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    Writing courses, free resources and webinars, and developmental editing Writing courses, free resources and webinars, and developmental editing
    • Home
    • Mentoring
    • Retreats
      • Venice Writing Retreat
      • Stow-on-the-Wold Writing Weekend
      • Karoo Writing Retreat | Memoir & Fiction Getaway in South Africa
    • Courses
    • Resources
      • Free offerings for writers
      • Downloadable writing resources
      • Blog
    • About
      • About Us
      • Testimonials
      • Contact
      • How to enrol

    Invitations

     Invitation: Jump start your journey to writing success
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    By All About Writing
    In Creative Writing Courses, How to write a book, Invitations
    Posted April 21, 2022

    Invitation: Jump start your journey to writing success

    You don’t have to spend 20 years learning to be the best writer you can be. Our flagship Creative Writing Course contains everything we wish we’d known when we were starting out as writers – [...]

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     Grab a writing course with our Black Friday prizes and huge savings
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    By All About Writing
    In All About Writing, How to write a book, Invitations
    Posted November 26, 2021

    Grab a writing course with our Black Friday prizes and huge savings

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     Use our Black Friday discounts to start writing your book or screenplay
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    By All About Writing
    In All About Writing, How to write a book, Invitations
    Posted November 25, 2021

    Use our Black Friday discounts to start writing your book or screenplay

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     An adventure into the wilds of Africa, to explore your writing self
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    By All About Writing
    In Adventure, All About Writing, How to write a book, Invitations
    Posted November 19, 2021

    An adventure into the wilds of Africa, to explore your writing self

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     Less 20% early bird special: offer ends midnight 6 October
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    By All About Writing
    In How to write a book, Invitations, Newsletters
    Posted October 6, 2021

    Less 20% early bird special: offer ends midnight 6 October

    This is your last chance to take advantage of our early bird specials of less 20% for either our Hero’s Journey® Writing Course or our real-time Creative Writing Course. The offer ends at [...]

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     Early bird special: Forget the magic charms, we’ll get you writing
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In How to write a book, Invitations, Newsletters
    Posted September 2, 2021

    Early bird special: Forget the magic charms, we’ll get you writing

    So you want to write a book? We can help Writing is not a magical process. You don’t need to sit waiting for inspiration, while desperation rises. No need to buy good luck charms, or wait for [...]

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     You’re invited: Non-fiction masterclass with Fred de Vries
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    By Emma Hutton
    In How to write a book, Invitations, Newsletters
    Posted July 20, 2021

    You’re invited: Non-fiction masterclass with Fred de Vries

    Please join us for a non-fiction masterclass with Fred de Vries, in celebration of the launch of his new book, Blues for the White Man. You’ll learn more about the nitty-gritty of the [...]

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     What’s on in July: A free screenwriting webinar, a non-fiction masterclass, and more!
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    By All About Writing
    In All About Writing, How to write a book, Invitations, Webinars, What's On In
    Posted June 30, 2021

    What’s on in July: A free screenwriting webinar, a non-fiction masterclass, and more!

      We can help you reach your writing goals with one of the wide array of courses and events we’re offering in July. But before the month even begins, we’ve scheduled a free screenwriting [...]

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     Join us and Joanne Hichens for a Saturday morning memoir writing workshop
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    By All About Writing
    In All About Writing, How to write a book, Invitations, Workshops
    Posted June 25, 2021

    Join us and Joanne Hichens for a Saturday morning memoir writing workshop

    Got a story to tell? Join All About Writing’s Jo-Anne Richards and Joanne Hichens, author of recently-released memoir, Death and the After Parties, for a virtual Saturday Writing Workshop [...]

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     Your book called – it’s waiting for you in our online Creative Writing Course
    2
    By All About Writing
    In Creative Writing Courses, Invitations
    Posted June 15, 2021

    Your book called – it’s waiting for you in our online Creative Writing Course

    Your book called. It asked us to tell you it misses you. Misses how you used to daydream about it, how you used to work on it. Remember when you promised you’d finish it and submit it to a [...]

