In association with Birmingham Museums Trust, Pow-Wow is offering a series of writing workshops during 2013,
combining practical, constructive advice, discussion and exercises on various aspects of the art of writing, with opportunities to discover and be inspired
by Birmingham’s treasures: the city’s historic buildings, beautiful artworks and fascinating artefacts.
To ensure that participants get individual attention and support, places for each workshop are strictly limited.
Book early to avoid disappointment! (click on the title of the workshop to book tickets)
Getting your novel off the ground
Museum Collections Centre
25th May, 10-4pm, £30
If you have always wanted to write a novel, but can’t get started, or have tried but ground
to a halt, then this is the workshop for you. We will be startled and stimulated by the extraordinary Aladdin’s Cave which is the Museum Collections
Centre. Then we will study the process of novel writing: its different stages, how to find the time, how to keep going when it gets difficult, how to avoid
the traps where novels sink and die. You will leave with a personalised project plan for writing your own novel, and a head full of ideas and enthusiasm.
Plot and Structure
Weoley Castle
22nd June, 12.30-4pm, £20
Do you have great story ideas, but struggle to pull them together into a coherent narrative?
See how archaeologists use imagination and observation to transform the ruins of Weoley Castle into a lively mediaeval home, then learn how to
build on your own foundations, and create a sturdy, watertight narrativestructure.
Writing historical fiction
Blakesley Hall
6th July, 12.30-4pm, £20
Historical fiction has never been more popular, but writing it well brings unique challenges.
A Tudor family home will be our time machine as we look at characterisation across eras and cultures, the pleasures and perils of research, and the
sometimes conflicting demands of authenticity and narrative.
Revision and editing
Aston Hall
Date 20th July, 12.30-4pm, £20
“Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten.” For writers who have finished, or are close to
finishing, a first draft, and want to learn the critical skills that will raise
their work to the next level. We will look at how Aston Hall has been built and
rebuilt over the years, and discuss the principles, challenges and rewards of perfecting your work.
Getting Published
Soho House
Date 3rd August, 12.30-4pm, £20
How do you submit your work for publication? What mistakes will earn instant rejection?
What are publishers and agents looking for? Do you need an agent, or even a
publisher? In the home of an entrepreneur who changed the world, we will
consider how writers engage with the business of publishing in the 21st
century, and what they can do for themselves to reach readers.
Writing Fantasy Fiction (guest speaker: Stan
Nicholls)
Sarehole Mill
17th August, 12.30-4pm, £25
In the setting which inspired Tolkien, we will look at the importance of world building, the fine
line between genre expectation and cliche, and how fantasy fiction relates to
and comments on the real world. With guest speaker Stan Nicholls, award winning,
million selling author of the Orcs series.
Birmingham Writers’ Group
If you can get to Leamington, there is an event planned for November.