WRITERS' HUB

Your destination for writing tips and exercises from Arvon tutors, and writing opportunities from the literary community. You can join as an Arvon Friend to motivate you to keep writing with exclusive access to content.

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TIPS & EXERCISES

Exercises

Establishing a Ritual

To me a writing ritual is about making a regular commitment to recording your thoughts and ideas. That might be as…

Freddie Machin

Tips

Ritual

If you want to write a story all you really have to do is sit down and write it. It’s frustratingly…

Freddie Machin

Exercises

Get it Wrong to Get it Right

“The first draft of anything is shit,” announced Ernest Hemingway once, while crime colossus Val McDermid was…

Sylvia Patterson

Tips

The Early Bird

7 AM. All is quiet. The noisy tech is switched off. The cup of tea is piping. Your computer is on….

Sylvia Patterson

More tips and exercises

The Stories We Tell

In our new blog series, The Stories We Tell, leading writers share with you some of the inspirations, challenges and discoveries that led to the writing of their own stories, novels and poems.

20 May 2022 / Access

My Writing Journey With Arvon
by
Mandy Redvers-Rowe*

After some early success as…

Arvon to receive £725,000 from Arts Council England’s Capital Investment Programme

10 May 2022 / Chief Executive

Arvon is delighted to announce it has been awarded £725,000 to redevelop Lumb Bank, one of…

Arvon Sponsoring Aesthetica Writing Award

01 Apr 2022 / News

Arvon is pleased to be partnering with the renowned Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. Now in its 16th year,…

Arvon appoints Patricia Cumper as new Chair

03 Feb 2022 / General

Arvon has appointed Patricia Cumper as its new Chair.
Andrew Kidd, Chief Executive of Arvon, said: ‘Arvon is deeply…

12th Annual Festival of Education: 250+ sessions covering a range of topics – tickets on sale! 7-8 July

Wellington College's 12th Festival of Education takes place at Wellington College on 7-8 July 2022 and will host over 200 leading speakers from the world of education. Attendees will have access to over 250 sessions. Festival content will cover a broad range of topics and issues. There will be something for everyone interested in education. All sessions will last for 45minutes; there will be a mixture of practical sessions, sparky panel discussions and thought-provoking lecturers. To learn more, click this post.

Ledbury Poetry Competition with Arvon now open for submissions: win £1k and a free Arvon course

Ledbury Poetry has an impressive track record when it comes to recognising fresh talent, and so Arvon is delighted to be working in partnership with this competition to offer a week’s poetry course to this years’ winner. Deadline Wednesday 24th August 2022. Find out more about the competition by clicking on this post.

Watch every event from Commonword’s Black Writers Conference 2021 for FREE

All 7 panel events from Cultureword’s Black Writers Conference are available to watch. Featuring eminent and emerging Global Majority writers discussing the challenges they have faced and overcome in their writing journeys. Hear how Jennifer Makumbi, author of The First Woman, resisted demands to cater for a Western readership; personal stories and reflections from queer poets afshan d’souza-lodhi and Seni Seneviratne; expat experiences from writer Divya Ghelani who lives in Berlin & so much more. To watch, click on this post.

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