A dissection of what makes a character memorable, believable, and relatable, while learning how to build a cast of characters from the ground up.

Dave Rudden is the author of the award-winning Knights of the Borrowed Dark series, as well as the Doctor Who anthologies Twelve Angels Weeping and The Wintertime Paradox. He enjoys cats, good beard maintenance and being cruel to fictional children.

Understand the process of turning a story idea into a full elevator pitch, outline and blurb, building out the details required for querying agents, and how to use a synopsis as a tool when writing and editing your manuscript.

Lauren James is the twice Carnegie-nominated British author of many Young Adult novels, including The Reckless Afterlife of Harriet Stoker, The Loneliest Girl in the Universe and The Quiet at the End of the World. She is also a Creative Writing lecturer, freelance editor, screenwriter, and the founder of the Climate Fiction Writers League. Her upcoming release is Green Rising, a climate change thriller.

From concept to creation, go on a whistle-stop tour of how to write a picture book, with a focus on compelling characters, engaging plots and clear, emotional take-aways.

Clare Helen Welsh is a picture book author, writing tutor and WriteMentor’s Picture Book Writer in Residence 2021. She loves dreaming up stories for young readers and their families to enjoy, be that fictional, non-fiction or a blend of both. For many years she was a primary school teacher, which ignited her love of storytelling, reading and role-play. Clare lives in Devon with her husband, two children and her dog, Hope. When she isn’t imagining new worlds and creating characters, she enjoys walking on the beach and in the countryside, taking lots of inspiration from the natural world.

Editing is a crucial skill for writers to master but approaching your own manuscript can seem daunting. This workshop will break down the editing process and equip writers with the tools they need to make their writing sparkle. Ideal for writers at any stage of the writing process.

Alexandra Sheppard is a children’s author from North London. Her debut novel Oh My Gods was published by Scholastic and received coverage in Refinery29, Buzzfeed and The Guardian’s Summer Reading List 2019. She also runs WriteMentor’s WriteMaster course.

A Whole New World

A fun and relaxed guide through the epic journey of fantasy world building, to help you create the perfect backdrop to your own unique world.

This workshop is text-based on Slack. Instructions on how to use Slack will be sent with your conference invite email in September.

Raised on a healthy diet of fantasy and fairy tales, Bex Hogan has spent much of her life lost in daydreams. Writing her stories down was a natural progression and now she enjoys sharing her time between living in the real world and escaping to her imagination. A Cornish girl at heart, Bex now lives in Cambridgeshire with her husband, two beautiful daughters and a fluffy cocker spaniel. She might be found riding horses, talking to her plants or eating marzipan. Or not.

Take part in a series of writing tasks and discussions to explore narrative voice and point of view. Explore dialogue and how to fall in love with writing it. Consider what is said, how it’s said and what’s left unsaid – sometimes the strongest voice of all. Gain an introduction to techniques to make your writing sing, and how to maximise each character’s moment in the spotlight of speech. No experience or preparation needed. Please feel free to email Liz with any preferred learning styles or needs in advance.

Liz Flanagan is an award-winning author based in Yorkshire. She writes for children and young adults and her books include Eden Summer, Dragon Daughter and Rise of the Shadow Dragons.

Releasing a book with an indie or small press is a good middle ground, offering a similar publishing experience to big name publishers with the flexibility and personalisation of self-publishing. Gain first-hand insights into indie publishing from the perspective Knights Of author Elle McNicoll and her role as a neurodivergent author.

Elle McNicoll is a children’s author from Scotland, now living in East London. One of the most exciting new voices in children’s publishing, Elle is a Neurodivergent writer and is passionate about disability rights and Own Voices representation. Her debut novel A Kind of Spark was published to critical acclaim in June 2020 and won the 2021 Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story, was Blackwell’s Book of the Year, and has recently been shortlisted for this year’s Branford Boase Award. It was also shortlisted for the 2020 Books Are My Bag Readers Awards. Her second book, Show Us Who You Are, is a gripping story set in the near-future with a platonic love-story at its heart; an organisation called Pomegranate is using AI to create holograms of people – with sinister consequences.

Serena Patel shares how she developed a cast of characters with series potential, things to think about when planning a series, and challenges and benefits of writing a series.

Serena Patel is the author of the Anisha, Accidental Detective series which launched in 2020. The first book in the series won the Sainsbury’s award for Children’s Fiction and was shortlisted for a Book of the Year award at the British Book Awards. The second book in the series, Schools Cancelled was shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award for Fiction.

Ross Montgomery explores the subgenre of historical fantasy fiction from his perspective of writing The Midnight Guardians, a book set during World War II that weaves magical fables with real-life events.

