2-Day Creative Writing Workshop
Subject and course type
- Short course
Be encouraged to write creatively and listen constructively to your voice during this weekend writing course, led by co-founder of Blowfish books, Jane Hankin.
Dates for this course to be confirmed.
Push your thinking. Push your writing.
Everyone can write. Everyone can tell stories. All it needs is a willingness to stop and ask, ‘what if?'.
This weekend workshop at Kingston is all about thinking and writing. It will encourage you to write, to read out what you've written and listen constructively to your voice.
It will be hands-on, with lots of different little excerpts, from Flash Fiction to Charles Dickens. The aim of the course is to inspire you and get you thinking about all sorts of ways into stories.
It's perfect for a range of abilities and all those who use stories in their work, from beginners and curious newcomers to creative writers, filmmakers, animators and artists. Both days will feature different exercises to free up thinking and progress you as a storyteller and writer. By the end, you will have built a portfolio of writing which will stand as an exciting beginning to your practice as a writer.
To take yourself seriously as a writer is often the hardest thing to do. To allow yourself a little space and a little time to create without judgement, to inhabit a part of you that doesn't have to account for itself is hard for most of us.
So, to take this step is brilliant. Because this is that space, and it is that time.
Example course structure
Making the Familiar Strange: So much good writing starts at home. To be a successful writer, we need to learn to see: to lean in to the ordinary, the overlooked, the marginalised. David Almond, who wrote the children's classic, Skellig, wrote in an essay about just that, about going home: ‘… I turned and looked again, and saw that my true imaginary world, the source of my joys, fears and obsessions, was the small place in which I'd grown and which had surrounded me for most of my life …'
Pigs in blankets: We'll talk about what writing is – Margaret Atwood describes it as ‘wrestling an oiled pig in the dark'! We'll talk about what stories can be, and what they absolutely don't have to be!
A short story is a glimpse from the corner of the eye in passing: you'll be writing some short pieces in response to different prompts and text excerpts and get some constructive and positive feedback.
I remember: We'll talk about how stories can start – should start – from the particularity of your own lives (Rose Tremain), and how mashing about in our memories can be a wonderful way in to story.
There'll be a little writing exercise as homework.
Hearing voices: here we'll build on what we did the day before and take a look at character. All good stories should start with character: the function of all storytelling is to reveal character (Robert McKee). We'll look at point of view, at voice and how to write in a way that honours feeling, feels truthful and authentic to your character.
Turning the Screw: we'll talk about conflict and what's at stake for your character, at conflict as a means for characters to show themselves.
Magical thinking: you'll do some writing from a child's eye view, and look at a series of short excerpts to inspire your writing and perhaps offer a way in.
The Kiss: you'll work on a longer piece which we'll workshop in class.
Course information
Course tutors
This course is taught by author and co founder of Blowfish books, Jane Hankin.
Jane teaches in a number of arts universities in and around London, with illustrators, artists, makers, and animators. Her subject is creative writing and creative thinking.
What to bring
A basic list will be sent to you a week in advance of the course start date. All other materials are provided by Kingston School of Art.
Booking information
Dates: course dates coming soon
To ensure everyone’s safety, we follow all government health and safety guidelines. For full terms and conditions, view our short course booking policy.
Ready to start writing?
We don't currently have any dates set for this year. But you can find out what other short courses are available.