Exorcising the Past

There is no story without history. All novels are built on it, whether they be the private, personal novels of auto-fiction, or expansive, oft-told tales about dead kings and queens. Even dystopian novels are filled with the workings of the past. In this series, we find out how to excavate relics for your prose.

The first of the three workshops, Mining Your Past, is about writing yourself into your story.

The second workshop, Story, is about deciding what to make of history and the research you will inevitably undertake in order to delve into it.

(Re)Writing History will be about editing. Writing is rewriting. Thus, this workshop will concentrate on teaching the writer what to leave out and how to edit their fiction in order to make the truth of the story shine through.

Learning Outcomes

After completion of the workshops, participants will:

1. develop their ability, skills & techniques in generating, writing, editing and developing long form fiction in the novel form
2. have their writing improved through sharing their texts for peer critique and presenter guidance during the workshops
3. come away with skills and experience that will help them create, develop and revise historic/literary, long form fiction.