Workshop
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Workshop
Writing Historical Stories – Blending Fact & Fiction
Do you have an interest in writing historical fiction? In this workshop, Patricia draws on her own experience of producing a historical novel. She will explore how to create an authentic sense of place and time while weaving in imagination and intuition, around a framework of historical detail. Ideas on research will be shared, discussion encouraged, and interactive exercises included to stimulate creative thought.
Bio
Patricia developed an interest in writing from a very young age. At age eleven, she produced her own animal magazine, which she sold in school. In her own words, ‘It was probably not very well done,’ but it spurred her interest in continuing to write short stories and poems, and that interest never dwindled. After a spell of training in journalism at a local newspaper, Patricia developed a travel bug, and life took her in different directions. On returning, she trained in Holistic Health and Health Education, teaching for various organisations and colleges, but continued to write, producing a local community magazine, writing articles, short stories, and studying creative writing as part of a degree course.
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Workshop Title: Narration Variation
Narrators are the lense through which a story is revealed, but choosing a narrator is more than just Point of View. Your narrator also effects your range of narrative structures, your tense, narrative distance, your narrator’s reliability, and so much more. Join me in this hands-on writing discovery of who is supposed to be telling your story and why. Writers please bring something to write on and with.
Bio
Dr DeAnn Bell is the author of Yule Moon, Samhain Awakening, and Beltane Ash. She’s been teaching adult writers in North Wales for 12 years. Her first single author short story collection will launch shortly with Atomic Bohemian. To find her books or to book a creative writing class/private lesson, please see www.deannbell.com.
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Workshop
Why write Folk Horror?
There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Folk Horror. We will be looking at some work by writers in this genre, and discussing whether there is a link between this resurgence and concerns about climate change. We will also be delving into creating some folk horror of our own, digging deep into dark places!
Bio
Dr Karen Ankers is a novelist, poet and playwright who is interested in how fiction works as a way of questioning climate concerns. Her recent PhD thesis drew on the work of philosopher Matthew Calarco to examine how to dismantle humanity as a fictional construct. Karen is very interested in how to write trans-species characters and examines this on a daily basis by living with a dog and five cats!
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The Workshop
SCRIPTWRITING
What is a screenplay? What a screenplay is, and what it’s supposed to do.
Screenplay Structure: What it should look like, the technicalities of the screenplay.
Three Acts: The over-arching journey of the story you’re writing.
Story Structure: What happens, when it happens, why it happens, and why it happens to whom it happens to.
Building a Character: Making the people in your story as realistic as possible to tell the story as realistically as possible.
Writing action/ Description: How to keep description to a minimum whilst still getting across relevant, and only relevant, information.
Writing Dialogue: Making sure that the things the people in your story say sound realistic.
Frame-Work: Building the screenplay from the foundation and frame, and filling it in room-by room.
The Writing Business: How to sell the screenplay, who to sell it to, what you should expect.
“The only silly question is the one you don’t ask.” Richard Norton
Bio: James McCann is a multi-award winning screenwriter, whose work has been produced for a wide-range of media platforms. His scripts have been produced in the UK, USA, and Australia. His work includes feature-length films, short films, sketches, and sitcoms. He has been commissioned for feature-length screenplays, children’s cartoons, and was hired to write jokes for an Edinburgh Fringe show 2023. He was a Junior Writer and the most-published author for Forge & Flint.
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Workshop Title:
‘FISH! (OLD MAN POSTBOX)’: Wrangling the Present Tense in Prose
Writing in the present tense is a magic trick. Prose can be constructed to mimic the present, but the dominant images and ideas are often lost inside weighty paragraphs and descriptions. Prose that is closer to the present breaks the rules! It rebels! It breaks down and becomes something else…something strange…
Biography:
Dr Briony Collins is an award-winning novelist, poet, educator, and publisher. Her poetry and short fiction can be found with Broken Sleep Books and Atomic Bohemian, and her debut novel, Ambergris, is available from Barnard Publishing. Her next poetry book, Wyoming, is forthcoming this year with Black Bough Poetry.
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Workshop
Poetry for Radical HopeIn these uncertain times how can poetry become a beacon? Writing hope can be a gift, a spark and a radical act. Through discussing the work of a variety of Welsh and international poets and guided exercises, we will explore various poetic forms and techniques to craft verses that celebrate resilience and imagine possibilities. This workshop will offer a supportive and inspiring space to cultivate your poetic voice, connect with others, and discover how words can be a potent force for radical hope.
