When most stories have already been told, how do we find the glint of uniqueness that makes our particular take on the world truly worth telling?

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?

What is voice? What are its key components? What feeds into it? And how do we bring it to the page?

How do we find the right shape for our stories? What are the different images we might bear in mind to help with narrative and emotional build? How do we create a strong sense of structural balance?

In order to create a strong connection between our characters and our reader, how do we make the people in our stories come alive at an emotional level?

How do we make our writing funny? What are the different techniques we can use to weave humour into our prose?

With so little space to play with, how do we effectively bring a story’s world to life? How do we best evoke place, time, and wider context without it overwhelming the story?

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?