Ideas, inspiration and beginnings

Every story starts with a spark. This week, we’ll explore where ideas come from and how to nurture them into something you can begin writing. You’ll learn how to develop your initial inspiration, shape it into a workable concept, and take those all-important first steps onto the page.

Outcome: You’ll end the week with a clear core idea, the beginnings of a story you’re excited about and the confidence to start writing.

Bringing the characters to life: The basics

Characters are at the heart of every story. This week, you’ll learn the fundamentals of creating believable, engaging characters, from understanding their motivations to shaping their personalities and relationships. You’ll explore how even small details can make your characters feel real and relatable on the page.

Outcome: By the end of the week, your protagonist(s) will be defined with clear motivations and you will have the confidence to bring all your characters to life in your writing.

Shaping your story : Understanding plot basics

This week focuses on shaping your story so it feels purposeful and engaging. You’ll learn the basics of plot — how events connect, how tension builds, and how to guide your reader from beginning to end. We’ll explore simple ways to strengthen your storyline and keep your narrative focused.

Outcome: You’ll end the week with a clearer understanding of how to structure your story, with a plot that feels engaging, logical and compelling from start to finish.

Where it happens: Exploring setting basics

Your story needs a place to unfold. This week, we’ll explore the basics of setting and how it brings your writing to life, complementing plot and characterisation. You’ll learn how to create a clear sense of time and place, and how setting can influence mood, character, and events — whether your story takes place in a fantasy world or a familiar, everyday location.

Outcome: You’ll have a stronger sense of place in your writing, with settings that feel real, engaging and supportive of your story.

Showing vs. telling: Bringing your writing to life and engaging your reader

This week, you’ll bring your writing to life by learning how to show rather than just tell. You’ll discover how to keep your readers hooked from one page to the next through exploring simple techniques for building interest, creating tension, and knowing when to reveal information. You’ll begin to understand how pacing works and how to shape your scenes so readers always want to know what happens next.

Outcome: End the week with the confidence to build engaging scenes and maintain momentum, keeping your readers interested and eager to continue your story.

Building skills: Developing your writing craft

Readers will want a happy-ever-after but the journey there can be perilous. You’ll learn to design effective story twists that feels surprising but earned. In romance, the best twists align with your character arcs, always keeping them and their relationship in focus. The ending should be emotionally satisfying for your reader and tie up all threads, which often makes endings as tricky as beginnings.

Outcome: You will have a strong grounding in the fundamentals of writing, along with the confidence and skills to begin developing your own creative work.

Stepping inside the story: Learning to evoke the senses

We’ll explore how to use the five senses — sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell — to authenticate the fictional world, creating vivid scenes and helping readers feel fully immersed in your story. You’ll also explore the way the sixth sense builds resonance.

Outcome: You will have an understanding of how to use sensory detail to make your writing more vivid, engaging, and emotionally resonant.

Finding your voice: Understanding point of view

How you tell your story shapes how readers experience it. This week, we’ll introduce the basics of point of view, exploring options like first person and third person, and how they affect tone, perspective, and connection to your characters. You’ll begin to experiment with different approaches and discover what feels most natural for your writing.

Outcome: You’ll leave with a clearer sense of narrative voice, an understanding of key point-of-view options and growing confidence in choosing how to tell your story.

Bringing speech to life: Dialogue for beginners

This week you’ll learn how dialogue can reveal character, move the story forward, and add energy to your scenes. We’ll explore simple techniques for making dialogue sound natural and purposeful on the page.

Outcome: You will have the skills to write clear, engaging dialogue that brings your characters to life and strengthen your storytelling.

Finishing strong & moving forward

In this final week, you’ll bring your writing journey full circle by strengthening your ability to finish with confidence and build sustainable writing habits beyond the course. We’ll explore how to maintain momentum as a busy adult writer, manage self-doubt and comparison, and approach your work with a steady, realistic mindset. You’ll also consider the next steps for your writing — whether that’s completing your current piece, revising it, or preparing it for sharing or publication.

Outcome: You’ll end the week with the confidence to sustain a writing practice that fits your life, the resilience to manage self-doubt and a clear understanding of your next steps — whether finishing, refining, or sharing your work as you continue developing as a writer.