CREATIVE WRITING

Danuta is an experienced teacher of Adult, Further and Higher Education. She has run workshops at various events and venues, including the Off The Shelf Festival, the Bath Festival and the Caerleon Writers' Holiday as well as at schools and colleges around the country.

Workshops cost £150 plus expenses for a half day.

Sample workshops: 6 day writing conference on Writing Crime Fiction. Each workshop lasts for two hours and each one is available as an individual session.

Writing a Crime Novel

These workshops are focused at writers who haven't written crime fiction before, and at those who have started and would like some advice. I usually offer a feedback service to support the workshops, that allows the students to submit up to 5,000 words of their novel for critical feedback within 12 weeks of the course.

Plot

Crime fiction is narrative driven. This workshop focuses on devising a plot and deciding on the theme of your novel. You will be given a set of starting points, and - in group discussion - you will decide on the different plots that can be developed from this point.

Character

Convincing and engaging characters are the key to a successful novel. How can you make you characters come alive for your readers? This workshops looks at the "how" of characterisation and writing from different points of view. What does "show, don't tell" mean?

Creating a sense of place

Location is an important aspect of fiction writing, and is particularly important in crime fiction. Where should you set your book? How can you use words on a page to create convincing locations? How to use "show, don't tell".

Tension and build up

Crime novels are often described a "page turners". How can you give your own writing this quality? This workshop looks at some of the techniques for creating tension, suspense and toe-curling fear.

Research

Crime novels need to be factually accurate. What do you need to know, and how can you find it out? This workshop looks at sources of information, and, with examples, ways in which research can be incorporated into a novel.

Giving and getting critical feedback

In this session, students work with each other's manuscripts, and with other work, discussing ways in which feedback can be given and used to improve a piece of writing. This session also looks at ways into publishing: What are commissioning editors looking for? Where should you submit your manuscript? How should you submit your manuscript?

Manuscript Feedback

Danuta also offers critical feedback for individual manuscripts. This can be a "global" assessment that offers a general comment on a manuscript, or a close commentary. She will also offer advice about places to send a manuscript if it seems ready for publication.

If you want to take advantage of this - or to enquire about prices - please contact Danuta, with details of your manuscript: e-mail .