Ross Montgomery started writing stories as a teenager, when he should have been doing homework, and continued doing so at university. His debut novel, Alex, the Dog and the Unopenable Door, was nominated for the Costa Children’s Book of the Year and Branford Boase Award. It was also selected as one of the Sunday Times’ “Top 100 Modern Children’s Classics”. His latest book for 8-12s, The Midnight Guardians, was Waterstones Book of the Month and chosen as a Children’s Book of the Year for The Guardian. He lives in London with his girlfriend and their cat, called Fun Bobby.

Children love reading rhyme, but writers can find it a hard skill to master. What is metre? What is scansion? How do you create a rhythm?Picture book author Catherine Emmett discusses the key elements to rhyming well, and why perseverance is important.

Catherine Emmett spent 15 years working in the City before realising that she needed to find a job she loved. She packed up her young family and escaped to the countryside to start writing children’s books. Now she writes rhyming picture books with twisty plots and endearing characters and LOVES talking about rhyme. She also leads WriteMentor’s WriteRhyme course.

Gain advice on how a writer can stand out and get noticed by an agent/editor from the perspective of Eishar Brar, Editorial Director of children’s publisher Knights Of, who finds and champions new voices in often untraditional ways.

Eishar Brar is Editorial Director at Knights Of, an inclusive publisher focused on publishing underrepresented voices. In her role she creates space for non-trauma led narratives and aims to widen the scope of Own Voices publishing through her commissioning.

Hamza Jahanzeb shares their overview of the important role of sensitivity reading – what it is, why it’s important, and advice on how to ensure authenticity and nuance in stories, be it in one’s voice, characters, and/or settings.

Hamza Jahanzeb is a Publishing Professional who hails from Lancashire. He can be found on Twitter @hamzajahanzeb or at www.hamzajahanzeb.co.uk. 

Climate change is at the forefront of many of our minds, and whether in our world or a secondary one, may end up working its way into our fiction. In this talk, Sunday Times bestselling author, Laura Lam, details some of the climate change research she’s done from writing near-future thriller Goldilocks, as well as a Youtube channel CYOTopia. She will give tips and tricks on using climate change science to create believable, rich worlds to become the backdrop to your stories. 

This workshop is text-based on Slack. Instructions on how to use Slack will be sent with your conference invite email in September.

Laura Lam is the Sunday Times bestselling author of SFF books like Seven Devils, Goldilocks, Pantomime, False Hearts, and more. She also lectures at Edinburgh Napier on the Creative Writing Masters.

If you’re writing books for younger readers, at some point you might work with an illustrator – but it’s often a lesser-known part of the publishing process. Author/illustrator pairing Emma Perry and Rikhin Parekh discuss how an author’s picture book concept is materialised by the illustrator, bringing the words to life through art. 

Emma Perry can be found either writing books, reading them or teaching them. It’s always been that way. In fact, her first two picture books are about… yep, books.

Rikin Parekh is a children’s book Illustrator based in North West London. He also works as a LSA (Learning Support Assistant) in primary schools.

An ‘in conversation with’ event talking about the rise in understanding and interest in mental health and wellbeing for teens and where Sara draws her inspiration from.

Sara Barnard lives in Brighton and does all her best writing on trains. She loves books, book people and book things. She has been writing ever since she was too small to reach the ‘on’ switch on the family Amstrad computer. She gets her love of words from her dad, who made sure she always had books to read and introduced her to the wonders of second-hand book shops at a young age. She is the author of the bestselling Beautiful Broken Things and won the YA Book Prize for her novel Goodbye, Perfect.

Author Alex Page and her agent Christabel McKinley discuss their journey so far working together. How Christabel came to represent Alex, how they developed and eventually submitted her work, how they continue to work together. Includes helpful information for writers looking for agents or wanting to know more about navigating agenting relationships, with anecdotes drawing on Alex’s upcoming books as examples.

Alexandra Page is a writer of picture book texts and young fiction. She grew up between England and Zimbabwe, making up stories to entertain her younger sisters and brother. After studying English Literature she settled in London and worked for several years in the production departments at Penguin, Puffin and Walker Books, before becoming a freelance project manager in the City. She loves to travel, swim and spend time with her husband and daughter in her favourite place, Budapest. In 2019, Alexandra’s early middle grade novel, Wishyouwas, was shortlisted for the Times Chicken House prize and won the WriteMentor Children’s Novel Award. It will be published in September 2021 by Bloomsbury Children’s Books. Her debut picture book, The Fire Fox, will be published the following month by the Two Hoots imprint at Macmillan.

Christabel McKinley joined David Higham Associates in 2018, having previously worked in translation rights and at a scouting agency. She graduated with a degree in Russian and English Literature from Trinity College Dublin, after which she spent a year teaching English in South Korea. At DHA, she is building a list of exceptional writers for children across all age groups, from picture books to Young Adult.