Last Day: Register Write Now

Last chance to register for Write Now 2012.  Booking closes today!

You can book by phone 0141 548 3511 during normal business hours or book online using this link http://onlineshop.strath.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?compid=1&catid=19&modid=2&prodid=113&deptid=157&prodvarid=0

Don't miss out on two days of events for creative writers.

DAY 1 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
9:00am – Registration
9:30am – Welcome and housekeeping
9: 40am – Publish and Be Damned
10:45am – Break for tea and coffee
11:00am – 1st SKILLS SESSION
12:30pm – Lunch
12:30 to 14:30 - The Marketplace, Lunchtime skills sessions and 13:00 to 14:15 – Write Now Showcase
2:30 pm – 2nd SKILLS SESSION
4:00pm – Break for tea and coffee
4: 30pm – Keynote Address Christopher Brookmyre
Close 5:30pm

Skills Session Day – Friday 9 March

Publish and be Damned?

09:40-10:45 (Full or Friday Pass Holders Event)

Publishing is in decline and the future is global domination by Amazon and Google.  Right?  Or Wrong?  Three publishers give their unique insights into the publishing world today looking at the impact of digital technology and social media before speculating on what the future may bring.



1st SKILLS SESSION



The Mechanics of Page Turning: Narrative Drive

11.00am – 12.30pm

Narrative drive is a vital element in getting your work published. Novelist Sara Sheridan provides key hints and tips to keep the pages turning.



Making the Pitch and not Striking Out

11:00-12:30 or 14:30-16:00

Novelist Helen FitzGerald and screenwriter Sergio Casci will look at the art of the verbal pitch.



Looking for an Agent? An Expert Guide to the Submissions Process

11:00-12:30

Now you’ve written – or are writing – your book, how will you get it accepted by an agent, publisher or editor? Nicola Morgan reveals the common traps for the unwary and offers tips for success.



www.WRITER

11.00am – 12.30pm Part 1 (requires advanced preparation by participants)

Don’t get left behind.  Writer and web designer Cat Dean will guide participants through setting up their own writer’s website-with-blog. By the end of the day, each participant will have a simple, but fully functioning website-with-blog.





LUNCH

The Marketplace

12.30am – 14.30pm FREE

Interested in the Scottish publishing scene?  If so ‘The Marketplace’ is the place to be.  This showcase will feature independent publishers and Scotland-based magazines that provide an outlet for new writers.  Pick up the latest and the best new writing along with ideas on how to get started writing or where to place your work.





Write Now Showcase- Performance Event

13.00 – 14.15

Come along and hear some great Scottish writing in bite sized pieces.  This event will feature new and upcoming writers of prose and poetry including the winners of the Keith Wright Memorial Literary Competition.



Lunch Time Skills Sessions

Book to Film, Film to Book – Adaptations

13:00-14:00

An inside look at adaptation with author Helen FitzGerald (The Devil's Staircase, Bloody Women, The Donor), screenwriter Sergio Casci (American Cousins, The Caller) and film producer Claire Mundell (Synchronicity Films – Crying with Laughter, Weekend).  Our established trio has funny anecdotes, lots of mistakes to confess, and advice to pass on.  The session will also look at new developments and opportunities for writers, such as digital publishers who are concentrating on book adaptations of films.



Is Blogging For You? – Blogging Your Way to Success

13:00-14:00

Whether it’s getting started or improving confidence in blogging newbies, experienced writer and blogger Cat Dean will provide practical tips on how to make the most of your blog.  This workshop will take you through the highs and lows encouraging you to keep going and blog your way to success.



Writing For Graphic Novels

13:00-14:00
Rodge Glass shares the secrets of writing for his award nominated graphic novel Dougie’s War, which was illustrated by Dave Turbitt.  Rodge will discuss the process of writing a graphic novel, talk about the challenges of collaboration between writer and artist in joint projects, and give tips and advice on how to make your graphic novel a success. Dougie's War was commissioned by Freight Books and Veteran Scotland as part of a drive to raise awareness about PTSD in Scottish soldiers.











2nd SKILLS SESSION
Your Book Needs You

14:30-16:00

Novelist Sara Sheridan debunks the myths of book promotion and publicity and gives expert advice on how to use all the communications tools available to sell yourself effectively.



What Are Publishers Looking For?

14:30-16:00

Nicola Morgan, author of 90 books, will share her knowledge of what makes agents and publishers say yes, giving you the best chance of success.

Making the Pitch and not Striking Out

14:30-16:00

Novelist Helen FitzGerald and screenwriter Sergio Casci will look at the art of the verbal pitch.



www.WRITER

14.30am – 16.00pm Part 2 (requires advanced preparation by participants)

Second half of this web design workshop.





The Making of a Bestseller - Christopher Brookmyre

16:30-17:30

Award-winning crime writer and author of 14 published novels, Christopher Brookmyre has plenty of experience to share with aspiring writers and interested readers.

