, At a glance

• Pre-course questionnaire for lessons tailored to individual writers’ interests
• Structured writing activities and exercises
• Opportunities for discussions, feedback and questions

What will participants gain

• Insight into the workings of the publishing industry
• Confidence in their writing
• Basic tools needed to succeed as a writer

You’ve always had a burning desire to write, so what’s holding you back? Bring your inspirational ideas and enthusiasm to this eight-week course and you’ll be on your way to creating your first novel.

Hawkwood courses are held in a constructive, supportive and inclusive atmosphere. We will cover a wide range of genres, using various writing techniques and exercises.

What we’ll cover

Many published novelists will tell you that writing a novel is the easy bit. It’s the planning and preparation that can make the difference between a publishable book and the recycling bin.

Before we begin, you’ll be asked to fill out a pre-course questionnaire about your own writing experiences. We’d like to hear about your successes and what you hope to gain from the course.  Therefore, we can concentrate each lesson on aspects most relevant to your own work.

The course is aimed at helping new writers avoid the inevitable pitfalls of the first-time novelist, so we’ll start by posing a number of fundamental questions. Why do you want to write? In what genre? What is your target audience?

We’ll then proceed to stock up on all the tools needed to build a brilliant book: plot, character, structure, and more through writing exercises that are both thought-provoking and fun.

You won’t be expected to have read every classic novel and/or best-seller, but it’ll help if you are a keen reader to be able to discuss various techniques and, of course, your literary loves and hates.

Just bring along your ideas, passion and a willingness to learn and let your imagination do the rest. A notebook, pen and/or tablet or laptop are also necessary.