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TIPS & EXERCISES

Exercises

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Writing for Children & YA

What if?

Start with a scenario – this might be a random picture, a very short scene from a novel, a few lines…

Emma Carroll

Tips

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Fiction

Avoid getting stuck: use multiple notebooks

Writing can be hard, particularly if you’re stuck at a certain point. It’s easy to feel tied to the last thing…

Alexis Zegerman

Exercises

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Fiction

50 shades of character – 50 character questions

As a writer, you need to know your characters better than they know themselves. The way to believable, complex, story-laden characters…

Alexis Zegerman

Tips

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Fiction

Accepting what reality offers you

When you make a journey take a notebook with you. Whether it’s to the corner shop or the other side of…

Tim Pears

Tips

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Poetry

Listening to the letters

Letters are the building blocks of language. Take time to be aware of language at the level of the letter; of…

Clare Pollard

Tips

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Fiction

Style, voice and sentence

For writers sentences are both the object of their craft and the tools they use to do their work – they’re…

Peter Hobbs

Exercises

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Fiction

Style, voice and sentence

Write a description of a location. Choose somewhere generic – a city street, say – and conjure it through writing for…

Peter Hobbs

Tips

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Fiction

Creating story out of character using conflict

Story in its most basic form is about a sympathetic character and how they manage or fail to overcome the conflict…

CJ Flood

Exercises

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Fiction

Creating story out of character using conflict

Flick through a newspaper or magazine, and pick a photograph of a person that appeals to you. 5 minutes.
Look at…

CJ Flood

Tips

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Fiction

Branch out beyond traditional media

It’s easy to become obsessed with books. My education was made up almost entirely of books and as a student I…

David Varela

More tips and exercises

ARVON BLOG

Remembering Nick Grant

12 Nov 2018 / News

It is with a heavy heart that we share this sad news. Our dear friend Nick Grant passed away peacefully on…

Ruth Borthwick announces her departure

08 Nov 2018 / Chief Executive

Arvon today announces that Ruth Borthwick will step down in April 2019, after a decade as Artistic Director and Chief Executive….

Lois Pryce Arvon Creative Writing Course

Lois Pryce – Arvon at 50

06 Nov 2018 / #Arvon50

In the mid-90s, aged 22, I landed my dream job at an indie record label. This was mainly due to a…

Katrina Naomi – The Best View in England

30 Oct 2018 / #Arvon50

#Arvon50
Arvon is 50 this year and to celebrate we have collected the stories of writers…

Spread the Word Life Writing Prize

The Spread the Word Life Writing Prize opens November 5 to emerging writers living in the UK. Free to enter. Winner will receive £1,500, publication on Spread the Word’s website, an Arvon course, two years’ membership to the RSL and a development meeting with an editor and an agent.

Call for stories

Story2Script are looking for horror, drama, comedy, travel, children stories. The platform hosts short stories with the ultimate goal of scripting the stories into screenplays.

Call for gothic poems

The Emma Press have launched a new call for Gothic poems to be published in an anthology edited by Nisha Bhakoo and Charlotte Geater.

More opportunities

WRITERS' HUB

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