Writing conferences & schools

Last minute Christmas Presents for Writers

Written by Della Galton on December 18, 2018. Posted in ideas, Inspiration, Writing conferences & schools. Leave a Comment

So… have you finished your Christmas shopping? Is everything wrapped and under the tree? Or have you just looked at your calendar and thought blimey, is it only a week away I’d better get cracking? (pun intended!).

If you fall into the latter category – I um may actually be in that category – here are some nifty ideas for presents for the writer in your life.

Up to £10

Novelty pens/mugs with writing quotes.
USB drives for backing up work.
Reference books such as Thesaurus or Book of Baby Names (handy for naming characters)
Books about writing or inspiring writing quotes.

£15 to £60

Book vouchers. (One of the best Christmas presents I ever got was a voucher to buy books from an ‘online book store’. It kept me going all year.)
External hard drive for backing up work.
Subscription to Writers’ Forum (£38 for 12 issues)
A one hour mentoring session with Della Galton. (Special Christmas Voucher can be provided). (£30).
A four week course of evening classes in Gillingham Dorset. 7th Jan, 14 Jan, 21 Jan, 28 Jan. 4 x 2 hour sessions. (£34).
A one day course on Saturday 12 January in Gillingham Dorset. Write a Short Story in a Day. (£45).

£60 to £150

Ergonomic chair.
New desk.

£150 plus

New laptop!
Or if you really want to push the boat out, why not buy your writer a week in a writing retreat, or a writing holiday, (some weekend suggestions below) or even his/her very own writing shed.
Weekend writing course at Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. 15th to 17th February, 2019. (£249). Click here for more details.
Weekend writing course at Cirencester, 12th to 14th April, 2019. (£255). Click here for more details

For any of my courses please email me HERE for more details. Please state name of course for which you would like details.

Happy Last Minute Shopping!

All best wishes

Della xxxx

Writing Courses – Five tips on finding a good one?

Written by Della Galton on July 31, 2017. Posted in Short stories for magazines, Woman's Weekly, Writing, Writing conferences & schools. 2 Comments

I am lucky enough to be able to teach creative writing at various venues. This is Woman’s Weekly’s new home at Canary Wharf. How can you fail to be inspired by this view?

Tip Number One – Credibility

Do the course organisers have the credibility factor? Yes, if they are a respected publisher. such as Woman’s Weekly, they certainly do. Choose carefully.

Tip Number Two – Marketability

Can the course organisers actually buy the work you produce? Yes, in Woman’s Weekly’s case – they buy twenty plus stories a month. They also buy features. Which means that what you learn on the course may actually help you to sell your story to them.

Tip Number Three – Venue and accessibility

Woman’s Weekly have courses in London and in Birmingham. They cost £79 for a full day’s course. Choose from fiction, poetry or journalism. Check here for details.

Another wonderful venue, particularly if you are looking for something longer than a day is Writers’ Holiday, Fishguard, Pembrokeshire. Check out their winter weekend in February 2018 but be quick because it books up fast. £229 fully inclusive.

Tip Number Three – Inclusivity

Does your course include all levels of experience? If you’re a beginner you don’t want to feel out of your depth. But equally if you’re a more experienced writer you don’t want to sit through a course that is too basic. Check with the organisers. Both the Writers’ Holiday, at Fishguard and Woman’s Weekly cover all levels of experience, often on the same course.

Tip Number Five – The Fun Factor

It’s not all about the work, it’s wonderful to have fun too. Choose a course which has a reputation for friendliness. This is where The Writers’ Holiday comes into its own. Ann and Gerry Hobbs, who run Writers’ Holiday, are amazing. It would be hard to find a nicer couple. Nothing is too much trouble. Don’t take my word for it. Check out their website. www.writersholiday.net

And while we’re on the subject of friendly, I’m pretty friendly myself. Here are the details of my next two Saturday courses in Bournemouth. They run from 10 am till 4.00 pm.

