
Voice & Prose
Thursday, March 27, 2025
6:00 – 8:00 pm GMT
Voice is the element which all agents and editors say they are looking for in a manuscript – but that’s by no means the only reason to work hard on the word-by-word text and textures of your novel: in the end, the words on the page are all you have to transmit your story.
In this practical workshop we will start by unpacking the idea of Voice: what does it mean for your storytelling, and why does it matter so much. Then explore through short exercises how to make your prose rich and rare but never purple (except when you mean it to be), and how to strip it back without it becoming drearily threadbare,
By the end of the workshop, you should have tried some new approaches, and acquire a clearer sense of what this all means for how your characters and your narrative speak.
A handout will be sent after the event so that you don’t need to make extensive notes during the tutorial. Attendees at the event will receive a one month free subscription on substack to Emma’s blog This Itch of Writing.
If you aren’t able to attend in person, please sign up and request a recording which will be sent out a few days after the event along with the handout.
Guest tutor
Date
Time
Venue
Cost

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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