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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

     Feeling creatively blocked? Supercharge your writing by using description to maximum effect
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In How to write a book, Invitations
    Posted October 2, 2020

    Feeling creatively blocked? Supercharge your writing by using description to maximum effect

    Feeling creatively blocked? Here’s one way out. Join us for a morning of literary fun when we present our Saturday Writing Workshop. You’ll learn how to use description to maximum [...]

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     Everything you ever wanted to know about travel writing.
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    By All About Writing
    In Invitations, Travel writing
    Posted July 14, 2020

    Everything you ever wanted to know about travel writing.

    Join Fred de Vries, award-winning journalist and non-fiction author, for a free travel writing webinar. Ask everything you’ve always wanted to know about any aspect of travel writing, from style, [...]

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     Hone your writing craft with a free webinar, writing workshop or course
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    By All About Writing
    In All About Writing, Invitations
    Posted July 11, 2020

    Hone your writing craft with a free webinar, writing workshop or course

      July and August are jam-packed with an exciting array of events. They include free webinars on travel and creative writing, short workshops, a weekend travel blogging workshop and more. [...]

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     Have some online literary fun and writerly companionship
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Invitations
    Posted July 10, 2020

    Have some online literary fun and writerly companionship

    Have a bit of virtual literary fun with All About Writing and a community of fellow writers when we present our virtual Saturday Writing Workshop. We’ve got one coming up in July and [...]

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     We’ll help you write a short story in a weekend
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Creative Writing Courses, Invitations
    Posted June 12, 2020

    We’ll help you write a short story in a weekend

    Join our virtual weekend course from which participants will emerge with the first draft of a short story.   We will encourage and mentor you through the process of developing story, from [...]

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     Secrets of the trade: how to write movie scenes that wow
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Invitations, Screenwriting courses, Workshops
    Posted June 4, 2020

    Secrets of the trade: how to write movie scenes that wow

    For a hundred years and more, movies have been surprising, titillating and entertaining us with stories that are as ephemeral as spring blossom, or as consequential as the deepest human truths. [...]

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     Invitation: free travel writing and screenwriting webinars
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    By Richard Beynon
    In Invitations, scriptwrirer, Travel writing, Webinars
    Posted May 13, 2020

    Invitation: free travel writing and screenwriting webinars

    Can you believe it, it’s Wednesday again… We’ve lost track of how many Wednesdays there’ve been under lockdown, but what we do know is that we’ve run seven of our free [...]

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     Corona update – we’re still here for you
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    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Invitations, Newsletters
    Posted April 21, 2020

    Corona update – we’re still here for you

    We want to be part of the solution. We can’t do anything about the virus, but hopefully we can make your lockdown easier to bear. And we know you’re anxious: we want to give you something [...]

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     Join us for a free webinar dedicated to improving your creative writing (+ Community Writing Saturdays!)
    1
    By Jo-Anne Richards
    In Free content, Invitations
    Posted April 2, 2020

    Join us for a free webinar dedicated to improving your creative writing (+ Community Writing Saturdays!)

    We’ve decided, through the lock-down, and perhaps beyond, to run a series of free webinars to keep you going through these interesting times. We’re holding the next one on Wednesday 8 April at [...]

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     You’re invited: Free creative writing webinar (+ Community Saturday writing event!)
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    By All About Writing
    In Free content, Invitations, Webinars
    Posted March 30, 2020

    You’re invited: Free creative writing webinar (+ Community Saturday writing event!)

    Last week All About Writing held a Story Development webinar that attracted so many participants we had to upgrade our webinar capacity to cope with you all. We’ve decided, through the lock-down, [...]

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     Community Writing Saturdays: Join us for some virtual literary fun
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    By All About Writing
    In Invitations, Promotions
    Posted March 24, 2020

    Community Writing Saturdays: Join us for some virtual literary fun

    We are introducing a virtual workshop every Saturday through April, which we hope will foster a sense of global community through creative action. Through video conferencing, you’ll be connected [...]

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     You’re invited: Free story development webinar (25 March)
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    By All About Writing
    In Invitations, Webinars
    Posted March 20, 2020

    You’re invited: Free story development webinar (25 March)

    Because of Covid-19, and the need to be creative at this point, we’ve decided to bring our free Story Development webinar forward to the 25 March. It will provide a good place to start your [...]

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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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