Saturday 5 August, 2017 – Fiction Workshop – summer special DISCOUNT RATE £29.00

A day of inspirational workshops, designed to get your creative juices flowing. Workshop based. Places will be on a first come, first served basis.

Saturday 11 November 2017 – Writing Your First Novel £45.00

The first chapter and beyond.
Writing the synopsis and cover letter.
Approaching agents and publishers.

Please contact me if you’d like to book. I will leave you with some biscuits. These are the ones Woman’s Weekly have on their courses – just saying!

Thanks for reading.

Writing Courses – are they worth it?

Written by Della Galton on July 31, 2016. Posted in Short stories for magazines, Tips on writing, Woman's Weekly, Writing, Writing conferences & schools. 11 Comments

teaching at fishguard — Teaching at Fishguard Writers’ Holiday

There are so many writing courses around these days. Universities run them, publishers run them, magazines run them. In fact every Tom, Dick and Harry (if you’ll excuse the cliche) runs writing courses. Even the smallest town has a literary festival. But are they worth spending your hard earned cash on?

In my opinion, that depends on what you hope to gain. So before you begin, establish what you want and choose the right course for you.

I started my writing career by joining an Adult Education Class called Writing for Profit and Pleasure back in 1987. My tutor knew about getting published. Jean Dynes,who currently writes a column for Writers’ Forum as Barbara Dynes, was already well published.

Top Tip Number One: Choose Credibility
If you want to get published, get someone to teach you who is well published themselves. It helps if their students are too. I was inspired by another student in the class who had got published since joining (she’d just sold her 27th short story that year).
Top Tip Number Two: Choose Expertise
If you’re aiming to get published in a magazine and they run a course about getting published in their magazine, then go. They are the best people to teach you. I teach for Woman’s Weekly Magazine in London, Manchester and Glasgow, alongside their fiction editor, Gaynor Davies.
At Woman’s Weekly with Fiction Editor, Gaynor Davies.
Top Tip Number: Three Choose longevity.
I’ve just come back from the Writers’ Holiday at Fishguard, which is run by the lovely Anne and Gerry Hobbs. This year’s Writers’ Holiday was their 30th! They have a huge repeat rate of students, who can’t resist their courses because they are well organised, the food is fabulous, the locations (Fishguard, Pembrokeshire) is wonderful and the tutors are all working and well published writers. Top marks Anne and Gerry.
Anne and Gerry also run a weekend course at Fishguard in February. I’d advise booking as soon as possible if you fancy it because places are limited. I’m teaching the short story course in February 2017 by the way.
More information about Anne and Gerry’s courses can be found at Writers’ Holiday.
More information about Woman’s Weekly Courses can be found at. Woman’s Weekly Courses. (incidentally that photograph is not of me, but a much fatter imposter, tee tee).
More information about my courses is usually on my website, or you can email me. Next week I am running a day course (Saturday 6 August 2016.) Write a short story in a day. (£29 summer special offer, they’re usually £45). Venue Kinson Community Centre. Please email me if you’d like to book. Or leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

Happy Writing!

Holidays for Writers – are they worth it?

Written by Della Galton on August 22, 2015. Posted in Inspiration, Retreat, Writing, Writing conferences & schools. 4 Comments

I’ve recently been lucky enough to spend time at two well known writers’ Summer Schools. The Writers’ Holiday at Fishguard (Pembrokeshire) and Swanwick the Writers’ Summer School (Derbyshire).

So what can you do at a writers’ holiday? Apart from network and enjoy yourselves a lot, that is!

Here’s a selection of the 2015 courses provided at each.

Novel Writing
Manifesting your goals – writing goals – naturally!
Writing for Children
Poetry
Short Stories
Script writing
Painting – discover the artist in you.
Writing historical fiction
Writing contemporary women’s fiction
Writing for magazines
Meditation

The speakers are impressive too. Experts in their fields, they range from authors to agents and publishers to magazine editors. Check out their websites for next years selection.

Oh and then there’s the entertainment. The last night pantomime at Swanwick. The Cwmbach male voice choir at Fishguard. All unmissable entertainment.

