From our first encounters with creative writing in school, we're told that writing is a serious business. There are rules to be learned, techniques to be mastered, conventions to be followed. If we want to succeed, we have to put away childish things and 'take ourselves seriously' as writers. But what gets lost along the way is often what brought us to writing in the first place: a sense of enjoyment in telling a good story, and the fun of creating new characters and new worlds.
This workshop will consider what happens when we put elements of play back into our writing process, and the ways it can energise and elevate our stories. We'll look at how play is a vital element of storytelling that is too often ignored, and how breaking the rules, or subverting the conventions, often leads to a more interesting piece of writing. We'll also explore some techniques for introducing the experimental and random into our work, swapping the writer's toolbox for a toybox - and hopefully having some fun along the way.
Your Workshop Leader
Dan Coxon is an award-winning editor and writer based in London. He has been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Awards and the British Fantasy Awards (six times), with Writing the Uncanny (co-edited with Richard V. Hirst) winning the British Fantasy Award for Best Non-Fiction 2022. His anthology Being Dad won a Saboteur Award in 2016. His short stories have appeared in various anthologies and magazines, including Shakespeare Unleashed, Beyond the Veil, Fiends in the Furrows III and Great British Horror 7: Major Arcana. His latest fiction anthology - Isolation - was published by Titan Books in September 2022. The second book in the Writing series, Writing the Future, was published in September 2023, and the third, Writing The Murder, is forthcoming in 2024.
About the event:
Running time: 105 minutes including breaks
Venue: Braid Room
Tickets: £18 / £15 (plus 50p booking fee)
The event will be take place in person. Workshops are not recorded.