Sign up a quarter at a time for weekly writing sessions
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 2023 first quarter begins Monday, 06 February.
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.
2023 quarterly programme
CHARACTER: First quarter, 06 February – 01 May 2023
- 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, 08 May – 26 July 2023
- 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, 07 August – 30 October 2023
- starting small and working towards the bigger picture to build the world(s) you create, step by step
EXPLORING FORMS: Fourth quarter, 06 November October – 22 January 2023
- engaging new structures each week, whether in poetry, flash fiction, novel or nonfiction; transcending boundaries in content and form
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!
Short Courses 2023
8 week each; dates tba.
If you are interested in the short courses, please contact Michelle in email.