Specialist Courses

Our selection of specialist courses form the backbone of the Summer School Programme. Here are the choices for 2026.

MORGEN BAILEY

PLAN & WRITE YOUR NOVEL

You have an idea but not sure what to do with it. Join Morgen in this fun way to learn how to plan and write your novel. This course is for plotters and pantsers alike and focuses on:
Session 1:

The components you need before you start writing; Looking at the structure of a novel from published examples.
Session 2:

Developing your ideas into a short plan; Evaluating your characters, settings and plot;
Session 3:

Beginnings, middles and endings;
Session 4:

Expanding the short plan with a view to avoiding pitfalls including saggy middles!

Each session ends with a Q&A but questions can be asked at any point.

There will be optional ‘homework’. Required: Pen and paper or laptop. Handouts provided.

THE PERFECT COCKTAIL of poetry

ROY MCFARLANE

Making the Perfect Cocktail of Poetry - writing the Personal, People (community), Place and Philla (love).

Join Roy as he unravels how a poet’s passion, identity, background, values, fears and vulnerability can feed and inform their writing and how to elevate something ordinary to the extraordinary.

We’ll follow the basic rules of making a cocktail, base spirit with a touch of sweet or sour
extras. Nothing is mundane, nothing is sacred that can’t be extracted to make the
perfect cocktail of poetry.

Roy will also be be dipping into his new non-fiction The Way of The Poet as well as classic and contemporary poets to find inspiration.

Tutor Bio

vivien brown

Tutor Bio

WRITING for uk magazines

This course is suitable for anyone hoping to break into the UK magazine market for the first time, broaden existing knowledge, try new markets or build on previous success.

You will learn how to research a magazine's guidelines and requirements, then how to plan, offer and submit your own pieces to a magazine of your choice - everything from readers’ letters to short stories, poems, features and articles.

Using a ‘hands-on’ approach, we will examine a wide range of general and specialist print magazines, determine who their readers are, and explore ideas for submissions relevant to each participant’s own interests and publication aims. If there is a particular magazine you wish to write for, bring a copy along!

We will also take a look at the business side of magazine writing, including contracts, commissions, illustrations, rights and payment.

Note: newspapers and online magazines will not be included in this course.

Write Minded – Happiness, Purpose and Success

Write Minded is about succeeding in life and writing - and feeling better in the process.

Humans are smart. We’ve been to the moon (and got back again), cured diseases,
composed symphonies, penned masterpieces, learned not to text while we’re
walking and ……. the list goes on.
Intelligence, education, talent and an opposable thumb have all got something to do
with achievement, but the biggest influence on our success is always our mind – and
how we use it.
In this four-part course we …..
Look at the incredible way our brains and minds work.
Understand how we can create our own reality and influence our future.
Learn highly effective tools that help us …..

work with purpose
create the mindset we need
achieve our life and writing goals
get more out of life and writing
be the best version of ourselves that we can be ……. and, most importantly, be happier on the way.

john lamont

Tutor Bio