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Fiction: Work-in-Progress

Reach Wider and Deeper in Your Fiction

Monday October 11th - Saturday October 16th 2021

Totleigh Barton

Looking to punch up your work-in-progress? This course will equip you with a versatile set of writing tools to improve the depth and breadth of your fiction. No matter how focussed or wide-reaching the scope of your project, tutors Richard Skinner and Amanda Smyth will help you create intricate stories which ring true. Workshops will guide you on all aspects of the process: the importance of place in an imagined world; the crucial difference between story and plot and creating strong, believable characters.

Come along with your unfinished fiction, and leave the course with richer characters and settings, a firm idea of where to go next and an insight into the daunting process of editing.

*We have worked hard to ensure our courses and retreats are as Covid-compliant as possible and can’t wait to welcome you to Totleigh Barton. To learn more about the measures we have put in place please click here.

Single room price: £815

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Add to waiting list Grants are available to help with the course fee

COURSE TUTORS

Tutor

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Amanda Smyth

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Amanda Smyth’s first novel, Black Rock, won the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger and was selected as an…

Tutor

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Richard Skinner

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Richard Skinner has published four books: three novels and a book of non-fiction, Writing a Novel. His work…

Guest

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Paul Mendez

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Paul Mendez is a London-based novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Born in 1982 and raised Jehovah’s Witness in the Black Country, Mendez…

Totleigh Barton

Totleigh Barton, the first ever Arvon centre, is a 16th-century manor house in one of the most peaceful and idyllic parts of Devon.

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THE COURSE AT A GLANCE

Writing course tutor delivering a workshop at Lumb Bank

Monday

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Arrive late afternoon, settle in, enjoy dinner and the tutors’ introduction to the week in the evening.

Tuesday

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Morning workshops led by tutors. Afternoons are your time for writing and one-to-one tutorials. Tutors read from their work in the evening.

Course participants writing at the workshop table at The Hurst

Wednesday

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Morning workshops led by tutors. Afternoons are your time for writing and one-to-one tutorials. In the evening a guest speaker joins the group.

Course participant writing on a sofa in the barn at Lumb Bank

Thursday

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Morning workshops led by tutors. Afternoons are your time for writing and one-to-one tutorials. You are free to spend this evening as you wish.

A woman smiling and listening to a writing tutor speak at Lumb Bank

Friday

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Tutors lead the final workshops in the morning. In the evening everyone gets together to share and celebrate their work.

Saturday

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The week comes to a close after breakfast. Have a tissue handy to say your farewells to the group.

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“I arrived at the beginning of the week wondering whether I might be a writer or even if I could write. But when I left, not only did I feel I could write, I knew that’s what I was going to do next.”

—Piers Torday

“It is invaluable to writers at an early stage to have this feedback on their work. Many people on my course said that they wished that they had received this type of input earlier in their career – that it might have borne fruit and improved their success. It also provides time to think – in an over complicated world it is hard to carve time for yourself against the requirements of work, family, and daily chores. Arvon was a breath of fresh creative air.”

—Penny Clark

“Both courses I attended have had a massive impact on my writing, and been part of the motivation and encouragement I needed to begin working professionally as a writer.”

—Course participant