles you admire, and 3 new pieces of writing in different styles.

Part Two: Polishing Your Style: On the Sunday, we’ll explore using original imagery, selecting telling details, improving word choice, spotting clichés, and pruning unnecessary words. By the end of the second half-day, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how to refine and enrich your own style, a bagful of techniques for editing your work, and 4+ short pieces of new writing.

What time does the workshop start for me?

Each half of the workshop is 2.5 hours long, with a break in the middle. Check for your time zone in the table below.