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     You’re invited: Free memoir writing webinar with Joanne Hichens
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    By All About Writing
    In How to write a book, Invitations, Webinars
    Posted June 7, 2021

    You’re invited: Free memoir writing webinar with Joanne Hichens

    This webinar will focus on memoir. You’ll set the agenda: we’ll be responding to your questions and discussing issues important to you relating to memoir writing. Join Joanne Hichens, author of [...]

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     Free Webinar: How to add humour to your toolkit of writing skills
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    By All About Writing
    In Creative Writing Courses, Free content, How to write a book, Invitations, Webinars
    Posted May 11, 2021

    Free Webinar: How to add humour to your toolkit of writing skills

    Humour is an indispensable ingredient of creative writing – and yet it’s a subject that is very seldom raised in writing courses or in books on creative writing. It enlivens dialogue, adds a [...]

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    What goes on off stage when cozy mystery writers a What goes on off stage when cozy mystery writers are at work?
Join us for a fun online conversation about what goes on behind the scenes.

On Monday 26 October Richard (wearing his RJ Beynon hat) will be in conversation with Jassy Mackenzie, who now writes cozy mysteries as Emma Park, about what goes on behind the scenes when they're at work. They'll talk about where their ideas come from, how they build the small worlds their characters live in, and how they devise the puzzles that keep readers guessing. Jassy made her name with crime thrillers before trading them for vampire hairdressers and rogue donkeys, so they’ll be asking her what that change of genre has taught her.

You’ll be invited to ask your most burning questions too.
Monday 26 October

10:00 US Pacific | 13:00 US Eastern | 17:00 UK | 19:00 South Africa
**Free on Zoom** Sign up via LINK IN BIO

Can't make it? No problem; we'll send the recording to everyone who registers.
    🔍 Observation Challenge 🔍 This week's writi 🔍 Observation Challenge 🔍

This week's writing motivation newsletter involves a challenge. We invite you to join in, and then send us your creative piece. Maybe we should put together a blog of some of the submissions? What do you think? 

So here is your challenge: Take a break from your writing and go on a walk you do often: to the shops, round the park, the same route with the dog. This time, go looking for what has changed since you last did it. A new crack in the pavement. A tree that's started to turn. A shop sign that's faded. Write a paragraph about them and post it in the comments. We'd love to read what you found.

#creativewriting #writingcommunity #writingchallenge
    It’s the final step on our conversation on James It’s the final step on our conversation on James Webb Young’s ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas.’ 

Step 5:
Very cunningly, I’ve foreshadowed this final step. Fix it, dear Henry, fix it. Or, as James Clear, (author of Atomic Habits) in a blog on creativity had it: 'Put your idea out into the world, submit it to criticism, and adapt it as needed.'

It's worth saying plainly: none of this is mystical. Young wasn't describing inspiration, he was describing digestion – you feed the mind raw material, let it marinate, and it comes back rearranged. The gap most writers get wrong is Step 3. We treat the walk, the weeding, the washing-up as time stolen from the work, when it's actually where the work is quietly getting done without the apparent involvement of our conscious minds.

So if you're stuck on a plot that won't cohere or a character who refuses to breathe, try trusting the method rather than the muse: load up on facts, worry them for a while, then go and do something that has nothing to do with writing at all. The idea that turns up afterwards won't arrive polished. That's fine. Fixing it was always Step 5, not Step 4.

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
    We continue our conversation on James Webb Young’s ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas.’ His system involves five steps. Let’s look at number four.

Step 4:
Now allow your mind to reconsider the problem – the story that needs a great inciting incident; the character that simply isn’t gelling; the ending that is unsatisfactory – and you’ll find, nine times out of ten, that you do now have an idea. It might not be perfect, in fact it might feel quite rickety – but what you’ll do in Step 5, is fix it. Stay tuned for the last step!

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
    We continue our conversation on James Webb Young’s ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas.’ His system involves five steps. Let’s look at number three.

