Author Ella King will be running a free self-led course about writing trauma in fiction in Spring 2023.
‘How do we write trauma, and how do we do it well?’ asks New York Times bestselling author, Roxane Gay. Loss, devastation and catastrophe can play a crucial role in the plot of your novel and in the rich, inner lives of your characters.
But unlike any other type of writing, authors face specific challenges writing trauma. How do you write trauma without traumatising yourself? What responsibility do authors have in writing trauma? How does your writing fit within a broader societal context?
What can you expect from taking part?
Using the words and work of Roxane Gay, Lidia Yuknavitch, Hanya Yanagihara and Gabriel Tallent, this course will help you explore these questions within the context of your work. Writing exercises included in each email will help you clarify your aims in writing trauma and allow you to test different writing styles so that you can craft authentic, powerful and respectful scenes.
Who is this for?
This is a course open to writers of all abilities, and at all stages of their literary journeys. Over the five weeks, through achievable but testing activities, you will consider how to write trauma and how to write it well for your fiction projects with compassion and self-care.
Email Dates
This writing course will be delivered via e-mail. It’s self-led and designed for you to complete in your own time.
You’ll receive emails on the following dates:
Course Email 1 – Thursday 11 May 2023
Course Email 2 – Thursday 18 May 2023
Course Email 3 – Thursday 25 May 2023
Course Email 4 – Thursday 1 June 2023
Course Email 5 – Thursday 8 June 2023
Access
This course is designed with creativity and accessibility at its heart; it is free to take part in, optimised for screen reading, and includes transcriptions.
If you know someone who would like to take part who doesn’t have a computer or internet access, you can contact us and we can print and post the courses (UK only).
About Ella
Ella King is an award-winning British-Singaporean novelist. She read Philosophy and Theology at Oxford University and is a graduate of Faber Academy’s novel-writing program. Her debut novel, Bad Fruit, was published by HarperCollins in August 2022 and was described as “blistering” (New York Times), “disturbing, poignant and memorable all at once” (Guardian) and “masterful in its evocation of the complexity of mother-daughter relationships” (Harper’s Bazaar). Find her on Instagram and Twitter at @therealellaking
Published: 8 March 2023