Evaluate your script & identify the premise and themes of your manuscript

Following a discussion of structure and reader expectation, participants will check the progression of a manuscript synopsis provided by the tutor in advance, to assess if the narrative processes in the most impactful way..

Create the best possible structure for your book

A series of yardsticks, including the templates of successful structures, will be provided and the participants will do individual exercises and discuss the strongest possible structure for their work.

Pick up inconsistencies in narrative and deal with 'forgotten' elements

A careful look at the separate sub-plots - or in the case of non-fiction, subsidiary information - to ensure that anything that has been 'set-up' is 'paid-off' - in short no dangling or incomplete information.

Create convincing characters

Character, an important part of both fiction and non-fiction will also be examined for maximum impact and questions such as reader/viewer identification. Exercises will be provided to sharpen the qualities, values and speech of the main character and their relationship to the outcome and to other characters. You will practise vital skills such as the importance/prioritisation of events, identifying inconsistency and pick up on sub-plots, threads, events that have possped up in the text and the been forgotten and assess the significance of these and other elements in relation to the direction of the story.

Re-organise content: new material, changing the placing of text, rewriting for impact change or additions.

You will consider how to reorganise the novel in the light of the above reviews and mark out where to add new material add links, remove, replace or amend content to improve on the structure of the manuscript.

Editing and Proof-reading

After differences between editing and proof-reading are described, the group will participate in an exercise in editing - which may involve the rearrangement of text, sentence structures - anything that improves the presentation of the content. Following that, they will do exercises in proof-reading.

Formating to Industry Standards

Professional readers such as prospective agents or publishers are rigid about formatting. Participants will learn about standard formats from preferred typefaces to layout - even the all important covering letter, the envelope and the follow up protocol.