Getting Started - C M Taylor

Workshops - Getting Started

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." - Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

Starting a novel is one of the most exciting things you'll do in your life, and one of the most daunting.

A huge part of the challenge is that there are so many things to think about all at the same time. You've got to get your plot moving ... but you mustn't forget to breathe some life into your characters ... and getting those settings right matters a lot ... and you can't forget about your writing style either ...
And some day you've got to find a way to sell this darn book. How the blooming heck are you going to go about that?

Our course can't teach you everything you need to know in a single session, but we can give you as much detailed input as we possibly can. That means that when you do finish the first draft of your MS, you should be much closer to target than you would have been otherwise.

Course Leader - C M Taylor

Craig has published two literary novels (as C M Taylor), Light and Cloven, a dark take on 2001's foot and mouth disease outbreak. Under the nom de plume Ed Lark, Taylor has published Grief, a dystopian fantasy which was nominated for the British Science Fiction Association Book of the Year, 2005. The BFSA wrote, "Grief is a magnificent novel... Ed Lark is certainly a writer to look out for."

C M Taylor's journalism has been published in the national press, including The Guardian and The Telegraph.

He took a Cambridge first in Social Anthropology and lived in India, Belgium and Spain, before recently settling in Oxford with his wife and canoe. He is currently working on a non-fiction book about allotments and a novel.

Course Outline (Provisional Syllabus)

9.30 am: Assemble, Coffee & Introductions

10.00 - 12.00: Character

• Getting to know your characters. The essential first step in writing anything worth reading. How to learn who your characters are. How to get them interacting with others. Character writing exercise.

12.00 - 12.30: The Business of Books

• When you've written your book, what next? The mysterious world of agents & publishers. Emma will talk about her own experience as well as taking questions

12.30 - 1.00: Lunch

• Lunch & more conversation

1.00 - 2.45: Plot

• Whether they're looking at literary or commercial fiction, agents these days will place more emphasis on plot than on any other single aspect of your MS. You MUST get this right if you want to sell the book. Plotting exercise.

2.45 - 3.00: Tea / Coffee

3.00 - 4.30: Writing Style

• When you send your work to agents, your work will have about 1 minute to convince them that it deserves closer attention. The quality of your writing must convince them to invest that extra time. This portion of the workshop will be based on a detailed scrutiny of the participants' own work - please see 'Homework' section below

4.30 - 5.00: Round-up, Questions, Good-byes

Homework

The more you put into this course, the more you'll get out of it. We do ask participants to try to email us (a) a short plot summary of your book (aim for approx 300 - 500 words), and (b) your first chapter. We need this material one week before the start of the workshop, so we can have a look at it and copy it for group discussion.

Also, this is a course for beginners, so please don't worry if your work still feels a bit raw. That's sort of the point, isn't it?

Location & Transport

The venue is the Franklin Wilkins Building of King's College, London in Waterloo. There are excellent bus, coach & rail connections to London Waterloo.

Cancellations

We can take cancellations for a full refund up to 22 days before the event. Thereafter, no refunds - sorry. If we do need to cancel a course (which happens very seldom), then we will give at least 21 days notice.