Writing Groups 2024/2025.
Once again in 2024/25 I am running writing groups at the Open Door in Lewes, East Sussex. This year I have changed the format, reducing the cap of participants to five writers in each group. This allows each writer to submit every month, ten submissions over the year. Each month we workshop three of these submissions in the group, while the remaining two writers submit to me only that month. A few months in I am already finding these smaller group sizes are allowing a greater depth of discussion, and the writers report the monthly deadlnes – as opposed to every other month as it was formerly – very useful for keeping them on track with their writing.
I am also running for the first time this year a group entirely focussed on Submission Packages. This is for writers who are ready to go with a finished novel. We concentrate on all the elements of submissions content, including the query letter, synopsis, and the Sample Pages. We also look at the process of finding the right agents to query for your book, as well as the etiquette and timeline of querying.
I am sorry to say that all my groups are now full for 2024/25. If you are interested in joining a group next year, please do get in touch to be added to my waiting list for 2025/26. I open registration for the following year in April, and places tend to go fast, but if you are on the waiting list you will be sent notification.
From experience, these groups work most strongly for people who are well into a first or second draft of a work, because deep Story Work can really only start after a certain amount of story is already on the page. I am considering, however, running a Fiction Fundamentals Course in 2025, so do get in touch if you are just beginning to write, and let me know if you would be interested in that kind of offering.
The total fee for the year (10 meetings) is £1100.
