Arts Festival Writers’ Workshops a success!

The recent writers’ workshops I organised and presented, along with longstanding friend Pete Irving and local author Tim Wilson, for the 2013 Peterborough Arts Festival, can be counted a success!

The workshops took place on Friday 6th, Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September, at the Key Theatre on the Embankment next to the River Nene in Peterborough – a pleasant environment. The first workshop was presented from 7 to 9 pm by Tim Wilson, on the subject of Storytelling for Writers. The Saturday afternoon workshop (1 to 4 pm) started with a short writing assignment. Each input session after this covered tips and techniques to improve participants’ writing skills. The Sunday afternoon session, from 2 to 4 pm, covered publishing trends including e-books and Print on Demand, starting with a talk by local publisher Eric Lane of Dedalus Books. Other subjects included conversion from print to e-book and a comparison of submission guidelines for the two media. I presented both of these sessions jointly with Pete, and they were both free. Cost for the Tim Wilson session was £7.00.

Surprisingly, most participants booked for all three sessions. And the thing which was really lovely about the sessions was that a group of learners asked for more. You can’t knock keenness!

Incidentally, Pete will be Peterborough’s Poet Laureate for 2014.