We Know What Makes Storytelling Work

Curated by the Professional Writing Academy: Respected writers and academics with extensive experience in e-learning course design and creative learning content for writers and communicators.

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Ideas Tap has paired up with The Old Vic to bring an amazing opportunity for UK Writers.

If chosen you’ll get:

- The prestige of being an artist on attachment to The Old Vic Theatre and being one of The Old Vic Twelve

- An award of £1,500 to cover your development time and expenses whilst working on the commission 

- A budget of £1,500 to spend on your creative development (purchase equipment/attend a training course)

- Support and mentoring from Old Vic Staff and Old Vic Associates Invitations to Old Vic meetings, press nights, special events and workshops throughout the year and unprecedented access to Matthew Warchus’ first season

- The opportunity to work with other emerging practitioners

Sounds pretty awesome to us. Remember if you need any help brushing up on your play-writing skills, we can help with that.

For more information about the opportunity go to: http://competitions.hiive.co.uk/Opportunities/Brief/IdeasTap-presents-the-Old-Vic-12-Composer-020915#Overview

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“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.”

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Hey! If you have scripts (or script ideas) Triforce (working ITV and ITV studios) want to hear from you. WriterSlam could give you the chance to get your idea turned into a drama on ITV - Pretty darn cool. More Information here.

If you want any help developing your script look no further than here.We have professional mentors ready to give advice and review your scripts (including  Donald H Hewitt who worked on Howl’s Moving Castle and BBC script editor David Roden) 

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bibliophile

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10 Captivating Short Stories Everyone Should Read

1. The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell — The story of a big game hunter finding himself stranded on an island and becoming the hunted.

2. The Last Question by Isaac Asimov — A question is posed to a supercomputer that does not get answered until the end days of man.

3. The Last Answer by Isaac Asimov — A man passes away and has a conversation with the Voice in the afterlife.

4. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman — A collection of journal entries written by a woman whose physician husband has confined her to the upstairs bedroom of the house.

5. The Lottery by Shirley Jackson — The story of one small town’s ritual know only as “the lottery.”

6. Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway — A couple has a tension-filled conversation at a train station in Spain.

7. All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury — A group of schoolchildren live on Venus where the Sun is visible for only two hours every seven years.

8. Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut — It is the year 2081, and all Americans are equal in every possible way.

9. The Monkey by Stephen King — The story of a cymbal-banging monkey toy that controls the lives around it.

10. We Can Get Them For You Wholesale by Neil Gaiman — A man named Peter searches the phone book for an assassin to kill his unfaithful fiancée.

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Hey! If you have scripts (or script ideas) Triforce (working ITV and ITV studios) want to hear from you. WriterSlam could give you the chance to get your idea turned into a drama on ITV - Pretty darn cool. More Information here.

If you want any help developing your script look no further than here.We have professional mentors ready to give advice and review your scripts (including  Donald H Hewitt who worked on Howl’s Moving Castle and BBC script editor David Roden) 

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150th Anniversary Edition of Alice in Wonderland 💕 one of the most beautiful editions I own to date 😃

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Writing Tips

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To Weather Criticism, It Helps To Think Of The Big Picture

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Negative feedback is supposed to be good for us, but it sure doesn’t feel so good. Shifting the context by thinking more broadly helps blunt the sting, a study found. So does embracing change.

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Storytelling has a shape

It dominates the way we tell stories.

Whoever we are, for whatever purpose we tell them

Wherever we are in the world.

Into the Woods, is John Yorke’s bestselling book on story structure. We’ve teamed up Mr Yorke himself to bring to life our own online courses to help you learn all you need to know to create the perfect story - in any form or genre. 

Learn more here. 

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We’d really like to know more about you guys so: How do you balance a full-time job (or responsibilities) with writing without going insane? 

About-to-be-published first time novelist and Faber Academy online course graduate, busy doctor and dog parent Jo Cannon answers this question (and many more) here.

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Today we’re taking a moment to re-love our (slightly wrecked) copy of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in preparation for the BBC’s upcoming TV adaptation.

To find out how you could learn to combine genres as well as Susanna Clarke check out our Free (yep, I said free) exploring genres taster click here.

Use the username: taster And the password: Genre.100

To take a look at the trailer click here.

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I've been told by a fellow writer that "the best villain is one you can sympathize with". Does that always hold true? Should a villain be written as someone totally despicable and evil, yet also someone to pity? Doesn't that negate the character's role as a villain?

Hi! That’s a great question. A great villain should have dimension and making the character sympathetic is one way to do that. There are of course other ways. 

When I try to add depth to a character, I first turn to character psychology: Why did the character do the thing that they did? And then continue with questions from there. For example, let’s say I’m writing a story and want to add depth to this cool cat I’m writing about. So I ask, why did the cat jump from the roof of the house? Because the cat couldn’t get down from the roof. Why was the cat on the roof? Because the cat was afraid of the dog. Why was the cat afraid of the dog? (some questions will seem obvious, but it’s a good idea to answer them anyway and be creative about it.) Because the dog is diabolical and knows there’s a pecking order and thinks cat meat sounds tasty (or something along those lines). But even then, keep digging until you learn something new about these characters. 

Once you have deeper layers for your character, whether they become more sympathetic or not, they will feel more real within the story and perhaps their perspective might be understood. I hope this helps. Happy writing!

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Last week we went down to the Shaw Theatre in London for World Book Night 2015. The night featured performances, readings, and talks from writers David Almond, Sarah Winman, Blaine Harden, Elizabeth Freemantle, Akala, Annabel Pitcher, Irvine Walsh, and the fabulous Lynda La Plante.

We’ll be featuring our favourite quotes from the night. First up are David Almond, Sarah Winman and Blaine Harden. Feel free to contact us if you’d like more information on our evening out, and take a look at our website if you’d like us to help you realise your own writing potential.

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Hi there, 

This is our first Tumblr post, and we’re a little nervous but here we go... The Professional Writing Academy is an education company made up of tutors, teachers, and authors who want to help you learn the art of writing and storytelling.

We produce digital learning products that teach people how to understand and write stories in many forms and genres and across platforms, from virtual classroom to e-book.

If you’d like to know more about us, or get in touch feel free to ask us questions, or send us a tweet. Twitter Our Website