Crafting Style in Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction

To find your voice as a writer – or one for your characters – you first need to know how to create it. Constructing a strong narrative voice begins with understanding the techniques that shape it: how the narrator’s voice reflects character, how language is pitched, and the stylistic choices you make.

This two-day workshop, running over two consecutive Saturdays, with author and teacher Anthony Macris, is designed for fiction and creative non-fiction writers. In the workshop you’ll fully explore how character influences voice and style, and how sentence structures – from simple to complex – affect rhythm, immersion and readability. You’ll also explore the use of rhetorical devices such as metaphor, simile and personification as tools for shaping a unique style, rather than simply as decorative effects.

Short writing exercises and guided discussion will allow you to test techniques and reflect on how they work. By the end of the workshop, you’ll understand how to create powerful, compelling voices that make your writing more distinctive and sustain your readers’ attention.

Expected learning outcomes

In this workshop, participants will gain:

1. An understanding of the relationship between narrator, character and voice

2. Awareness of how language register, sentence structure and genre choice influence voice and style

3. An ability to experiment with rhetorical and poetic devices to support voice and style.

Participant requirements

Pen and paper, and/or a fully charged device.

Please read our FAQ> before enrolling.