Hi, we had a great workshop this week where we looked at the different ways you find titles for your stories that intrigue the reader and provide more depth.
If you are a paid subscriber to WestWord, you can watch the replay below.
If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, but would like more help to develop your craft, do consider upgrading your subscription. From just £6 a month you get submissions to lots of editions and competitions, monthly workshops and craft posts focused on different aspects of short fiction writing. Info here.
August Workshop
Writing What We Don't Know
Saturday 31 Aug 2024 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM BST
Wherever we are in the world, whatever ethnicity, gender, age we are, whatever era we live in, we are all going through the same things as humans. Trying to find our truth, love, happiness and peace of mind. And this is at the heart of all stories we tell. Our characters are doing those exact things too. And what I have come to believe in my 51 years of being a human, and 15 of being a fiction writer, is that how they, and we, achieve these things is all related to trust.
The journey our characters go on throughout our stories, whether they are novels or micro fictions and everything in-between, is driven by trust — in their own mind, abilities, judgement, beliefs, strength. Typically at the start they trust in something that no longer serves them and by the end, learn to let that go and place their trust in something more hopeful, healing and reliable.
So as writers, we can trust in our abilities as empathetic humans to be able to tell the stories of people vastly different to us. We can trust in the power of our imaginations to set our stories in places in the world we've never been, and in places that we completely make up. But to do any of it well, we need to be coming from a place of truth and we need to trust ourselves and our characters.
Prefer not to commit to a subscription? The workshops are available to book separately too!
1-1 Writing Support
You can also book a 1-1 Editorial Meeting with me and we’ll meet on Zoom for 45 minutes to discuss your story/stories and your craft. You’ll get personal developmental advice, written notes and a recording of the meeting to refer to again. Send a single story or stories (max 2,000 words in total) and receive in-depth developmental advice to help you take it all to the next level. What you’ll learn you can also apply to all the stories you write. Cost: £75. Book here.
With love