Benjamin Scott, Writer
Writing, learning and teaching should all be fun! I work hard to make sure my workshops are engaging, educational and energetic. I try to embody the balance between showing and telling; making sure there are plenty of opportunities for students young and older to come to their own realisation about how to write more effectively, whether telling a made-up story or their own.
I run short workships and intentive courses for grown-ups as well as workshops and talks for schools.
Schools Workshops and Talks
The best moments in teaching are when pupils get an "ah-ha!" moment; when something about show not tell, characterisation, plotting or writing/reading in general clicks into place and makes sense. I hope to enthuse and inspire students to engage with writing process and share some of those skills I wish I had learnt at school.
Intensive Workshops and Talks
Fiction for Older Children and Young Adults
Realising who your children’s book is aimed at can be stumbling block for many writers – what works well as an idea for one age group can be a disaster for another. But lots of different factors influence the appropriate age group for a book, from writing style and tone, to the emotional age of characters and the subject matter. To some extent, the boundaries are artificial, but getting the target age group right is crucial to help navigate your book from your imagination to the readers’.
We look at what makes Middle Grade (ages 9-12) different from YA (ages 12+) as well as using a variety of exercises to help you develop or revise an idea for the children’s market.
Running time: 4 to 8 hours
Writing Fiction for Children: Creating and crafting stories for kids from 0 to 100
Children's books aren't just for kids. The best children's books speak to the child inside all of us, whether it's a picture book or a young adult novel. We are going to explore different areas of the children's book market from picture books, through middle grade, to YA.
We'll cover the basic differences of each of these diverse areas of work, from word counts to the audience’s reading skills, but also the similarities -- how good writing techniques and tools underpin good storytelling. One of the wonders of working in such a tough market, and for a tough audience (who simply walk away if not entertained), is that every word, every action and every character has to pull their own weight.
Running time: 4 to 8 hours
Copywriting For Writers: Sell not Tell!
If you've ever struggled to write about yourself or your work, then this is the ideal workshop for you. With an ever increasing number of ways to communicate to potential readers (as well as publishers and agents), it becomes crucial for all writers to be able to express themselves clearly and effectively. Most fiction writers will know the phrase "show not tell", in this workshop we will explore how to "sell not tell", in other words, how to write to promote ourselves and to become our own copywriter.
Running time: 4 to 8 hours.
Short Workshops and Talks
Developing Ideas for the Teen Market
What makes a successful teen novel? How do you develop a strong concept and a unique voice behind your novel and excite publishers? In groups and as individuals, we explore some of the key elements behind a great teenage/YA book concept (including the subtle difference between teenage and YA).
For more information visit Writing Young Adult Fiction.
Running time: 2 to 4 hours
How to Write a How to Book
In the world of “how to” and self-help books, preparation is key. In this workshop, we explore how to get all the hard work done early on, making the actual writing of the book easier. Some of the easy steps we will follow are: how to get the best out of a competitive review, how to win over a publisher with a killer proposal and how to structure that “how to” book.
Running time: 2 to 4 hours
Collective Marketing for Authors
We all know we should be marketing our work, but how effective is it going it alone and are there better ways to get good results? Having got the East Anglian Writers website up and running as a place to promote writers in their region, Benjamin Scott plans to show that there are lessons to be learnt on how authors can club together to promote their work as a collective – think of it as the milk marketing board for authors. Not only can it reduce the cost of marketing for individual authors but also increase its effectiveness in reaching a larger and wider range of readers. This workshop will focus on both some of the theory behind good marketing but also the practical issues faced when trying to set up a collective marketing scheme.
Running time: 2 to 4 hours