We all have a few more stories to tell lately.

And if you’d like some inspiration to help you get your thoughts down on paper, the West Cork Literary Festival is sending the experts directly to your living room this year.

After the annual event for seasoned scribes and wannabe writers was cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns, festival organisers announced a schedule of online writing workshops, facilitated by writers Paul McVeigh, Cynan Jones, Claire Nelson, Rachel Andrews, Dave Lordan and E.R. Murray.

Here are a few of the workshops on offer for 2020:

Write your memoirs 
The online workshop Essay, Life-Writing and Memoir with Rachel Andrews has already commenced. Exploring the art of transforming lived experience into literature, this workshop will use extracts of personal essays as a jumping-off point to write and consider participants’ own work. Rachel Andrews’ essays and criticism have appeared in the London Review of Books, Brick Literary Journal, the Stinging Fly, Banshee, the Irish Times, the Dublin Review and more.

Essays, Life-Writing and Memoir #WritingWorkshop with Rachel Andrews starts online Monday 29 June and runs for five Mondays. Book now. Max 10 students. Thanks to the support of Cork County Council we can offer our online workshops at 50% of our normal feehttps://t.co/P62BykqECo pic.twitter.com/kiuIDr0iFT

— West Cork Literary Festival (@wcorklitfest) June 16, 2020

Short story writing 
Getting your Short Story in Shape with Cynan Jones will be held during what would have been festival week, kicking off July 13th. Cynan is the prize-winning author of five short novels and will be giving participants the tools to write exciting and challenging short stories. This course will be presented as a combination of workshops, writing exercises and a one-to-one session.

Start that novel

The Novel with Paul McVeigh online workshop will focus on how to grow a story idea into a novel which grips the reader from start to finish. Paul McVeigh’s debut novel, The Good Son, won The Polari First Novel Prize and The McCrea Literary Award.

Become a travel writer

Travel Writing with Claire Nelson should have taken place on Whiddy Island but will now run online for four sessions from Monday, July 13th to Thursday 23rd.

 

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A post shared by Claire Nelson (@ladyeclaire) on Feb 5, 2020 at 6:03am PST

“Never in our lifetime has travel been so uncertain and challenging in the wake of this pandemic, but for that reason, the ability to bring destinations to life on the page is as valuable as ever.” say the Festival organisers. Claire Nelson is a freelance writer and a keen traveller with a love of the outdoors. Her first non-fiction book Things I Learned From Falling has already been included on Stylist magazine’s list of 2020’s best non-fiction books.

Writing for teens
Teenage writers have the chance to sign up for the popular Words Allowed workshop with Dave Lordan and E.R Murray. Now in its tenth year, it is running online with ten sessions up to July 30th, all designed to build the creative confidence and expressive ability of teenagers with an interest in writing.

For further details on these workshops and to book, visit the website.