Memoir, Life Writing, Creative Non-fiction
Writing about real lives and experiences – your own, or someone else’s – is rewarding but also daunting. What if you have too much information, or your story involves other people? How do you fill the gaps? How do you keep the reader reading? What if your core purpose is to write creatively not about a life, but about a specific place or time, journey or sickness, idea or vocation? And when does storytelling tip over into fiction?
In this practical tutorial, we will use practical exercises, examples, discussion and the sharing of writing to explore ways of imagining, researching, developing, shaping and voicing real-life material to form a narrative. There will be time to ask questions, and you should take away a wider and deeper sense of the possibilities of these exciting forms, a clearer idea of how to set about your own particular project, and perhaps even some new ideas.
Emma Darwin
AuthorShe teaches creative writing at Oxford University and Goldsmiths, University of London, and has given workshops from Auckland to Zurich.
Emma Haynes
Head of Events & CompetitionsEmma is responsible for BPA’s bespoke programme of literary events and retreats as well as managing the First Novel Award and submissions
Assistance to writers on low incomes and/or from communities under represented in publishing
We are offering a free place on each of our online tutorials and Q & A sessions for UK based writers on low incomes and/or from under represented communities in publishing.
Writers may apply for a free place on one of the sessions by contacting BPA with a short bio and a summary of their writing career to date.
Please click here to Contact BPA with your application and in the case of writers on low incomes, proof of financial eligibility such as: Jobseeker’s Allowance; Disability Benefit; Income Support; Working Tax Credit; Child Tax Credit; Proof of being a full-time student; Housing benefit; Proof of being a full-time carer.
All details will be kept confidential. Decisions on who receives the free places rest with the BPA team not the tutors.
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