How do they do it?  How do our favourite authors synthesise style, voice and tone to transport us into the world of their novel? Aside from narrative structure and technique, what words do they use – and in what order?  How do they employ narrative mode?  What point of view do they adopt?  How adept are they at analogy?

This workshop will focus on style in popular writing and how you may develop your writing style to match that of published authors.

The workshop will be hands-on and experimental. You will be asked to bring a couple of typed pages (in double-spaced, 12 point Arial) which will be paragraphs that you have copied from a book by your favourite, (preferably modern) author. The copied piece/s should be from a part of the novel that has especially moved or impressed you.

The workshop will cover:

• The Building Blocks                 Words – Sentences – Paragraphs – Scenes – Chapters
• Style, Tone, Voice                    What are they and what is difference?
• Phraseology                               The words we use
• Syntax                                          The order of the words we use
• Narrative Mode                        The five elements of narrative mode – ADDET
• Pace                                               From the stroll to the gallop
• Mood                                             How to evoke the emotion
• Imagery                                       How to use it – how not to overdo it
• Metaphor                                    Good ones work – bad ones are awful
• Common literary devices    Tropes, what are they and do we need them?
• Punctuation                               The difference it makes to construction and              meaning

© John Harman 2011