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Explore a wild range of styles in your writing, through lively workshop-style classes.
This course is currently running and will next run in 2027. Join the newsletter for updates on other upcoming courses and workshops and email megan@thewritersgreenhouse.co.uk if you'd like a reminder about this course closer to the time.
Developing your own writing styles is about finding freedom: the freedom to be you on the page and the freedom to experiment with new approaches. On this course, you'll explore a wild range of styles in your writing, build your confidence in writing first draft, and develop a repertoire of techniques to refine and enliven every page – all through imaginative adventures in language and storytelling.
Join the Writing in Style course
- Eight-week course for adults, one evening a week, 7pm–9:30pm
- Choose between in-person classes in Wolvercote, Oxford, OR online classes from anywhere in the world
- Online course: live classes on Zoom, open to bookings from anywhere, on Tuesday evenings 8 Oct – 26 Nov 2024. (Read more about online classes here.)
- In-person course: in Wolvercote, Oxford on Wednesday evenings 9 Oct – 27 Nov 2024.
- £295 total, payable in instalments
- All levels welcome: all my courses and workshops cater for a range of experience, from beginners to published writers
- No homework: you write and practise within class, and each week's booklet has optional quickie activities for those who want to do more.
- Maximum class size of 12
- Next running in 2027
"Incredibly well structured and thought out, encouraging you to find your own voice through exercises and experimentation rather than telling you what to do." – Lynn
"A truly inspirational way to reconnect with and further develop your writing skills. Invaluable lessons, fun exercises, and ignited my creativity and motivation to write more." – Rosie
"inspiring, inventive and bags of fun. Really helped me to identify tics and tendencies in my own writing and gave me lots of ideas for how I might tighten and enrich my prose." – Anna
What you get on the course
This 8-week course looks at a wide array of writing styles, stylistic choices, and aesthetic devices. We try out styles that are rich, sparing, chatty, formal, and transparent. We look at character voice versus authorial voice, and play with distinctive narrative voices. We explore how our choices of person (first/third) and tenses shape the content of what we write. We also look at editing, as the ultimate guarantor of freedom: knowing you’ll edit later gives you the freedom to experiment earlier. This course includes written feedback on two pieces of writing (up to 2000 words) and two after-class socials.
Time-poor? There's no homework for this course and each session includes 20 minutes of guided free-writing time.
Time-rich? Your weekly booklets include 6 optional activities to keep playing with each topic throughout the week.
Each week, you'll…
- Explore a major aspect of style, experiment with the choices around it, and examine its effects. These are the main topics listed below.
- Try out low-hanging fruit – editing techniques which strengthen any style of writing
- Play with bells & whistles – aesthetic devices which make prose more lively
- Do a freewriting / raw-draft writing activity, to keep that vital balance between writing freely and experimenting more consciously with style
- Get a summary booklet including 6 quickie writing activities for the rest of the week, to play with the style techniques more. (These are 5–10 min activities and completely optional.) You also get a cover, back, and slide binder to collect your booklets into a little book, and you can use the exercises to revisit the course topics after the course.
Weekly topics
Week 1: A Range Of Styles
In a mysterious forest, we explore how distinctive styles can be, what shapes them, and which ones you lean towards.
Week 2: Person & Tenses
Out ice-skating, we discover how person changes what we write and the effects our different tenses create.
Week 3: Sentence Shapes
In hot-air balloons, we play with how sentence shapes heighten drama, and how to change them easily.
Week 4: Precision
In a medieval village, we relish the sensory power of precision, whether your style is sparing, dense, or loose.
Week 5: Diction
In Victorian London, we gallivant through different registers and word choices, for serious and comic effects.
Week 6: Narrative Voices
We board a train to meet new narrative voices and delight in turning ventriloquist as the character tells their story.
Week 7: Imagery
Through the medium of cellos, we delve into our imagery: our choices, its impact, and the meanings it gathers around.
Week 8: Imaginary Documents
We creep into a little cottage to explore imaginary documents within our fiction, using all our style variations.
Throughout the course, you’ll experiment with the different aspects and approaches in class, and make your own aesthetic and stylistic decisions according to what feels right for you and for that piece of writing. Exploring style isn’t about closing options down to a “correct” way of doing things: it’s about opening up a wealth of possibilities.
Does the Writing in Style course cover more / different aspects than the Hone your Style workshop?
