The Fiction Workshop Sessions take place online. Thursday mornings, 10.30 - 12.30 Three terms a year: autumn, spring, summer 12 weeks £230 To join the workshop or put yourself on the waiting list click here: neilworkshops@gmail.com (or use the email address on the contact page) What goes on in these workshops? Now in their seventh successful year, the workshops are a tutor-led group of writers focused on developing their fiction to the next level. Numbers are capped at 8 so each writer gets a chance to air their work every second week. You need to be writing regularly, or to have a completed manuscript which you are ready to workshop. Four pieces of work are aired each week and receive considered feedback from the group and the tutor. There's no substitute for this kind of regular informed feedback if you want your writing to grow, develop and succeed. The tutor uses aspects of work under discussion to make learning points for the whole group and from time to time, where there is demand, will focus on a particular topic, e.g. structuring, or story development, for part of a session. The tutor also provides both verbal feedback and written notes each time someone shares their work. Recent projects undertaken by writers in the group have included historical fiction, psychological mystery, a fictionalised memoir, a Young Adult novel, a Middle Grade novel and contemporary literary fiction. From time to time the tutor makes recommendations to leading agents. Read what previous participants have said about the workshops:

Simply the best way to progress you ideas for a new piece of writing, or your work in progress, right up until publication. Neil has a knack of highlighting problem areas in your work and making suggestions to improve the story. The feedback from both tutor and the friendly group of students is invaluable to any aspiring writer. Highly recommended! - JH Neil’s workshop has given me motivation to continue writing and has renewed my passion for my WIP. The class is informal but focussed, and the support from both Neil and the group is unwavering, yet honest and direct. Neil is adept at pin-pointing plot holes, implausible solutions and clichés; something you can’t always see when you’re so close to your own work. I’d whole-heartedly recommend Neil’s workshops. - M Rawal Getting your work reviewed by fellow writers is the best way to progress with your writing. Neil has an unerring way of getting to the nub of what works and what doesn’t, offering insights and suggestions, and asking the difficult questions. In addition, the group is varied, lively and astute so you get fabulous feedback in a relaxed, friendly and supportive way. There is nothing like a deadline to make you sit down and get on with it. - Judy R The aspiring writer will learn so much in Neil's class. He is firm, succinct, humorous and encouraging. The small, supportive group becomes the writer's 'family' where you feel safe to try things out in good company. If I ever get published, this class will definitely be high up on my list of acknowledgements! - Mary G It’s at times like these, when I have launched into an overly long sentence to convey my appreciation, during which others are likely to be confused by my inconsistent use of commas and semi-colons to denote sub-clauses; annoyed by my convoluted syntax; bored by detail that is not germane to the subject; and overwhelmed by positively far too many unnecessary qualifiers, that I really wish I had paid more attention to the wise and practical advice I have been consistently given by Neil and members of the fiction workshop group. - Tricia These workshops are so important for me. For a start they keep my bum on the seat long enough to meet the next deadline. The insightful comments from Neil, together with help and advice from members of the group have kept me going and helped me finish one book and be a good way towards completing a second. - Liz Zahedieh Neil provides inspired comments on each excerpt. He succeeds in offering encouragement and guidance. He brings out issues in the writing that are neither obvious nor trivial. He conducts the class with humour and style so that participants learn to encourage each other while offering peer reviews of high quality. I strongly recommend this expert workshop for all aspiring writers of fiction. - MK

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