Workshops Update

At the start of this blog I mentioned I was running two workshops at the Edinburgh International Book Festival 'Dealing with Solitary Creativity' August 12th and 'Dealing with Rejection' August 13th. Both workshops are part of the Writing Business strand and sponsored by the Society of Authors (of which I'm both a member and a committee member).

Tickets went on sale yesterday morning. Solitary Creativity is already sold out and yesterday afternoon there were a few tickets left for the Rejection Workshop (which is a reprise of one I ran last year.)

So I strongly advise if you want to come to the second workshop - or indeed any of the writing strand workshops you book today, either on line or by phone. You can ask to be put on a waiting list for any returns, but it's at the discretion of the festival whether they do this (ie if they're too busy they'll ask you simply to show up on the day and wait for any returns caused by plague or disaster.)

What's the point of going to workshops? I can only tell you what happens in mine. I offer a mix of  practical points, short exercises to demonstrate these and a query session. It's a lot to cram into 90 minutes and all my participants work hard! I also get a huge buzz from running these events because beginner writers are not only enthusiastic, but supportive of each other. My workshops are definitely not competitive (a major achievement in such a cut-throat industry!) and encourage writers to network and support each other. My hope is when you leave one of my events you are not only armed with practical skills, but you feel lifted, more optimistic and inspired.