Yes. Three of the eight sessions have some overlap, with the Writing in Style course going more into detail on them: Session 1: A Range of Styles looks at the variety of styles in more depth; and detail and imagery are both covered in more detail (Session 4: Precision and Session 7: Semantic Fields). The other five sessions cover aspects that aren't addressed in the Hone Your Style workshop. All eight sessions also look at "low-hanging fruit" (editing techniques) and "bells & whistles" (aesthetic devices) which aren't covered in the Hone Your Style workshop.
Reviews
These reviews come from the Daily Info, where you can also read reviews of the other courses and workshops. (To see the latest reviews on Daily Info, you'll need to scroll past the featured reviews first.)
I had an absolute blast on Megan’s Writing in Style course! She creates such an inclusive and creative atmosphere, and the course content was extremely well structured and will be useful for all of my next writing projects. I’m already eyeing up her other courses to try out :)
Will 2 Feb 2023
Megan is a great tutor and always goes the extra mile for her students! The courses are informative, thorough and creative, and – above all – enjoyable.
BettyC 2 Feb 2023
Megan is a master teacher who keeps things lively and interesting but also definitely on-topic. I have learnt an awful lot about the technical aspects of writing, in more detail than other courses I have done in the past. I would highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to lift their writing game to the next level.
Simine 1 Dec 2022
I've just finished the Writing in Style course at The Writers' Greenhouse. Megan is a brilliant teacher. Her courses are incredibly well structured and thought out, providing lots of useful learning materials to work on during and after each of the lessons. Her feedback is non-judgemental but really helpful and her teaching style is all about encouraging you to find your own voice through exercises and experimentation rather than telling you what to do. I also did the Imaginary Worlds course last year, which was also excellent. I'd thoroughly recommend The Writers' Greenhouse to anyone who wants to take the plunge into creative writing or build on the skills they already have.
Lynn 1 Dec 2022
A truly inspirational way to reconnect with and further develop your writing skills. Megan somehow curates unique courses that never feel dull, or like hard work, but still push and challenge. Each week I've taken home invaluable lessons on how to improve my personal writing pieces, fun exercises to practice new techniques, interesting reading recommendations and even advice on how to work out when and where I write best.
I will keep returning to the Writer's Greenhouse for as long as they offer courses, because each course has ignited my creativity and motivation to write more, which is an incredibly special skill that Megan seems to possess effortlessly. Not to mention the wonderful class mates that I am lucky to now call my 'writing community'.
I recommend any writer, new or experienced, to make use of The Writer's Greenhouse. Thank you, Megan!
Rosie 1 Dec 2022
Megan is an excellent teacher, lively, thorough, funny and really knows her stuff! I learned so much from her Writing in Style course and would thoroughly recommend her.
Nikki vdg 18 Feb 2021
Megan Kerr's new creative writing course 'Writing in Style' was inspiring, inventive and bags of fun. Megan is an extremely knowledgeable, imaginative and well-organised teacher.
The writing games and exercises focused on sharpening style. They really helped me to identify tics and tendencies in my own writing and gave me lots of ideas for how I might tighten and enrich my prose. I feared that the necessity to conduct classes over Zoom might take the edge off, but Megan uses the platform very intuitively and the sessions were just as much fun as an in-person workshop.
The course is suitable for anyone who enjoys or wants to try their hand at writing. You don't have to have a work in progress and there is no 'homework' or preparation to do before classes. Classes are very relaxed and nobody is ever put on the spot or made to share what they have written.
I looked forward to it every week and will definitely be signing up for more courses at the Writers' Greenhouse.
Anna 15 Dec 2020
Having been on Megan’s course before so I knew I was in for a treat. I was not disappointed!
I expected the usual high level, quality teaching and resources but it also gave me an insight into my writing and a toolbox to edit my work, invaluable! I have looked forward to my Wednesday evenings, it has been enormous fun meeting other writers. I am still in contact with many of them. If you are hesitating, don’t, suitable from newbies to experienced, have fun, I know I did!
Carolyne 11 Dec 2020
I have completed two courses with The Writers' Greenhouse, Imaginary Worlds and Writing in Style. The first was 'in person' and the second on Zoom and I have to say that the organisation and attention to detail has been incredible for both. Megan is a great teacher, relaxed and knowledgeable and she leads the courses with humour and excellence. I have learned loads and hope to do another course next year. I especially loved the Writing in Style course and it has been particularly useful for the editing stage of my writing. If you are considering any of Megan's courses, then I would say go for it. They are well worth the time and money.
Ellie 11 Dec 2020
Want more info? Read about Finding your own style, check out the FAQ or email me to ask any questions.
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