Nottingham Writers Days
Coming Up
11 June 2011, Short Fiction with Zoe Fairbairns
2 July 2011, Graphic Fiction with Brick
24 September, Writing for Stage with Nick Wood
About the Writers' Days
|
What previous participants have said about Nottingham Writers’ Days: I’ve done more writing workshops than is decent and this is one of the best. Top stuff. a wonderful, but challenging day—a day to remember. Very accessible and non-intimidating—and enjoyable! It has helped me to move on with my novel. Practical exercises that really helped plan my novel. Expert advice from published author. |
Nottingham Writers’ Days are one-day intensive writing workshops in a range of genres, led by experienced writers from Nottingham Writers’ Studio. Each Day includes workshop sessions, writing exercises and peer reviewing, plus individual discussions with the tutor about your work. Previous workshops have included ‘From Idea to Screenplay with Michael Eaton’, ‘Planning and Developing Your Novel’ with Nicola Monaghan and ‘Cross It Out and Start Again: Editing Fiction’ with Jon McGregor. The workshops are open to anyone with an interest in writing and you do not have to be a Studio member to participate. We accept up to 12 participants in each workshop. The Days take place in city centre locations and are followed by a light dinner - a chance to unwind, chat more informally, and go over the day's activities. |
Prices for the summer 2011 season, running from June to September, are £75 full price, and £50 for members of NWS. The price includes tea, coffee, and biscuits throughout the day, a buffet lunch, and a light dinner with a glass of wine (or soft drink).
To Book
Fill in the booking form and return it with your payment, or contact Robin at admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk if you have any more questions.
Season II, Summer 2011
Zoe Fairbairns: Writing Short Stories
Saturday 11 June 2011, 10:30–16:30, dinner at 5pm
The Workshop
"The novel tends to tell us everything,” wrote VS Pritchett, “whereas the short story tells us only one thing, and that, intensely.”
How can you capture that intensity in a short story? How can you describe a single incident, or object, or moment of interaction, in a way that lets it cast light and shadow on a wider world? How can you write a story that will make the reader catch her or his breath in a moment of recognition?
This one-day workshop is for writers who want to complete such a story—or perhaps more than one—in a day.
New writers, and those with experience in this or other genres, are all equally welcome.
Bring a pen and paper, or your laptop.
And bring a small object—something about which you have intense feelings. Something small enough for you to hold between your finger and thumb.
The Tutor
Zoë Fairbairns’s (www.zoefairbairns.co.uk) short stories have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4,
and have appeared in magazines including The
Mechanics’ Institute Review, The
Yellow Room, Quality Women’s Fiction,
and Cosmopolitan. Her collection How Do You Pronounce Nulliparous? is
published by Nottingham-based Five Leaves Publications, as is her dystopian
novel Benefits.
Zoë Fairbairns teaches short story writing at the City Lit in London. Her students and former students have been widely published, and shortlisted for awards including the Bridport Prize and the Fish short story prize. She is currently at work on Teach Yourself to Write Short Stories for Hodder & Stoughton.
Read an interview with Zoe on LeftLion.
John Clark ("Brick"): Writing Graphic Novels
Saturday 2 July 2011, 10:30–16:30, dinner at 5pm
The Workshop
Graphic novels have reached the mainstream. They have a longer shelf life and a broader readership than word books, and can handle any content, fact or fiction, no matter how sophisticated.
But what is the art of comic writing, how does the marriage of text and image work, and why bother going there if I can’t draw?
Rather than exploring overarching themes like structure, we will unpick the nuts and bolts of making a word script come alive in sequential frames, at the same time studying some of the techniques of respected writers like Alan Moore and Pat Mills. We will also consider the challenges of collaborating with an illustrator.
No drawing skills are needed, but arrive with A4 paper, HB pencils and a rubber. Also bring a typed scripted scene, preferably confrontational, between no more than four people, filling no more than one side of A4 suitable for photocopying.
The Tutor
Brick (www.brickbats.co.uk) has been creating comic pages since the 1970’s, mostly current affairs and issue based for magazines and newspapers around the world. He has had four cartoon/comic books published. His graphic novel, Depresso or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace Being Bonkers is shortlisted for the MIND Book of the Year Award, and he is currently producing a graphic investigation into the hoax of the ‘Leonardo Bicycle’.
As John Stuart Clark, he has had two travel books published (After the Gold Rush is presently going digital) and has written over a hundred articles for adventure travel magazines. He has edited both magazines and comics, and facilitated writing/drawing workshops for prisoners through to Chinese Grand Masters. He is a consultant on Coventry University’s Illustration and Animation course.
Read an interview with Brick on LeftLion.
Nick Wood: Writing for the Stage
Saturday 24 September 2011, 10:30–16:30, dinner at 5pm
The Workshop
'If in doubt, bring in a man with a gun. A guide to the practicalities and pitfalls of playwriting.'
We will tackle structure, character, subtext, drafting, how to start developing your voice, and ways to develop your initial idea into a play. There’ll be an opportunity to write individually and to share your work with others in the group. We’ll look at the pitfalls to avoid, and there will be opportunities during the day to discuss your own work and how best to progress your career as a playwright. Bring pen, paper, and an open mind.
The Tutor
Nick was an actor, a freelance journalist, and a teacher before he became a full time writer. His commissions include Radio 4, Thalia Theatre Hamburg, Hans Otto Theater, Potsdam, The Drum, Plymouth, Action Transport, Theatr Iolo, Eastern Angles, and Nottingham Playhouse. His plays have been produced in Canada, the USA, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Croatia, and Bosnia, and have won several awards in Europe. Nick is an RSC Learning Associate. He lives in Nottingham. Further information about his work can be found on www.nickwood.org.
