Workshops

Week long Craft workshops 4th to 9th August:
10am to 1.30pm daily @ Braeburn School, Gitanga Road
RATES: ksh900/= per day (minimum 5 days) including lunch.
10% discount for payment before 15th July
Maximum 10 people per course. Book NOW to avoid disappointment.

1. Starting to write – Andia Kisia, Parsalelo Kantai, David Kaiza
An exploration of the elements of writing, demands of literary genres, differences between the short story and the novel. Focus will be on character development, plot, conflict, dialogue and story telling.

2. Fiction – Binyavanga Wainaina
Manuscript required (about 15 pages). An intensive critique, discussion and exchange of opinion on your work in a dynamic group setting. Taken by experienced authors, each workshop will focus on essential craft attributes to building a story.

3. Non Fiction - Aminatta Forna, Kalundi Serumaga
Turn life into prose. Capture your own experiences and turn them into memoirs, essays and travel writing. Creative non-fiction is a growing and challenging sphere of literature. Through a series of ‘block building’ exercises the course will help you begin to craft real events into stories, fashion memories into scenes, shape characters on the page, evoke a sense of time and place and how to take all the skill of a fiction writer to create a strong and compelling narrative.

The pieces we will work with will be generated during the course of the week. By the end you should have essence of a short or long memoir or an essay.

4. Crime Writing - Parselelo Kantai, Billy Kahora
Creating racy plots, compelling storylines, believable plots. This workshop will focus on the exciting genre of crime writing and explore, structure and turning evidential fact into a good yarn

Venue: Braeburn Schools, Gitanga Road

Day courses:
Fee: Ksh 1,900/= per course

August 1st
Blogging 101 – Daudi Were and Dipesh Pabari
How to set up your blog, chose your subjects, deal with comments, make posts interesting and get your blog to stand out among the millions added daily to the internet. Successful bloggers tells all.

10.00am - 4.30pm, Braeburn School, Gitanga Road

August 2nd
Writing for magazines – Binyavanga Wainaina and Yvonne Owour
A study of movement, creativity and crafting pieces for lifestyle magazines.
Focussing on travel, profiles, releasing creativity to deadline and the essentials of crafting a magazine piece, this insightful workshop will provide you with the necessary tools to produce strong readable copy.

10am - 2pm, Karen Blixen Coffee Gardens, Karen

August 3rd
Yoga and Writing – Vinaya Pinto, Shalini Gidoomal
Freewriting is the best way to disengage that inner writing critic that can snuff out or stifle creative writing. Emotions can also be released and guided in this process by yoga. The idea is to explore the links between mind, body and emotion using both yoga and freewriting. More to be revealed in the process…

Manuscript Assessment
Your opportunity for a one-on-one 45-min intensive ‘super’ session about your completed manuscript with a published writer. Unsure what to do with your completed manuscript and how to approach publishers? This is a fantastic opportunity to get advice from someone with excellent inside knowledge of the publishing industry. Bring the first chapter of your manuscript and any other material you think is relevant to the interview. And come with questions! By appointment only.