Tips & Exercises

Unbalance the Awful

Think of something really horrible, something awful that could happen to someone, death, injury, disappearance but then come up with some…

Matt Wesolowski

Relineate Your Work

For this exercise, you can either work with a poem you have already written, or write a new poem, and experiment…

Hannah Lowe

Sense Breaks and Enjambement

As a rule of thumb, there are two main ways to lineate: firstly, by using a sense break,…

Hannah Lowe

Exercise: Description

Write a scene describing the first time you:

Visited a particular place
Had a particular experience
Met a particular person/people.

Describe…

Kerry Young

Tip: Description

Description is very important in fiction writing. But not description for its own sake. Description should serve a purpose. For example,…

Kerry Young

Exercise: Narrative Arc

Try to remember someone you knew when you were younger. Someone whose memory, even now, evokes strong feelings
Now write a…

Kerry Young

Tip: Narrative Arc

Every story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Something happens at the beginning (the set up or exposition)
Some…

Kerry Young

Exercise: Themes and Meanings

Divide your page into two columns NOT rows. Left-hand and right-hand columns.
Think about the stories you have read and love….

Kerry Young

Tip: Themes and Meanings

You are writing a short story or novel because there is something you want to say. A tale you want to…

Kerry Young

The Play’s the Thing

Today I want to encourage you to PLAY.
Wipe away the stresses of the day and focus in for a second…

Arji Manuelpillai

Poetry and Play

The American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson once said ‘It is a happy talent to know how to play’. For me,…

Arji Manuelpillai

Exploding the Bomb Part 2

This is a thirty-minute exercise and is best carried out in a locked room, on a deserted hilltop, or generally as…

Christopher William Hill

Exploding the Bomb Part 1

My mother-in-law is an enthusiastic party person and has always invited round the ‘riff raff’ (neighbours in the cul-de-sac) for drinks…

Christopher William Hill

The Shared Heart

I suggest you start building your fictional world/place by choosing something I call the ‘heart of the nation’. This ‘heart’ can…

Leone Ross

Beginning a World

1. Imagine a new world, with a culture based on any of the following activities:

Walking
Digging
Making a specific, locally-produced…

Leone Ross

Writing Intimacy, Memory and the ‘Ex’

Note: The poem in this exercise contains some language which is unsuitable for young readers.
Separation – Marie…

Rachel Long