**Passionate about crafting stories that spark young imaginations? Ready to embark on a journey into the fabulous world of children’s literature?
Join us for Storytale Futures: Writers’ Day – Writing Middle Grade Fiction, a full-day Adult only (18+) event for tailored for budding and emerging writers crafting novels for 9-12 year olds.
In the picturesque and inspiring surroundings of Arnos Vale, our writers’ day offers a unique blend of indoor and outdoor workshops led by acclaimed children’s authors Sophie Kirtley, Rachel Delahaye, Emma Read and Ash Bond. Dive into sessions that will explore ideas, characters, setting and editing in a creative and interactive way with the aim of elevating your storytelling skills. Engage with fellow writers and seize the opportunity to network with local authors. With ample time for creative reflection and informal chats, plus a lively panel discussion with a publisher, editor and an agent, our Storytale Futures: Writers’ Day promises to ignite your imagination and fuel your journey towards publication.
Don’t miss this immersive and inspiring experience designed to propel your middle-grade fiction writing to new heights.
The Event
Story Exploration with Sophie Kirtley
An out-and-about workshop looking at how to use real life places to add richness and depth to the setting of your story. Some walking and exploring will be involved (weather dependent!) so no stilettos or glass slippers please!
Creating Characters with Rachel Delahaye
Want to know how to build characters from faceless place-holders into living, breathing, and sometimes plot-changing people to remember? We’ll be discussing what makes a good character, playing with a formula that will help you build unforgettable personalities and then we’ll be exploring ways of melting a character’s looks, backstory and motivation into a plot frame without the dreaded ‘info dump’. By the end of the session, you’ll have a grasp of how to use your character’s physicality and psyche to lift your manuscript to a new level, and possibly a new direction.
Finding Voices with Ash Bond
Voice. That’s what everyone tells us they want, right? But what is ‘voice’ in fiction? Ash doesn’t promise any answers to this trickiest of writerly questions, but instead will take you through a series of writing exercises and prompts to help identify and hone the voice of your characters. Ash’s fantasy adventure series Peregrine Quinn is written in multi-POV – no easy feat! She will discuss how she crafted the characters and made sure that their voices were unique enough to be recognisable – even from the first line of a chapter. She will also talk you through the opening of her second book and give you the opportunity to write your own memorable opening paragraph.
The End is the Beginning with Emma Read
What comes after you type The End on your first draft?
Relief? Probably.
Celebrations? Hopefully.
Editing? Certainly!
This session takes you through the basics of self-editing. I’ll show you where to start and how to stop. We’ll look at the various stages of editing – structural, line and copy, and proofreading and we’ll explore ways to achieve distance from your own work, including working with others – beta readers and critique partners for example.
The hour-long session will be delivered as exercises and discussion. By the end you’ll be able to step back from your work in progress and begin editing with confidence. Because The End is very much The Beginning.
Publishing Panel
The Writers’ Day will end on a high with a fascinating and informative publishing panel discussion with Penny Thomas (co-founder and publisher at Firefly Press), Jo Nadin (author, editor and academic) and Susie Day (author of inclusive children's books). Plus there will be time for you to ask the panel your publishing and writing related questions.
