Fiction Masterclass: Your Novel Inside Out

“I’ve attended several writing groups over the years, with varying degrees of success, but can truly say that Shelley’s mix of teaching, work-shopping and provision of feedback is by far the best thought out and delivered approach I’ve experienced. She has also inspired me to work – to just get it done.”

– Masterclass Participant 2013

Trusted TLC assessor, novelist and mentor who has worked for the Guardian Masterclasses and Faber Academy, Shelley Weiner, is back with a successful course curated uniquely with TLC. Sessions for Your Novel Inside Out can be booked individually, or at a discounted series rate across all three full-day workshops (Jan 31; Feb 28; March 28 10am-4pm at the Free Word Centre).

Shelley will be looking at the nuts and bolts of writing and editing, to guide writers to achieve their maximum potential. TLC is proud to offer this intimate fiction-writing experience. Places are strictly limited to 15 per session.

Your Novel Inside Out is for writers just starting out, or those with a specific writing project in mind and with a determination to see that project through to a more cohesive, coherent end product. Shelley will help you discover what it is you want to say, provide you with the most effective tools with which to say it, guide you through the technical aspects of character, story and structure, and help you nourish and grow your fiction ideas.

Session One: Invention 31 January 2015 

Where do novelists find their ideas? How does one create believable characters? How important is setting?

These questions and others relate to the essential origins of the creative process. Using practical writing exercises and her own experience, author and tutor Shelley Weiner demonstrates how imagination, conviction, and skill are three vital components in the foundations for a robust and believable piece of fiction. BOOK NOW

Session Two: Construction 28 February 2015

Your characters are waiting for something to happen; your setting is an empty stage. What next? How do you kick-start the vital element of conflict that will trigger your story and have your reader turning the pages?

This workshop takes an active look at narrative structure and its three essential components: character motivation, adversity, and time. It also examines some of the key plot compositions that inspire and echo the shaping of our stories, and helps you put theory into practice in a series of exercises designed to help build a structure for your book. BOOK NOW

Session Three: Making it Happen 28 March 2015

In this session, writer and tutor Shelley Weiner explores the literary devices that transform your words from a pagebound story into a gripping and believable fiction that flies off the page. She will be looking in detail at the elements that really help tie a writing project together: point of view, scene and summary, and the psychological infrastructure behind story – so that you can learn in a practical and hands-on way how to slot these pieces together and launch yourself on the road to completion of your novel. BOOK NOW

All attendees are additionally entitled to a discount on an extract read by a TLC editor.*

About Shelley:

Shelley Weiner is the author of five novels and many short stories, and works as a creative writing tutor. Shelley has run masterclasses for the Guardian, Faber Academy, Gold Dust Mentoring Scheme and Skyros Writers’ Lab, and has lectured on the Creative Writing MA at Anglia Ruskin University, as well as for Birkbeck College, the Open University, the Taliesin Trust, the British Council in Israel, and Durham University.

*Up to 100 pages of prose. 50% discount for series bookings, 25% discount for individual bookings. One per client. Work must be submitted in accordance with our submission guidelines by 31 May 2014.

Pricing: Sessions £150 inc. VAT each. Series booking for all three sessions £405 inc. VAT. Concessions available. To book, call the box office on 020 7324 2570 or click here for the online booking system.