Matt Kendrick
Writer | Editor | Teacher
Resources for planning, structure & inspiration
A spreadsheet to help you structure your novel scene by scene
A sounding board list of questions to help with the planning, structuring, writing, and deepening of stories
Collage pictures for various locations to inspire evocative writing about place
A fancy spreadsheet for keeping tabs on the work you send to literary magazines or competitions
A list of proverbs and sayings that might be used to find the theme beneath a story
A list of proverbs and sayings from around the world that might be used to find the theme beneath a story
Resources for character creation
A thesaurus for body language covering 24 different emotions
A list of superstitions from around the world to help with character and scenario depth
Questionnaires and templates for inspiring rounded characters
A directory of habits that might be used to create unique characters
A short guide to help you pinpoint precise emotion words and related emotional journeys
A directory of unusual pastimes that might be used to create unique characters (either contemporary or historical)
A glossary for common and not-so-common phobias
A directory of unusual professions that might be used to create unique characters
Resources for rocket-boosting your prose
A list of collective nouns for people, mammals, birds, insects, water dwellers, objects, and food
A glossary of onomatopoeia to cover everything from animal sounds to mechancial sounds to musical sounds
A list of over 200 colour names with associated colour swatch
A glossary of sensory details to provide inspiration in bringing the world of your story to life
A guide to formatting dialogue
An introduction to the four basic sentence structures – simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex
A glossary for common and not-so-common literary terms
Prompts and tips
Thirty inspiring creative writing prompts from thirty published authors
Creative writing prompts for humour
Thirty inspirational quotes and tips from thirty published authors
Sixteen inspiring creative writing prompts from thirty published authors
Creative writing prompts for speculative fiction
Creative writing prompts for pieces in different emotional shades
Random prompt generator which outputs ideas for starting a story with words, places, characters or scenarios
Creative writing prompts for historical fiction
Tips from authors and editors
Story lists
Amalgamated lists of stories selected for Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and the Wigleaf Top 50
Example stories which take their inspiration from a specific piece of art or music
Example stories which include supernatural elements
Example stories in the form of lists or that make use of lists to tell their story
Stories stories that shift into alternative presents, speculative futures or the realms of fantasy
Example stories which make dialogue a central pillar of how they are told
Example stories that use anaphora or epistrophe (repetition at beginning or end of a sentence or phrase)
Example stories written as letters, postcards, text messages, emails, diary entries and other forms of communication
Example stories which jump backwards in time and set themselves in the past
Evocative places. Example stories where the setting takes centre stage
Example stories that have a strong, distinct tone of voice
Example stories that weave together two or more narrative, character or tonal threads
Example stories which use extended metaphor and / or non-human perspective
Example stories that make use of humour
Stories that make use of poetical techniques
Example stories that have strong USPs in terms of either scenario, setting, character, form or voice
Example stories which flow from beginning to end in a single sentence
Example stories which split themselves up into tiny segments
How to guides and other instructions. Example stories written using the imperative
Twisted fairy tales and other retellings. Example stories which reimagine well-known narratives
Example stories told using a ‘you’, ‘we’ or ‘they’ perspective
I am committed to opening up writing opportunities to people from all backgrounds based on ability to write rather than ability to pay. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to finance pay-what-you-can and free spots exclusively from my own pocket. So, if you've downloaded these resources and are in a position to support narrowing the access gap to creative writing opportunities, I would be very grateful if you would consider buying me a virtual coffee.
*Any money donated to my Ko-fi page will be used to fund opportunities for low-income writers.
Workshop Recordings
Beyond These Shores: Exploring the Historical and the Speculative
Panel discussion (with Myna Chang and Sharon Telfer)
What is the lure for a storyteller in exploring the historical or the speculative? What are the things to consider when writing in these genres? What strategies are useful in bringing such stories to the page? And what are the pitfalls to be aware of?
Facilitated by Matt Kendrick
Price
£4
What is Learnt in the Cradle: How our childhoods affect our adult selves
Workshop
How do a character's early influences affect who they become in later life? What do they inherit? What do they learn? And how do we use all of this within our writing to create character depth?
Taught by Matt Kendrick
Price
£8
Time and Tide: The ebb and flow of temporal modes
Workshop
What different temporal modes are available to writers? And how can we use these in our writing to structure and deepen our work? This workshop is all about time - how we speed it up, how we slow it down, and how we send it around in loops.
Taught by Matt Kendrick
Price
£8