Novel Writing

BRAND NEW COURSE!

Your Novel's Pulse with Kiare Ladner

“Energy is eternal delight.”
William Blake

Do you yearn to write a novel but find yourself stalled by scale, loss of momentum or self-doubt? Or perhaps you’re well into a draft but it’s not singing. Do you need to reconnect with the spark that first drew you in - a voice, an image, a world that keeps returning? Or are you haunted by a story that won’t let you go yet can’t quite find its form? Perhaps it feels as if something vital to your work is eluding you.

This six-week course is for writers at any stage who want to explore the instinctive and imaginative energy of their novel. Instead of workshopping drafts, we’ll generate new material in class through guided exercises, readings and discussion. You’ll leave with scenes, fragments and insights that could lie at the heart of a longer work - and a deeper sense of how to listen to your own creative instincts.

Together we’ll look at how novels grow from ideas, character, voice and mood, and how momentum and meaning can emerge naturally from what haunts you. We’ll draw inspiration from a wide range of writers including Rachel Cusk, Kaveh Akbar, George Saunders, Magda Szabó, Han Kang and Octavia Butler.

The course will encourage you to be playful and brave, experimenting as you uncover the pulse of your novel - the one that only you could write.

Each week focuses on a different entry point into your novel:

Week 1: The instinctive novel - connecting to your spark
Week 2: Characters as mirrors and masks
Week 3: Voice and the unreliable self
Week 4: Structure, shape and currents
Week 5: Time, scene and sensation
Week 6: The art of ending

All levels welcome, whether you’re beginning from nothing, rekindling a long project or finding your way back to the joy of writing.

BRAND NEW COURSE

Testimonials coming in July 2026. To see testimonials for Kiare's other courses please click to visit Novella Fever, Short Story Course, Fiction Workshop Course

ZOOM DELIVERY

Max 12 students

Summer 2026: Evenings

Cost £155

Wednesdays 6.30-9pm
April 29, May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3

Enquire

Our tutor Kiare says…

What I love is helping writers slip in through a side door - an unexpected exercise, a different voice, an image they can’t let go - and suddenly their novel opens up. It’s exciting to see writers discover or rediscover their material, not by forcing it but by listening for what’s alive.

Kiare Ladner

Kiare's debut novel Nightshift was recently published by Picador in the UK and Mariner Books (Harper Collins) in the US. Her short stories have been anthologised, commissioned for the radio and shortlisted in competitions, including the BBC National Short Story Award. She wrote Nightshift while studying for a Creative Writing PhD. Prior to that she did a Prose Writing MA at the University of East Anglia. She teaches on the Creative Writing MA at the University of East Anglia, at City, University of Londonand privately mentors writers on a one-to-one basis. In reading, writing and life, she's naturally drawn to nonconformism and dichotomies. Having grown up in South Africa, she loves spending time in big cities as much as out in middle of nowhere. In the cyber world, you can find her at www.kiareladner.com

Writing Room is a registered Community Interest Company: a non-profit arts organisation committed to serving the interests of our diverse community of creative writers.

Many people are under-represented in the writing world as a result of their socio-economic background, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability. Writing Room is a welcoming online home for ALL creative writers (18+). Come and join us!

A welcoming online home for all creative writers