What’s the food like? Well, Swanwick has a reputation for school dinner food but I thought this year’s was pretty good actually. Fishguard isn’t bad either. Waitress service, choice of menu. Huge breakfasts. Fantastic. But then maybe it’s just the company of other writers – you never know who you are sitting next to? That little old lady at breakfast who turns out to be the author of 40 plus novels or the woman who’s the world expert in chimney sweeps! Who needs food!

The accommodation is good at both but you won’t be spending much time in your room. There is far too much going on and you won’t want to miss a thing.

Both holidays are superb value. Fully inclusive for a week and around £500.

Will you come away inspired and buzzing and fired up to get on with the lonely business of writing. Well, I always do. Both courses have Facebook and Twitter pages. Check out their websites on the links above. So you can keep in contact all year long. I highly recommend both ‘holidays’.

Fishguard is more intimate – around 50 delegates and they have a weekend in February as well as a week in July. Swanwick has around 200 delegates and has activities going on from dawn – meditation on the lawn – till dusk – late night discos and writing sessions.

Fishguard is set on the beautiful Pembrokeshire coastline. Great for walking if you want to clear your head between courses.

Partners are welcome at both. Some pix below to give you a flavour of both but please do check out their websites.

My next Saturday course in Bournemouth by the way is Create Off The Page Characters. This is workshop based and suitable for beginners or experienced writers. And will be useful for you whether you write short stories or novels. Should be great fun. Small group guaranteed. Very relaxed environment. Constructive feedback.

Date: Saturday 17th October – 10 till 4.00
Venue: Kinson Community Centre, Millhams Road, Pelhams Park, Bournemout BH10 7LH
Cost: £45

Please email me via this website if you’d like to book or find out more details of my Bournemouth course.

I’m also teaching at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester, 8th to 10th April 2016 and in Alicante on 13th June 2016 for a few days. Email me for details of these if you’d like more info. I also teach at Woman’s Weekly offices in London. Please see their website for details. I’m also at NAWG this year 4th to 6th September and Woman’s Weekly Manchester Live 10th to 12th September. Phew, no wonder I feel a tad tired! I wore myself out just writing that!

Della guitar — me having a guitar moment by the lake at Swanwick with the lovely Helen Ellwood

Me teaching at Kinson — Me teaching in Bournemouth.

Keep on Learning

Written by Della Galton on April 24, 2013. Posted in Guest Posts, Writing conferences & schools. 3 Comments

Today, I am delighted to welcome my guest blogger and friend, the lovely Kath McGurl, owner and author of Womag. Kath is talking about writing classes.

Kath has just written a fabulous little writing book called Ghost Stories and How to Write Them. Do please check it out here.

Keeping on Learning

I’ve been attending Della’s evening writing classes for about six years now. You might think there is nothing new to learn about writing after so much time, but that’s not true. We may sometimes cover topics I’ve done before, but we will cover them in a different way and every time I get something new from it. The classes are always inspiring and I come away buzzing with ideas.

My book, Ghost Stories and How to Write Them, owes a lot to Della’s classes. Two of the stories contained in it were originally written for our class end-of-term competitions which are always great fun. One is Play With Me about a child-ghost in a swimming pool. For this competition we had to write a story with a single setting. The other is Letting Go, for which we had to put our main character out of his or her comfort zone. I came up with the idea of a reclusive ghost, who was forced to share the space he haunted with another ghost.

And a third story in my book began life as a writing-class exercise. In these exercises, Della sets a kitchen timer and gives us six minutes to write. She might set us to write the start of a story or a piece of characterisation or a chunk of dialogue – always something different. My story What’s Up with Benjy?, in which a ghostly dog needs to be laid to rest, began as a paragraph or two scribbled furiously in my notebook for one of these exercises.

So if you’re serious about writing and have the chance to attend writing classes locally, I’d strongly urge you to do so for the continual inspiration you’ll get from them. If there are none locally, consider joining an online class, or going to one-off workshops at the weekends. They’re always worth it!