Conference Day – Saturday 10 March

SATURDAY 10 MARCH 2012: CONFERENCE

Running from 9:30am to 6pm, we will have a series of panels and individual presentations from writers and researchers. More details of the conference programme can be found at http://flavors.me/writenow#72f/twitter



DAY 2 PROGRAMME OF EVENTS
9:00am – Registration
9:30am – Welcome and housekeeping
9: 40am – Panel 1
10:45am – Break for tea and coffee
11:00am – Panel 2A or 2B
3 papers (20mins each) plus 30mins at the end for Q & A discussion
12:30pm – Lunch
1:15pm – Panel 3A or 3B
3 papers (20mins each) plus 30mins at the end for Q & A discussion
2:45pm – Break for tea and coffee
3:00pm – Panel 4A or 4B
3 papers (20mins each) plus 30mins at the end for Q & A discussion
Break to relocate to Main Hall
5 pm – Keynote Address Alan Bissett, Ewan Morrison & Zoë Strachan
Close 6pm



Panel 1 - What Happens when Elephants Teach Zoology?
Lesley Glaister - St Andrews University
Elizabeth Reeder - University of Glasgow
Zoë Strachan - University of Glasgow
On Process and Teaching within a Community of Writers
Elizabeth Reeder, Zoë Strachan and Lesley Glaister will discuss their creative processes and how they influence their teaching. How does individual creative practice influence the choices we make when teaching others? Do we practice what we preach? Is there a place for the mentor in the teaching of creative writing? And what might the ideal creative writing programme look like?

Panel 2A – Poetry and The Landscape
Jen Cooper - University of Aberdeen
Creating ‘Imaginary States of Nature’: The Uses of Free Verse in Contemporary Nature Poetry
Ken Cockburn
The Road North: A Journey Through Scotland and Poetry
Shane Strachan - University of Aberdeen
Flinty Souls: Narrating the North-East

Panel 2B – Fact, Fiction and History
Gill James - University of Salford
Uncovering history: three tools, three strands and three fact-fiction relationships used in writing an historical novel.
Sally O’Reilly - Brunel University
Myth and monolith: tackling the Shakespeare legend.
Ursula Hurley - University of Salford
Writing in the dark? Carrying a torch for ancient historical fiction.

Panel 3A – Teaching Creative Writing
Raymond Soltysek - University of Strathclyde
A Little often: changing the creative writing culture in secondary classrooms.
Dr. Maeve Tynan - University of Limerick
‘Mimicry is an act of imagination’: Strategic Imitation in the Creative Writing Classroom
Alicia Stubbersfield - Liverpool John Moores University
The Writer at Work: One Answer to the Question ‘What use is a degree in Creative Writing?’

Panel 3B – There’s Poetry in Everything (Even Aliens)
Mary McDonough - University of Strathclyde
Curation vs Creation: understanding and interpreting autobiographical material
Dorothy Alexander – Centre for Lifelong Learning
Adventures in technique: experiments in found – using restricted vocabularies to access creativity and cross media.
Russell Jones - Edinburgh University
Edwin Morgan and Science Fiction Poetry – Edwin Morgan: Scots Makar, respected academic, alien.

Panel 4A – Does Scotland Need Creative Writers?
Jacqueline Smith, Ron Butlin, Gerry Loose - Scottish Writers Centre
The Future of the Scottish Writers Centre

Panel 4B – Comics, Crime and more Comics
David Manderson – University of the West of Scotland
Lost Borders: A Paradigm Shift in Crime Fiction
Gordon Robertson
From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance - The New Wave of British Comics
Siân Bevan
Why So Serious? How Comedy Can Shape a Writer.


Keynote Address: Alan Bissett, Zoë Strachan and Ewan Morrison

17:00-18:00

In the conference round-up, three of Scotland’s hottest talents will give their unique take on the writing process and business.
Can anyone be an author and should universities be in the business of teaching creative writing?  Should writers?  What skills does a writer need in 2012 and how do you go about acquiring them?  Is Scotland a vibrant creative culture or a provincial backwater for writers?  Is the book dead and if not what does the future hold for books and their authors?  Answers to these questions plus an opportunity to ask your own.

Alan Warner at Strathclyde: Free Author Event

Another free/open to the public event organised by Doug Johnstone. The novelist Alan Warner (Morvern Callar) will be speaking in Livingstone Tower on the 5th of March.

ALAN WARNER
5pm, Monday 5th March 2012
Room LT509, Livingstone Tower
26 Richmond Street, Glasgow
Free entry, refreshments provided

Alan Warner is one of the leading lights of his generation of Scottish
writers. Born in 1964 he shot to fame with the publication of his
debut novel Morvern Callar in 1995. The book was adapted into a highly
acclaimed film directed by Lynne Ramsay, and Warner has gone on to
publish five more novels to great success. He won the Somerset Maughan
Award for Morvern Callar and the Saltire Society Scottish Book of the
Year Award for his novel The Sopranos.
In 2003 Alan was nominated by Granta magazine as one of twenty ‘Best
of Young British Novelists’. In 2010, his novel The Stars in the
Bright Sky was included in the longlist for the Man Booker Prize. His
seventh novel, The Deadman’s Pedal, is due for publication in May this
year. Alan also currently holds the position of Writer-in-Residence at
the University of Edinburgh.





Hope to see you there!

Creative Writing: What Does It Mean, Anyway?

Come join us at the first Write Now Creative Writing Conference in Glasgow on 3/6/11. Please see below to download the Call For Papers. We are also trying to organise an evening reading event, ideally open to the public, if we have enough brave volunteers.

Confirmed readers include:
Louise Welsh (Keynote Speaker, novelist, and lots of other things besides)
David Kinloch (poet, with new collection coming out in April 2011 from Carcanet Press)
and
Rodge Glass (novelist, biographer, and graphic novelist).

Please contact our Organiser-in-Chief, bryony.stocker@strath.ac.uk, to submit an abstract/with any questions, marymcdonough@me.com, to discuss sponsorship or the possibility of setting up a booth/information point in the breakout area, and/or stewart.melville@strath.ac.uk if science fiction or dystopian fiction is your thing. More than enough room for anyone willing to engage in debate, reading, and talking about writing. We look forward to meeting you.


Word version of CFP
PDF version of CFP