Creative Writing Calendar 2025–26: See all the upcoming dates

Characters Unlike You: 2-morning workshop

Warm up your winter with a live online weekend workshop. | Join from anywhere in the world. | Saturday & Sunday 13–14 December 2025.

Live online workshop across two half-days to explore everything from creating distincive lively dialogue to layout and seamless attribution.

Dialogue plays a central role in making a story come alive: it creates immediacy and intimacy, roots the story in real time, and builds strong characterisation, as well as carrying the story forward.

This workshop covers multiple aspects of writing dialogue: striking the balance between actual versus "natural" speech; developing characters' voices; balancing both of those with writing snappy or powerful lines; its purpose in the story; common errors to avoid; ways of attributing speech; and the descriptions and actions that go around it. It also covers practical approaches for how to go about the actual writing, and the nuts and bolts of layout and punctuation.

You'll leave with several pieces of writing exploring characters' voices (using new characters or ones from your work in progress), new dialogue, useful strategies for the writing process, and a clear grasp of the practicalities.

When, where, and what

  • Live workshop, with discussion, group work, and individual writing
  • 13–14 Dec 2025 10am–12:30pm UK time. (Jump to What time is that for me?)
  • Online, open to bookings from anywhere in the world
  • £100 £80 early-bird price total for both mornings (Currency converter). Book by 16 November 2025 for the early-bird price.
  • Maximum 16 students
  • All levels welcome: all my courses and workshops cater for a range of experience, from beginners to published writers
  • Booking deadline: Thursday 11 December 2025.
Truly inspirational. Megan curates unique courses that never feel dull, or like hard work, but still push and challenge. – Rosie S
Megan is a great tutor. The courses are informative, thorough and creative, and – above all – enjoyable. – Betty C
Practical, inspiring and a phenomenal amount of fun, no matter your level of experience or expertise. – Sam S, author and publisher
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Practical questions

What's an online workshop like? Very lively! It's held on Zoom, and packed with activities, games, discussion, and snippets of writing. For games and discussions, you're in small groups of 2–4. In the breaks and between the two days, I switch the groups around so you get a chance to work with and meet everyone.

Do I need to have a work in progress or existing characters? No, but if you do have existing characters, you can develop their dialogue. You'll also learn techniques and strategies to apply to any existing characters you have.

Do I have to share my writing? Absolutely not. In the round-off discussions, you have the chance to say how you found a particular exercise or to share what you wrote, and you can choose whichever option you're comfortable with.

Will there be a replay? No: this is a live workshop only.

Will we get notes? Yes: you'll get a booklet in the post, with everything we've covered in the workshop, and you'll also get a PDF copy of that by email immediately after the workshop.

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, for the start time.

Time zone / Country Workshop starts at...
United Kingdom 10am
EDT (New York, USA) 5am
CET (eg France, Spain, Germany) 11am
SAST (South Africa) 12pm
TRT (Turkey) 1pm
IST (India) 3:30pm
SST (Singapore) 6pm
AWST (Perth, Australia) 6pm
AEST (Brisbane, Australia) 8pm
AEDT (Melbourne & Sydney, Australia) 9pm

 

Book Now

or email me at megan@thewritersgreenhouse.co.uk with any questions.

 

Book your place now

Book by filling in the form below OR email me at megan@thewritersgreenhouse.co.uk. You'll get an automated email with details of how to pay.

 

Back to Top | Next Live: Winter Online Workshop: Writing Dialogue New Resource: Guided Story Creation: The Spices

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