A 2.5-hour self-paced workshop on handling flashbacks and multiple characters, plot threads, or time streams. Video & Text | Self-paced.
If you want your story to include any of these…
- flashbacks
- a large cast of characters
- one or more subplots
- more than one time stream
… the reader needs more help to keep track of things than you might realise.
When it’s not working, your readers aren’t thrilled at the twist, shocked at your carefully planned reveal, or touched by the scene. Instead, they’re muddling characters and forgetting what even happened before. If feedback from your writing group or beta-readers has ever made you feel like they aren’t even reading what you send them, this is probably what’s going wrong.
Happily, helping the reader keep track is rich with discovery and delight. As you go back to make those characters more memorable and find ways to sneak in reminders, they leap to fuller life than before. As you seed memory-hooks into that past scene and weave them in to the new one, both turn thick with vivid detail and new story possibilities. When the phrase “five hundred years before” isn’t registering and you make everything look, feel, smell like it’s five hundred years ago, you discover astonishing new depths to draw on.
That’s what Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes will help you do. So next time, when you ask if your beta-readers or writing group remember X, they’re saying “Of course, how could I forget her? She’s the one…” and “Yes, absolutely! That was the bit where…” Then your plot twists thrill, your reveals are dramatic, and that touching scene resonates.
As this is a new Evergreen Course, all reviews are from previous courses and workshops, including live versions of Orientating the Reader.
‘Megan’s workshops are practical, inspiring and a phenomenal amount of fun, no matter your level of experience or expertise. I always get more than I bargain for! She is brilliant.’ – Sam Stewart, author and publisher
‘For me, the most beneficial thing was finding a new way to look at something, or a new way of thinking about it. Orientating the Reader was particularly good for this.’ – Gemma
Get Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes now
or read on to see how it helps.
How Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes will help
Through four self-paced modules, you’ll develop and use all the skills you need so your readers remember:
- Who’s That Again? Seed the details that make every character distinctive and bring them more to life.
- What Was Happening? Weave plot threads together without dumping the plot tension or leaving the reader scrambling to remember.
- When Is This? Infuse the sense of time so vividly that there’s no chance of confusion.
- Bringing it all together: Flashbacks. Bring all three skills together plus some nifty technical know-how to create seamless, effective flashbacks.
Plus, across all four modules:
- Use the techniques with your own story if you have one OR use the creative practice prompts I give you.
- Time-specific activities are integrated into the video lessons, to help you hold the space and focus.
- Extendable activities are separate PDF lessons, so you can choose to spend longer on them where it’s useful for you.
‘I booked Orientating the Reader, an online course. I was struggling with focusing on consistency and making sure the reader knew where they were physically and plot wise.
Megan was very personable and explained the concepts needed via a series of tasks that made them easy to understand and apply. I have attended many courses both online and in person, none of which have had the pace and quality that Megan provides.’ – Carolyne
Get Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes now
or read on to see if it’ll suit you.
Will Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes suit me?
- How long will it take? All together, 2–2.5 hours. You can extend activities further if you want to.
- Do I need to be writing a story? You don’t need to be, but you can be. If you have a story you’re working on, you can try out the techniques with it during the workshop. If you don’t, or you’d rather practise on something else first, the workshop will give you all the material you need.
- What if I’m a beginner / already experienced? The workshop suits all levels: it’s been tested with a wide range of students, from complete beginners to experienced and published writers.
- I have fatigue / limited energy: The workshop is chunked into sections, so you can do it in bits when you have the 'spoons'.
- Is this accessible? If you’re hard of hearing or Deaf, visually impaired, use a screenreader, or use dictation software, all the activities and materials are fully accessible.
- Have I met this before? It ran as part of the complete “Orientating the Reader” workshop in the Summer of Writing in 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2021.
Choose the option that suits you
- Want a motivating deadline? Use It Now (£50) gives you 30 days’ access so you can do one module a week (or all 2.5 hours in a go, if you want!).
- What to keep it forever? Keep It Forever (£100) means you can use it and resuse it whenever you want.
‘Each course is meticulously timed and structured so one can relax completely into the imaginative, dialogic, exploratory, productive mode. And the pricing is very fair, outstanding value.’ – Felice
Get Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes now
or read on for its behind-the-scenes origins.
Behind the Course
After the first Story Elements course in 2011, I ran an ongoing Novel Writing course for five years, designing lessons around whatever my students needed. Surprising themes began to emerge. One was how to keep readers from getting confused: about who characters were, what was happening before, how much time had passed, or how an idea worked. In 2014, I gathered those together into a full-day workshop for the Summer of Writing in Oxford: Orientating the Reader.
Over the next ten years, it became one of the most regularly voted-in workshops. Every aspect was tested, refined, and retested, through in-person and online classes, with students of every level.
Throughout, my students and I have been constantly thrilled at how creative orientating the reader is. It’s both a crucial tool for story-writing and a process of exciting discovery. Wherever you are in your writing, I hope you enjoy the new tools and discoveries it gives you.
Get Orientating the Reader: Shifting Between Scenes now
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