And Della says…

Thanks so much for all that, Kath, and yes I couldn’t agree more. I teach writing classes now, but I also attend one as a student. I started going twenty six years ago and I have no plans to stop. It’s a great place to get inspired, check out whether my stories work before an editor sees them, and get help with endings of stories, which are the bane of my life.

The Dunford Novelists’ Conference

Written by Della Galton on December 14, 2012. Posted in Retreat, Writing, Writing conferences & schools. 2 Comments

Gosh, it’s ages since I wrote a blog, and I have been meaning to tell you about the Dunford Novelists for a while.

This is my all time favourite writing conference. Two reasons: one, it’s at the end of January – and looking forward to it livens up that flat ‘after Christmas’ feeling no end – and two, it’s a working writer’s conference. Moi? workaholic? Well, of course!

I was first introduced to Dunford about 12 or so years ago. It runs from Friday tea time to Sunday just after lunch and it’s one of the most intensive things I’ve ever done. Basically it’s all about getting the first chapter – and indeed the first page – of your novel as spectacular as possible. Because if you don’t do this, the rest of it might never be read.

You take along your first chapter – four copies of it to be precise – and throughout the weekend you get written feedback from the other delegates, a mix of published and yet to be published novelists. You also read your first chapter aloud to your group (6 people) and get comprehensive verbal feedback. You also read your first page aloud to the entire assembly (36 people) and get verbal feedback.

It’s scary. Very, very scary. But it doesn’t half focus your attention on your first chapter. And your first page. I love it, love it, love it!

Dunford is chaired by best selling novelist, Catherine King.

It is however, invitation only, but I happen to know that there are one or two places left for this year’s conference because of last minute cancellations.

It costs £201 for the weekend, and is in Bournemouth on 25-27 January.

If you fancy subjecting your first chapter to intense scrutiny and having a rather fine time socialising too, then get in touch with me and I’ll see if I can wrangle you an invite 🙂

It’s invitation only,

Update on Swanwick Erotica

Written by Della Galton on August 19, 2012. Posted in Writing conferences & schools. 3 Comments

Now I have your attention, I am, of course, talking about my How to Write Erotica Course at Swanwick Writers Summer School – as opposed to any actual erotica taking place at Swanwick, which naturally I’m not aware of, and if I was my lips would be sealed!

Everyone thinks writing erotica is quite a serious subject – and indeed I can’t entirely disagree – but learning how to write erotica is about as far away as you can get from serious. I have never seen so many women (and a handful of men) laugh so much in my life. Martin – you were an absolute star. I will never see you in quite the same way again.

My students did actually learn some things too about the art of writing erotica, I hope! Many of them left saying the course was an eye opener. It certainly was for me – I just couldn’t believe what filthy minds you all have. Tush! Whereas my mind, of course, is as pure as a fresh fall of snow 🙂

Anyway, I thought I would share a few of the main points here now. For anyone who is interested.

The biggest mistake writers new to erotica make is to think the story isn’t important. It is. Obviously there should be sex – this is after all, erotica, but there must be a story too. Lack of a story is one of the main reasons we reject submissions at Xcite Books.

Another common reason for rejection is because it’s obvious that the writer has simply added a sex scene to an otherwise non-sexy story. There must be sexual tension throughout.

Do use inventive settings. Your characters do not always have to be in a bed – or even indoors. A different setting – for a good reason, of course – can mean the difference between a rejection and a sale.

Do use humour, it can work extremely well in erotica, which can sometimes be too intense – or just plain silly without it.

Do build your characters. They are the ones ‘performing’ so to speak. They should be vivid and real.

Don’ts

Don’t generalise or use clichés. Be specific.

Don’t get carried away with adjectives. Clumsy overwritten description doesn’t work in erotica any more than it works in any other writing.

I am running this course again on Saturday 10 November, 2012, in Bournemouth. It runs from 10.00 am till 4.00 pm. And there will be a chance to bring along your own erotic scene for feedback – if you are brave enough. Cost is £35. Please email me if you’d like further details.