Bio
Ness Owen is a poet and lecturer from Ynys Môn. Her poems have been widely published and have been broadcast on Radio 4. Her first collection Mamiaith was published by Arachne Press in 2019 and her second collection Moon Jellyfish Can Barely Swim was published by Parthian Books in 2023. Naming the Trees is her third collection which was published in 2025. She also co-edited Arachne Press’ bilingual anthology A470: Poems for the Road/Cerddi’r Fordd, and Afonydd: Poems for Welsh Rivers. Ness won Greenpeace’s Poem for the Planet in 2022.
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The Workshop
Getting a publishing agreement – what you should expect from your publishers… and what they expect from you!
The talk will be an interactive exploration of the publishing process, from seeking a publisher for your work, through to what’s in a (good) publishing contract, what each side should expect from the other, and how a book is published.
Bio
Dafydd Monks is a clinician, a writer, and partner in a small publishing house in North Wales. He writes extensively on the Western Herbal Medicine tradition with articles appearing in over 20 different publications. He has been editor in chief of a glossy magazine, and written 3 books (to date!). He is passionate about democratising the world of publishing and explaining a rather occult industry in simple terms.
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Workshop
A Poetry Practice for Wellbeing
Our world can often seem uncertain or overwhelming. This can result in a block within our writing processes. Use this workshop to explore new ways of expressing your voice, from revisiting characters of the geographical past, to challenging voices of the present. We will delve into found images, erase articles and also use maps to experience colour-walking. Alter the ways in which you see our world and in doing so, write your own way into wellbeing.
BIO
Biography
Sam Egelstaff lives in North Wales. She has performed at the R.S Thomas Literary Festival, BritGrad 2020 with Sonnets for Shakespeare and enjoys reading her poetry at ‘open mikes’ in both Cheltenham Poetry Festival and Evesham Poetry Festival. Sam is also a member of the European, German Poetry Society Stanza and recently travelled to Bremen, the UNESCO City of Literature, to perform at the launch of the 13 Waves Anthology 2024. Her work has also been selected for the upcoming Yaffle Press, B.O.A.T (Best of all time) Anthology. Her poetry has been published in several magazines, including Icefloe Press, Wildfire Words, and Cape, and in books from Einion, Black Bough Press to MookyChick. Her poem Knot, published in The Medusa Anthology, will be placed in the Museum on the Moon, within the Lunar South Pole, as part of the Lunar Codex Payload with NASA and Space Ex, in December 2025. She is currently a PhD researcher exploring the impact of poetry workshops upon the wellbeing of young people. She completed her MA Creative Writing at Bangor University and she is the Foyle Foundation Teacher Trailblazer 2022, awarded by The Poetry Society. She tweets as @SamEgelstaff and her blog is samegelstaff.wordpress.com.
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Workshop
Making Crime Writing Pay
Outline of workshop – US/UK traditions: Noir, Cozy, Tartan Noir, Classic era.
This will cover some basic fundamentals of crime writing. Including POV, tense, fundamentals of the genre. The Detective: Flawed and Believable – Holmes, Rebus, Maigret, Wallander, Roy Grace, Mathias – Hinterland
A mystery: Something that disturbs the ordinary world; A resolution; Normally ambiguous endings do not satisfy readers; Ending where loose ends tied up.
Workshop will include 1st Sentence/ Paragraph; Show don’t tell; Specificity.
BIO
Stephen Puleston
Stephen is an Anglesey writer who practiced for many years as a solicitor. He became a full time writer in 2012. He has a passion for crime and thriller writing and is the successful author of the acclaimed and exciting ‘Inspector Drake’ crime series, set locally, and the ‘Inspector Marco’ series based in Cardiff. He has recently launched a third series featuring DI Caren Waits set in West Wales. His books have been sold in more than ten countries.
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Workshop
Find the through-line
Every story is about something. We often start writing with a strong vision, but then lose our way. This workshop is intended to guide you back towards the propulsive essence – the central heart – of your work. We will be looking for the nucleus that keeps generating story. This is suitable for anyone working on a novel, short story collection, memoir or work of creative non-fiction. You can be in the drafting stages, the editorial process, or at a much earlier planning stage, where you haven’t yet committed pen to paper. If you are in the planning stages, this is designed to help you find the path now, so you encounter fewer problems later; if you’re drafting or editing, it’s to help you find your way through the forest. There will be generative exercises – there will also be tasks more focussed on helping you identify, remember, or distil the very thing that compelled you to write.
Bio
Elizabeth Sulis Kim is a writer and editor based in Edinburgh. Her writing has appeared in/on Mslexia, TANK, Hellebore, the Los Angeles Review of Books, BBC Culture, Electric Literature, the Guardian, Ache Magazine, and Litro, among other places. She is the editor of Cunning Folk Magazine and Spiritus Mundi from Liminal 11. Her work has been shortlisted for Penguin’s #WriteNow.
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Gwyl Anglesey writing Festival 