Workshop: World-building

With author Ben Oliver, dive deep into the process of visualising the world in which your story will take place. How much detail should go in? How much history should you know? How do you bring it all to life in a realistic way?

Ben Oliver began writing creatively at age seven, and was promptly placed into the lowest reading and writing group at school. Frustrated by his lack of immediate success, Ben chose to step-down from the world of writing.

Three years later, he came out of retirement to write a What I Did During My Summer Holiday assignment, where he claimed he saved the world from the apocalypse. Encouraged by an enthusiastic teacher, Ben returned, triumphantly, to writing.

A mere twenty-two years later, and now a high school English teacher, Ben’s first novel, The Loop, was published in 2020.