Swanwick The Writers’ Summer School 2012

Written by Della Galton on August 1, 2012. Posted in Writing conferences & schools. Leave a Comment

And while I’m on the subject of brilliant writing conferences, here is another one. Swanwick Writers’ is in Derbyshire in beautiful surroundings. And if you fancy a week getting totally inspired and motivated and learning loads, not to mention partying every night, this is a great one to do.

http://www.swanwickwritersschool.co.uk/

The food isn’t quite as awesome as Caerleon’s, but the accommodation is excellent and the courses are excellent too. Very good value again – prices start at £390 which is an all inclusive price.

This year’s speakers include: Helen Lederer and David Nobbs

This year’s courses include Truth is Stranger than… by Jane Wenham Jones

and E-publishing by Peter Jones – could they be related??

Also, I’m doing a short course called, ‘Writing erotica’ which should be fun!

It’s not too late to book, but you’ll need to be quick. Bookings close 6 August.

I shall report back on how good it was later!

I Am A Best Selling Writer

Written by Della Galton on July 30, 2012. Posted in ideas, Inspiration, Writing conferences & schools. 8 Comments

I am a best selling writer. And so is Lynn Hackles. Here is the picture of us recording these words on film.

lynne hackles and me 2012 Caerleon — Lynne Hackles and I saying we are best selling writers!

No, we have not gone mad. No, we have not just hit the best seller lists. And no I am not pregnant – just forgot to hold my stomach in! We were both attending a brilliant course at Caerleon Writers Holiday in Wales, run by a lady called Solange Hando called Make It Happen In 2012. The course was about motivation and one of the exercises she asked us to do was to state out loud what we wanted to become, as if it was happening now. You wouldn’t believe how motivating this was. Try it and see. And let me know how you got on.

Solange’s other tips included making an Olympic style chart listing five things we wanted to achieve and pinning it over your desk where you can see it every day and brainwash your subconscious into making it reality. Another creative visualisation task, which is very effective. Here is mine:

Another of Solange’s tips was to publicly state your goals. It’s a lot harder to renege on goals that you have publicly declared you will do. So, I have just done this too – to you all. (That’s if you can read it!) But I know what it means, which is the main thing. Please feel free to nag me at intervals. And if you would like me to nag you too. Let me know.

The whole course was a delight. In fact, Caerleon was a delight. The atmosphere was amazing. Anne and Gerry Hobbs are wonderful hosts. Being among a hundred plus writers for a week was incredibly inspiring. The food was awesome. I am heavier and happier for having spent a week at Caerleon, which is an annual writers’ holiday.http://www.writersholiday.net/caerleon.htm

Next year’s holiday is already in my diary. It will take place at Caerleon on 28 July to 2 August 2013 and will include the following courses:

A Complete Introduction to Contemporary Romance – Kate Walker

Creative Non Fiction – Adding Colour to Technical Writing – Simon Whaley

Wannabe A Writer We’ve Heard of – Jane Wenham Jones

How To Write and Sell Erotic Fiction – Della Galton

And there are others too. I really recommend this, all for a price of £499

Hope to see you there.

Della xxxx

A Brilliant Weekend at Fishguard

Written by Della Galton on February 24, 2012. Posted in Writing conferences & schools. 6 Comments

Last weekend I taught for the first time at Fishguard in Pembrokeshire at one of Anne and Gerry Hobbs courses. The hotel was beautiful, Victorian elegance, fab food, and a wonderful coastal setting.

The course was called Write a Story in a Weekend. I had eleven students, and they were wonderful. In the six hourly sessions every one of them wrote the first draft of a short story. I think that some of them will be published. They were blinking good.

I wrote one too!

To my delight I was invited back to teach the same course next year, it’s always in February, the half term weekend – a great mini break if you need a rest after having the children off school 😉

Here’s the link in case you are interested.

http://www.writersholiday.net/fishguard.htm

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