From the ghostly to the ghoulish, the creepy to the crawly, spooky children’s fiction is full of mystery and monsters. And whether you want to follow in the footsteps of Neil Gaiman or Roald Dahl, Jennifer Killick or Frances Hardinge, there is no better time to work on your ability to scare, than just before Halloween!
Join bestselling children’s book author Kenneth Oppel to delve into the depths of your characters (and villains!), develop your plot and tap into your own fears to shape a story.
You will learn how to balance writing something scary for a younger audience with the appropriate fear-factor, how to build suspense to keep readers on the edge of their seats, correctly pace those all important twists into your narrative, and write characters who readers love and fear in equal measure.
15 minutes will be reserved for a Q&A at the end of the masterclass.
This masterclass will be online, video platform to be confirmed. It will also be recorded so if you are unable to attend live, you'll be able to catch-up and access the recording for up to two weeks.
Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of many books, including Airborn, which won the Governor General's Award for children’s literature and a Michael L Printz Honor Book Award, and the Silverwing trilogy, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. Some of his other books include The Boundless, Every Hidden Thing, and Inkling. The Nest and Half Brother both won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award. Kenneth lives in Toronto with his family.
The workshop fee of £30 (incl. VAT) is payable in full online.
This is a live online event which will be presented using video conferencing software. Joining instructions and full guidance will be provided by the W&A Team a week before the event start-date.
Event materials will be made available to attendees for a time-limited period after the event at the speaker's discretion.
Please note that payment instalment plans are available for all W&A events, writing courses and editing services. Contact W&A Admin on writersandartists@bloomsbury.com so that we can find a payment schedule that works for you.
Accessible to All
It’s of real importance to Writers & Artists that our events and courses remain accessible to all.
- Writers & Artists has made up to five bursary places available for this event as part of our accessibility scheme. Please visit our bursaries page for further information about how to apply. All bursary applications must have been submitted for consideration by 20th October
- At the speaker's discretion, event materials will be made available to attendees after the masterclass.
- A link to a recording of the masterclass will be circulated after the event. This will be made available to event attendees only, and for a time-limited period.
- This event will include written text and visuals. Please contact us in advance so that we can make arrangements to be sure all documents appear in a format that works for you.
- If you’d like to attend but have any questions or concerns regarding accessibility, then please email AccessWA@bloomsbury.com
