‘On Monday I had more or less decided I was not a novelist, by last night I had changed my mind. Didn’t expect that!’ This is a quote from ME on the last day of the course.
Before I wrote and published Dear Tosh I began writing in other genres, specifically poetry, short stories and flash fiction. Simultaneously, I drafted two novels, neither of which I actually finished. Well, that’s not strictly true, I finished one then decided it was garbage so put it in a drawer to be forgotten. The other one was unfinished and lay dormant on my computer. There was something not quite right about the premise. I signed up to the Mslexia Novel School, decided to wake up this work in progress and make one last effort at completing it.
From the 11th until the 15th July, I was one of forty odd women who signed up for the online Mslexia Novel School. Every morning for the first half-hour, all the attendees appeared on screen. Rosie Garland talked us through a warm up of writing exercises and ‘chat’. Again in the evening for the last hour, either Rosie or Bec Evans took us through a winding down session. During the rest of the day we were divided into groups of 10 or 12. It was a full on week from 9.30 until 18.00 each day. Four different tutors for workshops covering a variety of novel writing topics.
It was a brilliant week. My group bonded and encouraged each other with constructive feedback on the work that we produced throughout the week — and there was plenty of that — and ideas we all had for new novels or suggestions about our work in progress. It is truly wonderful how supportive other women writers can be. My group are still in contact via WhatsApp and plan regular Zoom meet-ups. How good is that?
Each tutor had put together interesting and informative workshops. They used examples of work from well known books and authors and crafted some clever exercises to expand our ever hungry desire for knowledge. I’ve given a quick list of the tutors and if you want to know more about them you can click on the links.
Voice and POV was run by Margaret Wilkinson a quietly spoken women who taught me not to be afraid to play around with viewpoint and voice until I hit on the one best suited to the piece of work I was writing.
Creating Character was Lesley Glaister who struggled with a sore throat but that didn’t stop her from imparting some great tips re character building including making a connection with an object and a character. I chose a bag of old soap slivers, and invented a troubled young man. Can’t share it because I’m editing it with a view to entering it somewhere.
Pace, Page Turning and Plot fell to Livi Michael. I have to thank Livi for my lightbulb moment of the week when she made me see the weakness in my plot and also turned the few sentences of my ‘pitch to an agent’ into something far more interesting and exciting.
World Building was led by the effervescent Leone Ross was both scary and incredibly enthusiastic. She made us step right out of our comfort zones, stretching our imaginations, in order to create some amazing new and quite different worlds.
I gained something from every tutor during the week and from the hosted discussions held with Rosie and Bec for the whole school on the last day. Rosie shared her journey to publication telling us about her multiple rejections before eventual acceptance. She was the winner of the first Mslexia Novel Competition. What an inspiration she was. We were all in awe. Thank you Rosie.
If you are a woman and considering joining a novel writing course next year, I can recommend Mslexia. Check out what else they have to offer here
