Words Away and award-winning author and teacher Emma Darwin invite you to join them in 2018 on a tutored creative writing retreat staying at the Flint Barns on the Rathfinny Wine Estate, Alfriston, Sussex.
However much you love writing, and whatever your goals are, it can be so hard to clear the time, not to mention the mental and physical space, to get down to it. Words Away at Rathfinny offers you the chance to write in peace and to explore and develop your skills, in a supportive group of like-minded people.
Morning workshops will start by thinking about storytelling, how it works and what makes it work better. Then we'll focus on ways to find and develop stories, and then closer still, to think about characters, voices and how to build scenes. We'll finish by getting right close in to explore images, sound and rhythm.
Some exercises in the workshop can use characters and settings from your current project (if you have one) while others will be designed to try out things which are new to you. We’ll also explore why we get blocked or sabotage our own writing, and touch on the book industry, the challenge of getting published, and the new world of self-publishing.
Afternoons will be yours; you’ll be free to tuck yourself away, try something new or apply the morning's workshop to an existing project.
Emma Darwin will be available for one-to-one sessions, where you can discuss a specific short piece of writing, or your larger goals, hopes and blocks.
You should leave with new skills and understanding, renewed energy and enthusiasm, and maybe even the seeds of a new story or two.
