Online Writing Day: Non-Fiction

Struggling to find the container for your non-fiction project? Perhaps you’re overwhelmed with material and can no longer see the wood for the trees? This day course will offer a dive deep into how to tackle structure in your non-fiction. Whether through braided structures, fragments, epistolary, or more linear forms, you’ll consider the ways changing your structure can transform your story. Over the day, course tutor Jessica J. Lee, an award-winning nature writer, will invite you to consider examples from contemporary non-fiction and ask what these structures offer the reader.

You’ll consider your work-in-progress’s structure on multiple scales: the big picture of your whole writing project and the small-scale of the individual page. By the end of the day, you’ll leave with a sense of what structure best suits your project. You can come with a work you’ve already begun writing and want to give a different shape to, or you can bring along an idea you haven’t yet begun writing and are seeking to plan and structure. Over the day you will explore tactics for re-shaping work already written as well as planning a story’s shape from the ground up for new projects.

By the end of the day, you should be able to:

• Distinguish and describe a range of structures
• Create a practical plan for beginning your writing
• Re-shape and reimagine existing pieces of writing
• Draw on a range of editing strategies to help you refine structure
• Have a roadmap for where to go next with your piece of writing

Resources

• Zoom + Padlet
• Short readings to be provided in advance
• PowerPoint presentations and handouts

You will be asked to attend the day with some basic materials to hand: printout of work-in-progress or, if you don’t yet have a work-in-progress to hand a favourite non-fiction essay by another writer, sheets of paper (or ideally a long roll of paper), coloured pens/pencils, post-it notes, and scissors.

Is this course for me?

Our one-day courses are aimed at anyone who is currently, or would like to begin, writing. They are regularly attended by writers who:

• would like to spend an intensive day progressing their writing
• would like a concentrated bolt of creative inspiration
• have time constraints
• would like to try out writing in a different genre

What will I gain?

• A taste of the Arvon experience in a day
• A whole day focusing on your writing while being guided and tutored by an experienced professional writer
• Two fully interactive workshops to propel your writing forward
• A Q&A at the end of the day to ask specific questions about your project
• Support at all times from friendly Arvon hosts
• An inclusive and supportive environment in which to open up creatively
• A live fully interactive experience with cameras optional

How does it work?

All sessions of the day are delivered live via Zoom meetings, with the option of cameras off or on. We strongly encourage you to participate in the live sessions, but if you find yourself unable to attend on the day, it will be possible to watch the recordings of each session at any time over the course of the following month.

A detailed timetable is included below.

Why Arvon?

Arvon is a not-for-profit charity that has been running since 1968.

At Arvon, everyone who crosses the door of one of our writing houses is a writer – no matter what their age or writing experience – and all are welcome.

For more information About Arvon – Home of Creative Writing since 1968 – Arvon

Online: £90

Concessions: £63

As part of our effort to increase participation in the arts, a limited number of 30% concessions are available for this course at checkout, as well as two fully funded places for those who cannot afford the concession rate. To request a fully funded place please email grants@arvon.org. 

We are committed to making our Arvon at Home programme accessible to as many people as possible.

Our FAQ page may also helpful.

Across all of Arvon at Home 

• All sessions will have auto-generated captioning
• There is a Chat facility to ask any questions.

Masterclasses 

• A recording of the masterclass will be available to view without a time limit after the live event. You will receive an email with a link to the recording the day after the masterclass takes place. You can also access it in your Arvon account by logging in on our website, finding the course under My Bookings and clicking on More Details. The recording will have auto-captions running, and chat and transcript will be visible alongside. Any course materials shared by the tutor will also be available in your Arvon account.
• There is a Chat and Q & A facility to ask any questions
• Zoom webinar format (your video and audio will remain off throughout, & your name will not be visible to other participants so it is a ‘relaxed’ event)
• We aim to present all resources in two formats e.g., extracts of texts will be read aloud and provided in text form via screen-share or as a document. If it would be helpful for you to have any available resources ahead of the session, we will try to arrange this for you. Please email arvonathome@arvon.org to discuss.

Saturday Writing Club

• There is a Chat and Q & A facility to ask any questions
• The sessions are delivered by Zoom meeting, which means they are not recorded.
• You have the option to keep cameras on or off.
• We aim to present all resources in two formats e.g., extracts of texts will be read aloud and provided in text form via screen-share or as a document. If it would be helpful for you to have any available resources ahead of the session, we will try to arrange this for you. Please email arvonathome@arvon.org to discuss.
• We use Padlet as an optional community platform. If you would like some more information about this, or if you have access barriers to using this platform, please email arvonathome@arvon.org.

Online Writing Days

• A recording of the workshops will be available to view for one month after it is aired live. You will receive an email with a link to the recording the day after the masterclass takes place. You can also access it in your Arvon account by logging in on our website, finding the course under My Bookings and clicking on More Details. The recording will have auto-captions running, and chat and transcript will be visible alongside. Any course materials shared by the tutor will also be available in your Arvon account.
• There is a Chat and Q & A facility to ask any questions.
• All sessions of the day are delivered live via Zoom meetings, with the option of cameras off or on.
• We aim to present all resources in two formats e.g., extracts of texts will be read aloud and provided in text form via screen-share or as a document. If it would be helpful for you to have any available resources ahead of the session, we will try to arrange this for you. Please email arvonathome@arvon.org to discuss.

Writing Weeks and Writing Months

• Courses are delivered by Zoom meeting, which means they are not recorded.
• Online writing weeks and months have smaller groups than our other events of up 14 participants, and are interactive with tutors and your fellow course participants. We encourage everyone to participate in the way that is most comfortable. You are welcome to keep your camera and audio on or off, take breaks as needed, and contribute either on audio or in the chat.
• Tutors and participants often use the zoom chat to interact and share resources. If you have access barriers to using the chat, please let us know.
• We use Padlet as a landing page for all course materials, and to provide an optional platform for interaction with your tutors and fellow course participants. If you would like some more information about this, or if you have any access barriers to using this platform, please email arvonathome@arvon.org.

A note on the use of AI and recording

• Due to concerns around privacy, we do not allow the use of external AI transcription services during our online events and courses. Auto-captioning is available across all of our online courses, and the transcript can be viewed during the session. For recorded events (Masterclasses, How I Write sessions and Online Writing Days), the auto-captions, transcript and chatbox can be viewed alongside the recording. Please get in touch via access@arvon.org if you would like to discuss this further.

Subject to funding/permissions/availability (please contact arvonathome@arvon.org for more details)

• Recording of Writing Weeks and Writing Months
• Downloadable transcripts
• BSL interpretation
• Live captioning

If you have any access needs that we have not covered here, please contact us on access@arvon.org

See here for more access information.