School and University visits

With World Book Day coming up, I thought I’d share some info about my available workshops and talks. I’m very happy to visit schools and universities, either in person or via Zoom, to discuss writing, queer representation, using real science in stories, and how to engage hopefully with climate issues. 

I visit schools very regularly, and the teachers often report back on how enthusiastic my talks get the students about science. One teacher recently said I gave the best talk they’d ever had.

If you’re a teacher and you’re interested in arranging a visit, shoot me an email at wrenjameswriter at gmail dot com. I’m also available for bookings through Authors Aloud.

Available talks and workshops for Secondary Schools:

‘True Crime Thrills and Cold Case Conspiracies’ talk – Join Wren James on a journey into the world of internet detectives who set out to solve real-life crimes online. Find out about the real true crime inspirations for their murder mystery novel Last Seen Online and learn how they craft the perfect plot twists and spine-tingling thrills in their writing. (1 hour, any number of students)

‘Writing with STEM’ talk – Wren James talks about their writing, with a focus specifically on how they came to write science fiction after studying Chemistry and Physics at Masters level. They discuss how scientific research from their university studies inspired events in their novels. They share spreadsheets used to accurately calculate the figures involved in their writing, such as spaceship travel times and time travel figures. The talk includes discussion of climate change, Einstein’s theory of relativity, extinction and evolution, all talked about in an enthusiastic, easy-to-understand way. Includes a Q&A session. (1 hour, any number of students)

‘World-building’ writing workshop – A group exercise using pictures of real world locations to write a story. Students will use their senses to create atmosphere and setting, building out a story from the location. It includes examples taken from writing Wren did at the age of 18, which later became part of their debut novel. (1 hour, less than 40 students, years 6-9)

Science fiction writing workshop – a group exercise about writing science fiction based on articles in the news. We will choose a recent news topic based on a scientific subject and use the ideas and concepts to create an engaging story. It will teach students how to research science online, and be creative with a typically factual subject. (1 hour, less than 40 students, year 7 and up)

Climate Change in Fiction – a workshop about researching climate change solutions and politics in order to create a hopeful, optimistic story about the future of Earth. (1 hour, less than 40 students). There is a version of this workshop aimed at Years 7-9, or a more academic version of this workshop available for older year groups from Year 12 to university level

Available workshops for older students (Year 12 – University level):

Writing Diversely –  an explanation of the core concepts of diversity in writing, and a guided group discussion about why it is important for writers of all kinds to make their work inclusive. Students will learn how to research identities and avoid stereotypes, using case studies and examples of diverse works in Young Adult fiction. We will research a diverse identity for a piece of fiction. (1- 2 hours, less than 40 students) – read a review of this workshop by University of Nottingham here

Climate Change in Fiction – a workshop about researching climate change solutions and politics in order to create a hopeful, optimistic story about the future of Earth. (1 hour, less than 40 students) – watch part of this lecture here or here

Building a Bestseller – a guided workshop turning a story idea into an outline and pitch ready for agent submission. We will discuss plot development, narrative structures and beats, common errors in opening scenes and formatting a synopsis (2 hours, less than 40 students)

Working professionally with agents – a breakdown of the author-agent relationship, and explanation of how to find a shortlist of agents which will suit different projects. We will work on the language used in writing short pitches, author biographies and query letters, focusing on ways to improve your submission and draw out the commercial elements of the plot. We will also discuss how to self-edit your work, and choose an extract of your project to send out. NB: students will need a rough idea of their project for the activities, or they can use their favourite novel as an example, e.g. Harry Potter (1 – 2 hours, less than 40 students)

Working with publishers – an explanation of the process of editing with a publisher, with guided exercises in editing a chapter extract, swapping work and line-editing each other’s writing using Microsoft Word tracked changes and comments. NB: students will need to bring a scene or short story along to edit (1 – 2 hours, less than 40 students)

School, university or library visits, or talks via Zoom/Skype/Google Hangouts, can be arranged by contacting me at wrenjameswriter@gmail.com or fill out this form with the details of your proposed event.

My prices are available here, and you can access a Canva template to make a poster for the event here.