Our five topics


Voice

Finding the right voice is essential to getting a writing project off the ground. We’ll start our programme looking at how to work with point of view, vocabulary, sounds, rhythms, attitudes, mood and the senses.


Texture

Following on from Voice, this session looks closely at paying attention, selecting details, creating an atmosphere, and the textural properties of language.


Time

A vital and excitingly flexible element of narrative. We’ll discuss structure, pace, leaps, repetition and other aspects of time in writing. 


        

Tension

How do writers keep readers engaged? We’ll look at plot hooks, subtext, withholding, strangeness, pressure, containment, and creating enticement.


People

Our final session will focus on fascination with behaviour, what makes an interesting character, interior and exterior action, layers and surprises, and the unseen.

        

About Emily Perkins

Emily is an award-winning writer from Aotearoa New Zealand. Her novels have twice won Best Book of Fiction at the New Zealand Book Awards (including Lioness in 2024) as well as Best First Book of Fiction for her debut collection of stories. Other recognition includes the Believer Book of the Year (US), the Geoffrey Faber Prize (UK), and long-listing for the Women’s Prize UK. Her books include The Forrests, Novel About My Wife, The New Girl, Leave Before You Go and Not Her Real Name. She is an Arts Foundation Laureate and Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

About Charlotte Wood

Charlotte is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her latest book Stone Yard Devotional was short-listed for the 2024 Booker Prize and five other awards, drawing praise from authors Anne Enright, Tim Winton, Karen Joy Fowler and others. Previous books include The Luminous Solution on the creative process; the international bestseller, The Weekend; and the Stella Prize-winning The Natural Way of Things. In 2023 Sydney’s Belvoir Theatre Company staged an adaptation of her novel The Weekend, and The Natural Way of Things featured in ABC Television’s 2021 series ‘The Books That Made Us’.