Step 3:
Go and work in the garden, or spend an hour or two pottering about in your workshop, or go for a long walk in an area you’ve not visited before. In short, put the problem you’re trying to solve completely out of your mind and do something entirely different that fascinates and energises you.

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
    We continue our conversation on James Webb Young’s ‘A Technique for Producing Ideas.’ His system involves five steps. Let’s look at number two.

Step 2:
Now massage all these facts, look at them from different angles. What surprises lurk in territory that might seem utterly familiar but contains shadowy corners? See what links exist between one fact and another. Whales and oil derricks? Balance sheets and the collapse of traditional shops? Astronomy and glass blowing? See what facts seem to resonate with each other.

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
    Ever wondered where ideas come from – or how you Ever wondered where ideas come from – or how you can tap into a source of ideas around which to build your stories?
I’m not sure whether you’ve come across references to a man – James Webb Young – and his book, published in 1939 and only recently rediscovered by a self-help industry. It’s called A Technique for Producing Ideas. 

Why mention it? Because its 'system' was designed for application initially by young admen (Young was a copywriter for an advertising agency). And, browsing through the little book, it seemed to me very obvious that it is possible to apply his method to the generation of ideas for stories.

Here are his five steps, with a little of my commentary woven round them:

Step 1:
First, gather material. This might sound odd if you’re writing fiction, but actually even the most outrageously fictional confection is full of factual material. You might have chosen to set your story in a specific location. Even if you think you know it well, you’d be well-served to dig out a map of the place, find out why the church is called St Clements, whether any controversy attaches to the demolition of the old brewery …

If your story concerns a particular subject – weaving, say; or fishing; or accountancy; or astronomy – then, naturally, your research will focus on it. But don’t forget that a very much wider focus can also help enormously. Your character might work on an off-shore oil derrick – but you might, when investigating deep sea oil drilling, find yourself reading material about marine fossils, or the Gulf Stream, or famous wrecks … Don’t curb your curiosity.

#WritingCraft #WritingTips #AllAboutWriting #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingMotivation #FictionWriting #WritingCommunity #CreativeWriting #WritingAdvice
    ✍️✍️What exactly is the Power of Writing c ✍️✍️What exactly is the Power of Writing course? ✍️✍️

The Power of Writing takes you to the heart of creative writing. Over just four online modules, the course introduces you to a handful of creative writing’s essential skills.

The Power of Writing course is designed to introduce you to the key skills of creative writing – and help you use these skills in your own writing. 

We’ve wrapped the theory around a series of practical writing exercises in four modules. The course will: 

 ✍️Help you to write confidently without constantly censoring yourself. 
 ✍️Give you tools to develop your unique writing voice. 
 ✍️Introduce you to disciplines that will continue to help you to write fluently long after the course is done. 
 ✍️Give you tools that will help you write more vividly. 
 ✍️Show you how to think more creatively and communicate this in your writing. 
 ✍️Help you get more out of books by reading actively. 

‘I have been writing for a number of years but every so often, I like to sharpen the saw. Your course is so valuable in this regard.’ – Hendie Grobbelaar

‘I thoroughly enjoyed the modules… I loved the fact that the modules are balanced. The first two do not require specific writing techniques, but exposes thoughts and observations. The last two modules start exploring the how of transforming ideas/happenings into something that works on paper.’ – Melanie du Plessis, Centurion

‘I enjoyed the introduction to each assignment, explaining what is needed with examples, especially for an online course.’ –Alma van As, Welobie

‘My experience was positive. I enjoyed the challenge… It was great focusing on writing rather than the content that one does in the daily drudge of communicating. I liked writing for the pleasure rather than rushing through the normal communications of the day – bit like “stopping to smell the roses”.’ – Charles Nesbitt, Somerset West

Sign up online: https://allaboutwritingcourses.com/product/power-of-writing-course/
    In this week's writing motivation, Richard invites In this week's writing motivation, Richard invites us to just write three good sentences. Can you avoid the trappings of being a writer and put pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard? 

Read the full piece in our Link in Bio and if you don't subscribe already, sign up via the same links.

#AllAboutWriting #allaboutwritingcourses
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