13 April,
Fiction / Workshop /
Sarah May: Novel Openings: Where to Begin?
Sunday, 13 April 2025, 10:00am
Faber Academy Online / €45
Book NowDo you have an idea – or ideas! – for a novel that you’ve been sitting on for weeks, months, years but just can’t seem to get started? Before we can become writers, we must learn how to become storytellers. In this motivational workshop we’ll be looking at how to unlock those ideas and shape them into a story. Focussing step by step on core story elements that will enable you to answer the all-important questions: What’s my story? And why am I telling it? Once you’ve identified your story, we’ll be working in small groups using examples from recently published fiction, to discuss and plan your novel’s opening scene. The session will conclude with some guided writing that will enable you to begin your novel while in workshop.
Sarah May is the highly acclaimed author of 7 novels, including The Nudist Colony shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and winner of the Amazon Bursary), Spanish City (shortlisted for the RSL Encore Award), The Internationals (longlisted for the Women’s Prize) and the best-selling Rise and Fall of the Queen of Suburbia. Her latest novel, Becky, is published by Picador and out now. A creative writing tutor on Faber Academy’s flagship Writing a Novel course, Sarah has launched many brilliant new voices in fiction and has recently designed the brand-new Writing a Novel online course, which launched March 2023. As a cultural activist, when she isn’t writing and teaching, Sarah co-runs a young people’s theatre cooperative, Play On Productions, with her partner.
