Refining the Craft of Writing with Ian McDonald

All books sell something. Your ideas, your language, your characters. Your story, your values. You sell them to different buyers, and you sell them many times over.  Everything you write you sell three times.

Join writer Ian McDonald for a workshop that will take you through three steps to help you refine the craft of writing.

The first sell: to yourself. Writing is a commitment of time, dedication and energy. Doubts creep in from the second paragraph – how do you sell your book idea to yourself so that you can find the commitment to work on it. And when is it all right to let it go?

The second sell: to your readers. You're selling them the characters –are they interesting? Are they consistent, or consistently inconsistent?  Your worldbuilding –can they believe in it? Is it too much? Does your story push the willing suspension of disbelief that centimetre too far?

The third sell: to the market. How to –and how not to—pitch your idea. Reading the market, and why everyone is looking for the next big thing but no one knows what it is. Your story in 25 words or less, and why should the world care?  And why the marketing department rules.

Although this workshop is open to all, it might be of particular benefit to post-beginner writers.

About the tutor

Ian McDonald is a (mostly) science-fiction writer from Northern Ireland. His first novel Desolation Road was published in 1988, his most recent was the conclusion to the Luna series: Moon Rising. He’s a Higo, Locus and BSFA Award winner, and nominated for many more. He’s been translated into fifteen languages