How it works

Sign up a quarter at a time

The year is broken into quarterly teaching modules. Sign up for any quarter or join the quarters together to create a ½ year, ¾ year or even a full year of writing.

The 2022 first quarter begins Monday, 31 January.

STUDENTS: The year is broken into three modules, consisting of two semesters and the summer programme. Sign up by semester/module or for the whole year. See below for dates.

 

What to expect in each quarter

Each quarter will focus thematically around a coherent set of lessons, so you can build your skills as a writer step by step. 

Each quarter will consist of lessons week by week, starting with basic foundations and building layers of complexity.

Each quarter will include weekly assignments and feedback; discussion groups and peer review; recommended reading lists; edits and opportunities for re-drafts.

 

 

2022 quarterly programme

CHARACTER: First quarter, 31 January –  01 May 2022

• examining specific attributes, voice, dialogue, motivations, development and more; making your characters (fictional or real) come to life on the page

 

SETTING AND MOOD: Second quarter, 02 May – 31 July 2022

• exploring the physicality of setting, atmosphere, sensual details and tone in poetic phrasing and storytelling; building tension, suspense and humour

 

DETAILS AND CONCEPTS: Third quarter, 01 August – 30 October 2022

• starting small and working towards the bigger picture to build the world(s) you create, step by step

 

EXPLORING FORMS: Fourth quarter, 31 October 2022 – 31 January 2023

• engaging new structures each week, whether in poetry, flash fiction, novel or nonfiction; transcending boundaries in content and form

 

2022 student programme

WRITING WORLDS: First module, 28 February – 10 June 2022

• Unit 1 – Your world: character, reality and fiction (28 February – 22 April)
• Unit 2 – Other worlds: time and place, shifting focus (25 April – 10 June)

MOMENTUM AND FORM: Second module, 11 July – 21 October

• Unit 3 – Moments, movement and action (11 July – 02 September)
• Unit 4 – Exploring forms (05 September – 21 October)

SUMMER PROGRAMME (TBD): Third module, November 2022 – February 2023

Each unit will also include an optional workshop on essay-writing for interested students. 

 

Getting started

Once you sign up, you will receive a syllabus with further instructional materials, including a full set of weekly writing assignments, recommended reading, scheduled internet conferences and discussions with classmates.

If you have a project already underway, you may choose to bring excerpts of that to the discussions, and apply lessons learned here to your other work. Your memoir may become more poetic; your essays may become more lively; your short stories may be imbued with more suspense and layering. Or you may discover that by the end of the year you have a portfolio of 52 small fictions or poems!

Go to the Sign Up page and get in touch!