Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Whether you’re a beginner in creative writing or a more advanced writer looking for new ideas and inspiration, this one-day event may be exactly what you need. Designed by two professional writers with long experience of teaching creative writing at university level, the programme will address the writer’s approach to plot in ways both practical and thought-provoking, involving both writing and the discussion of writing. The focus will be primarily on fiction, but writers of poetry and creative non-fiction are likely to gain useful insights from the event.

The course will highlight the importance of plot in fiction-writing, addressing such matters as the shaping and dynamics of plot, how and where to start your story, and ways of progressing towards a satisfying conclusion. The course can be taken on its own or in conjunction with the festival’s later fiction-writing course, ‘Who are these people? Developing your characters’, held on the following day, 29 March.

The course has been devised with 30 participants in mind; however, the presence of two tutors means that almost all of the teaching will take place in groups of 15. Each group will have two sessions with each tutor.

Professor Jem Poster is emeritus professor of creative writing, Aberystwyth University, and tutor for Cambridge University’s Centre for Creative Writing. He is author of a collection of poetry, Brought to Light, and two novels, Courting Shadows and Rifling Paradise. Sarah Burton, founder and former director of Cambridge University’s MSt in creative writing, is the author of Impostors: Six Kinds of Liar and A Double Life: A Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb. Her novel, The Strange Adventures of H, will be published in May 2020.

The sessions

9.30 - 11.00: Session 1: Introduction. Where to begin?
11.00 - 11.30: Coffee
11.30 - 1.00: Session 2: Shaping your plot
1.00 - 2.00: Lunch
2.00 - 3.30: Session 3: Maintaining narrative energy
3.30 - 4.00: Tea
4.00 - 5.30: Session 4: Endings. Drawing it all together