Whether you are a planner or someone who flies by the seat of your pants, at some point in the creative process you will need to structure your writing. All stories are a war against chaos. World events can feel random: the good die young, the worst are rewarded, our lives lack order. We construct and engage with narrative in order to put the world to rights. On one level, all great art is about symmetry. In this session we will look at what it means to structure your writing in a way that will satisfy your reader and avoid cliché.

Whether a novelist, short story writer, life writer, scriptwriter or a poet, this one day course, takes you through the key skills and techniques required to immerse your reader in your work through structure. We will look at three act and five act structure and cover key terms such as: scenes, acts, beats, turning points, mid-points, and the inciting incident.

Led by award-winning, bestselling and critically acclaimed writer, Michael Stewart: author of nine books, including four novels, two poetry collections and two short story collections.

He is the winner of the BBC Alfred Bradley Bursary Award, The Guardian’s Not-the-Booker Award, the H.E. Bates Short Story Prize, and many other awards.

He was head of Creative Writing at the University of Huddersfield for 18 years, and is now the director of the Brontë Writing Centre.

May 22 10am – 3pm. Face-to-face course, Haworth: £55

Enquiries and booking: brontewritingcentre@outlook.com