A 12-lesson self-paced course to explore aspects of all 12 story elements through creating your own original story.

Text | Self-paced | 15 weeks access | Summary PDF to keep | £35

• Learn more about creating stories through doing it, not just theory.
• Perfect if you’re just starting out, if you want a gentle “practice” story to get back into writing / learn more, or if you’re looking for a new story idea.
• Expand your repertoire of story elements and practical creative techniques for future stories.

Through twelve text-based 20-minute lessons, each drawing on an aspect of a different story element, you’ll create and develop your own original story. Alongside, you’ll try out practical creative techniques that make the creation process easier and more fun.

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How Guided Story Creation: The Spices works

• The first lesson will help you create your story idea and each subsequent lesson will develop it, through a different story element.
• Each lesson takes 20 minutes and you can extend it with your “Taking it Further” module.
• Each lesson finishes with a summary of the skills you’re developing, to help you consolidate what you’ve explored. Every four lessons, you can take the opportunity to reflect on your process and share that reflection with me.
• Decide what pace to set yourself: a 12-day process; across six weeks using two lessons per week; once a week for 12 weeks; etc. You have 15 weeks (to allow for holiday / illness) so pick what suits you. Whatever you choose, I suggest you make it a set routine, so you’re also building a sustainable habit of writing time.
• At the end, you’ll get a PDF to keep, summarising all the skills you’ve developed, which you can refer back to.

The course is hosted on an online portal, so you can sign in to access your materials at any time. (It's the same portal as the Writers' Greenhouse Community, the replays for the Let's Do It workshops, and the individual materials for the Time To Write course.)

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I have questions about my story

Will it be my story if I’m using your prompts?

Absolutely. Each lesson gives you specific practical tasks to help you develop your own ideas, not replicate mine. I’ve previously read students’ writing from Guided Story Creation courses and even I couldn’t tell that’s where they came from. This isn’t paint-by-numbers: you’re exploring a story-creation process.

Do you read what I’ve written?

No, but you can book writing feedback separately.

Can I use this with my existing story?

You can apply what you learn – that’s part of the purpose – but not all the lessons will be relevant to an existing story. The first lesson is specific to creating a new story. The others may or may not be relevant, depending on how developed your story is and what kind it is. (Eg if you’re writing a psychological thriller, you probably won’t want subplots.) I recommend working through this by creating a new story, then choosing what’s best suited to your existing story.

Will I have a complete written story at the end?

No: this is a story creation process, with writing alongside, not a guided writing process. At the end, you’ll have a richly developed story plan, including strong characters, theme, a rough outline, an ending, etc, plus some snippets of writing. You can then dive into the writing or turn the same skills and approaches onto another story you’ve been working on.

How long will it take?

You have twelve 20-minute lessons, across up to 15 weeks: you can set your own pace within that, from daily to weekly.

Can I do it faster than 12 days?

Absolutely. Each lesson is designed to be doable in 20 minutes (though you can spend longer on it). I suggest you do max three lessons a day and give your mind “floaty time” in between, because extra ideas and insights bubble up when we aren’t thinking about a story.

Can I spend longer than 20 minutes on each session?

Yes. They’re all designed to be doable in 20 minutes, but if you have extra time and want to dive deeper, go for it! The Taking it Further module also gives you suggestions for writerly next steps, if you want to carry on but aren’t sure how.

Why is there a time limit on access?

Because I want you to use it! As a teacher, I know my students are more likely to do things when they have a deadline. It’s easy to keep downloading writing resources and feel like we’re learning, when they’re just gathering dust in our hard drives. Using them is where the discovery happens.

This one has a generous access time, so you can choose to do the lessons weekly, if you want, and allow three weeks for holiday / illness. You also get a PDF to keep, summarising what you’ve covered (though not the actual activities), which you can refer back to.

Any other questions? Email me: I’ll be happy to chat it through with you.

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