Announcing the line-up for the first Nosy Crow Masterclass, How to Write Children's Fiction - Nosy Crow Skip to content
Posted by Tom, January 15, 2015

Announcing the line-up for the first Nosy Crow Masterclass, How to Write Children’s Fiction

Next month we’ll be holding the first ever Nosy Crow Masterclass: How to Write Children’s Fiction – an intensive, all-day writing masterclass, with sessions from authors, editors, agents, and staff at Nosy Crow – all focussed on writing fiction for children.

Although we were fairly confident that there was an appetite for this sort of event, based on feedback we’d received from attendees of our Nosy Crow Conference, we had no idea exactly what level of demand to expect, whether we’d be able to fill a room, or if we’d find the right sort of speakers – but it seemed like it would be an interesting thing to try.

So we were absolutely amazed when tickets for the first masterclass sold out within 24 hours!

And since announcing the event, we’ve had many, many emails asking if there’ll be masterclasses on other subjects (and in particular, writing picture books) – and we’re very happy to say that the answer is yes: we’ll be announcing details of our first picture book masterclass next week. We expect the demand to be even greater than for this fiction class, so if you’re interested in attending, sign up to our books newsletter – we’ll be announcing the exact details of the picture book masterclass to our subscribers first.

And in the meantime, we’re incredibly pleased to be able to announce the (almost complete) line-up of speakers for the How to Write Children’s Fiction Masterclass!

The day will begin with an overview of the children’s fiction market from Nosy Crow’s Managing Director, Kate Wilson, setting a context for children’s fiction in 2015.

Our fiction editor, Kirsty Stansfield, will lead the first part of the morning: a practical, editorial session, filled with essential lessons for writing fiction.

This will be followed by a Q&A with The Rescue Princesses author Paula Harrison, who’ll talk about the challenges and demands of creating series fiction.

After coffee, literary agent Gemma Cooper will lead a session that will cover what she looks for in a submission, do’s and don’ts for authors, and more.

Over lunch, all of our attendees will have the opportunity to receive one-on-one editorial feedback on their own work. Our advisors on the day will be Kate Wilson, Kirsty Stansfield, Nosy Crow’s Editorial Director, Camilla Reid, and Gemma Cooper.

After lunch, The Secret Hen House Theatre author Helen Peters will talk about debut writing (or, in her own words, “how to turn an unpublishable novel into a publishable one”) – and will cover self-editing, using feedback, rewriting, and the most helpful pieces of advice she was given along the way.

The second part of our author’s afternoon will be lead by an incredible fantasy author, Ellen Renner, who’ll talk about world-building, writing fantasy, creating characters, and more.

We have more speakers for the afternoon yet to announce, and the day will finish with a session on writing for an international audience, lead by Kate Wilson – followed by a glass of wine at the end of the day!

The masterclass is taking place here at the Crow’s Nest – 10a Lant St, London, SE1 1QR – on Saturday February 7th.

And one place on our waiting list has just opened up – so if you were hoping to attend the masterclass, but didn’t manage to get a ticket the first time around, you’re in luck! The one remaining place will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis – so if you’d like to be here, don’t delay! You can book online with the form below, or here.

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