Workshops and courses offer inspiration and encouragement, and practical help in all aspects of writing, from prize winning writers and experts.
We offer adult residential courses, and retreats on creative screenwriting, playwriting and finding and developing your writer's voice. . We aim to provide a nurturing space in which to explore. See news page for current courses, retreats and workshops.
Watch this space for details of our exciting programme of drama, writing and performance workshops for schools, tailored to the curriculum. Watch an interview with Julie Everton about her online foundation in screenwriting course for University of Sussex.
http://youtu.be/c77CGLK1xI4
Testimonials
"The course was great fun. It balanced the tough challenges of individual work with some memorable group exercises, helping to pave the way from “ I think I can” to “ I knew I could”” Richard Taylor
“The course tutor was wonderfully positive and enthusiastic. It rubbed off!” Jim, University of Sussex CCE
"This was genuinely my ‘introduction to screenwriting’ after some success as a dramatic writer for the stage. I found the mix of content input and facilitation to be very motivating, and we managed pieces of ‘homework’ in between sessions, in order to move our individual scripts along as the course progressed. Julie’s feedback on developing scripts was of a very high quality, and there were many film clips to provide examples of various aspects of screenwriting.
The course was inspiring and the feedback very useful. I ended up with a completed script for a ten minute short film that went on to get Film Council funding for production. It’s now being screened as one of Screen South’s batch of Digital Shorts.
I’d really recommend this course to anyone who feels willing to put in the work required to develop their own script during the course.” Josie Melia
"Tutor great. Enthusiastic, knowledgeable and encouraging – spot on criticism that took the work forwards". Marian Garvey
"The standard of tutoring was excellent, the exercises were extremely useful and I feel I have progressed 110% as a result. Presentation of work and feedback was invaluable.
Jonathan Neale.
Sample Workshops
Boxing Clever – a story in a box (7-8 year olds)
This is a way of creating a story as a group, through props and questions. It enables the children to take joint ownership of a story, and there are also individual aspects to the process. The frame of the story can also be used in a later session for children to make their own stories up.
First I ask: Who is the story about. A picture is pulled from the box, and as a group we discuss who is it? We take first steps in characterisation.
Where does the character live? We create a setting, using the five senses to really bring the place to life.
Where next? We explore where the character is going in the story, what is their journey?
And so on.
By the end, the group has a shared story, with beginning, middle and end, which can be typed up. Children can then write their own blurbs for the book, and design a front cover, giving it their own title.
It is a way of writing a story which helps visual, aural and kinaesthetic learner, through the physical interaction with the pictures and props in the box.
Group Playwriting - (14year and upwards)
After doing some warm up exercises about improvisation, I detail a typical layout for a script. I ask the group to volunteer a good location for a play, and three characters, with names and ages, and select the best, most contrasting. I also ask for a first line of dialogue – a speech by one of the characters that will grab the attention.
Each writer then begins to write their scene with a speech and stage direction, then the script is passed on. This process is repeated for ten minutes,then each writer has ten minutes to individually develop the script they have and bring the s cene to a close. I would photocopy two or three of the scripts over a break, to read out and discuss what works best and why. It’s a great introduction to playwriting in that no on has sole responsibility for the script and it is easier for writers to constructively criticise the work.
Autobiography and Life History - When I was Ten
This is an exercise for adults, using group discussion, individual reflection, talking and writing, and generates rich and varied sources for writing. It can also work for other ages – when I was five, when I was sixteen. The years ten and eleven are good years to focus on because it is an age when many people move to a new school. . It involves structured exercises and takes 2-3 hours.
There are several linked exercises that form the basis of the workshop.
Some include:
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Introducing the five senses – the taste of being ten is…. The smell of being ten is… the sound of being ten is… etc. These sentences are completed individually then collected on the board. We discuss what has resonance, which senses were easiest to recall etc
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Describe a particular incident which happened during that year. It can be any story at all, not necessarily the most dramatic
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Write down seven things you associate with that time in your life. Write a sentence about each, then read back to the group, without discussion.
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In pairs, discuss the work you’ve done so far and deciede on a piece of writing to work on. This could be – Writing an incident as dialogue, writing about yourself from someone else’s point of view, like your mother, imagine a meeting between your ten year old self and your current self…
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