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LIMITED PLACES NOW AVAILABLE IN SOME SATURDAY WORKSHOPS PLEASE PHONE TO FIND OUT MORE AND TO BOOK!

Friday 27 and Saturday 28 November
Birkbeck, University of London, Malet street, Bloomsbury, London, WC1E 7HX
£55/45

A stimulating weekend for writers of all genres to discuss and explore how to meet the risks of the creative process.

Let a team of professional writers and creative coaches take you out of your creative comfort zone with workshops to get you experimenting and thinking laterally. Find out how to overcome creative hurdles and set backs, get to grips with managing your time effectively and learn coaching tools to help you realise your creative goals.

On receipt of your booking we will send confirmation and ask you to make your choice of workshops and advice sessions - so do book early as places are limited.

Friday 27 November
7.00 - 9.30pm
Jill Dawson in conversation with Julia Bell.
Renowned author Jill Dawson discusses the challenges of her own creative career and draws on her extensive track record as creative writing teacher and mentor to talk about what writers need to flourish and excel. In a wider panel discussion, our workshop writers will share how they have handled risks and hurdles in their own creative practice.

9.00 - 9.30pm Drinks and networking

Saturday 28 November
9.45am – 5.45pm
Morning: We will focus on risk taking in your creative practice. Whatever your form of writing, sampling a new approach is a great way to get your creative juices going.

We will be running a programme of three 75 minute workshops during the morning. Each workshop will be repeated so you have a choice to attend two out of the three. You can also book in for a 30 minute 1:1 writer’s advice session with Philippa Johnston of literaturetraining - if you want the nuts and bolts of where you can go for support to help you get to where you want to be professionally. These sessions will run in the morning and afternoon so you sign up to one of these as an alternative to a workshop. Slots are limited for the workshops and advice sessions so early booking essential!

Poetry and Film with Martina Evans
This workshop encourages poets and fiction writers to think like film-makers. A fresh approach that encourages the development of dramatic narratives and encourages writers to become confident directors of their own work to create vivid intense narratives.

Words and Action with Oladipo Agboluaje
Suitable for writers of all genres, this workshop will use theatre writing exercises to explore storytelling from a dramatic perspective exploring differences between dramatic narrative and the narrative of the novel and short story and also the relationship between action and dialogue.

Playing with Creativity with James Wallis
How playful is your imagination? In this workshop author and games-designer James Wallis shows you how to use games and game-like thinking to develop your creativity, get past writers' block, and help you to plan, structure and write better stories.

Afternoon: Our focus will shift to the longer term process – ways to sustain the ‘slog’ of drafting and re-drafting, using your most precious resource – time - effectively and coaching tools to galvanise your writing ambitions and plan your next steps. We will be running a programme of three 90 minute workshops during the afternoon. Each workshop will be repeated so you have a choice to attend two out of the three.

FULLY BOOKED: 1:1 sessions with Philippa Johnston of literaturetraining

Sustaining the Writing Process with Jackee Holder.
What and how do you keep writing once you’ve gotten started? In this workshop, writing coach Jackee Holder will show you how to navigate “The Middle Passage” of the writing process.

Time Management for Creative People with Mark McGuinness
Time management may not sound like a sexy topic – but it could make or break your business, not to mention your inspiration. Many creative people would like nothing better than to shut themselves in a room and get on with their creative work. This practical workshop will help you resolve this tension whilst still meeting all your other commitments.

FULLY BOOKED: Jump-ing! - What’s stopping you? With Sarah Pickthall
What is stopping you from realizing the vision you want and aligning your skills and talents to best effect? Yourself? This workshop will explore emotional and physical energy and patterns and allow you to conduct useful coaching conversations with yourself and others to further your writing ambition and plan your next steps.

And finally! at the end of the day we have a surprise game-based session for everyone from James Wallis.

Booking Procedure
Please note that you are booking for both the Friday evening and Saturday day (even though the booking page only shows the Friday date). On receipt of your booking we will send you a Workshops Booking form so that you can select workshops you would like to do – do book early as workshop places are limited.

Profiles of the tutors:

Oladipo Agboluaje's writing credits including: Early Morning (Futuretense) Mother Courage (Eclipse), The Christ of Coldharbour Lane (Soho Theatre), The Hounding of David Oluwale (Eclipse) and the two sellout comedies The Estate and Iya Ile (Tiata Fahodzi/Soho Theatre).

Jill Dawson began publishing at the age of 22 by winning first prize in a City Limits short story competition. She went on to win an Eric Gregory Award for poetry, and published her first novel, Trick of the Light in 1996. She is the author of six novels, editor of six anthologies of poetry and short stories, and has published one poetry pamphlet. Fred & Edie , her third novel, was shortlisted for both the Whitbread and Orange Prize, and was voted one of 50 essential novels by a living author. She has held many fellowships, including the British Council Fellowship in Amherst, and the Creative Writing Fellowship at UEA, where she taught on the Writing MA. Her latest novel, The Great Lover, has been selected as a Summer Read for 2009 by TV's Richard and Judy Book Club . Jill Dawson is currently director of Gold Dust, a mentoring scheme for writers.www.gold-dust.org.uk

Martina Evans is a prize-winning novelist and poet. She has published three novels and three books of poetry and taught extensively in the field of Creative Writing. She was a Royal Literary Fellow for five years at Queen Mary, University of London. Her fourth poetry collection, Facing the Public, is due out from Anvil in September 2009

Jackee Holder is a trainer, facilitator and an executive and business coach. She has been facilitating creative writing workshops for over ten years. Her work as a writing coach supports writers of all levels to move past writing blocks and create an ongoing writing flow. She coaches writers to take their work from start to finish.

Philippa Johnston is Director of literaturetraining and has many years' experience of helping writers to move forward professionally and achieve their goals. She also works as a freelance researcher and project manager. literaturetraining acts a first stop shop for writers and literatureprofessionals across the UK looking for professional development informationand advice. www.literaturetraining.com

Mark McGuinness is a poet and has been earning his living as a coach and trainer for creative professionals for over a decade. Mark has worked with organisations including the BBC, Channel 4, Arts & Business and Cockpit Arts. He writes popular blogs about creativity and business: Wishful Thinking and Lateral Action.

Sarah Pickthall is Director of Cusp inc – a highly respected consultancy and coaching practice focusing on leadership and creativity. www.cuspinc.org . Sarah has over 20 years experience in education, arts funding, the disability arts sector and was formally a writer and performer on children’s television with the Media Merchants for 10 years : Art Attack and ZZZap. Sarah is an accredited coach working with individuals and organizations across a range of sectors.Sarah has more recently been working with the Cultural Leadership Programme developing: Sync – a leadership programme for disabled and deaf leaders www.syncleadership.com

James Wallis is an author and games designer. A former Sunday Times journalist, he's written thirteen books and designed the award-winning story-telling games Once Upon a Time and The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Two of his games appeared in the book 'Hobby Games: the 100 Best' and he's one of only three designers to have had a game published by MIT Press.