Writing workshops and classes

Creative writing workshops, courses, and classes, either online or in-person in the UK.

Open workshops are listed here, but if you would like to arrange a private workshop for your school, group, organisation, or event, please contact me.

Upcoming creative writing workshops and courses

Here are the online workshops and courses open at the moment:

• Feeling Awful: Writing Horror to Explore Emotion, Saturday 20 April 5pm-7pm BST / 9-11am PDT / 12-2pm EDT, £5-£15
• Fairy Folklore Writing Workshop, Saturday 4 May 5-6.30pm BST / 9-10.30am PDT / 12-1.30pm EDT, £4-£15
• Design-A-Monster: Write Incredible Creatures, Saturday 8 June 5-7pm BST / 9-11am PDT / 12-2pm EDT, £5-£15
• Design-An-Alien: Write Astonishing Extraterrestrials, Saturday 22 June 5-7pm BST / 9-11am PDT / 12-2pm EDT, £5-£15
• Design-A-Robot: Write Brilliant Synthetic Beings, Saturday 6 Jul 5-7pm BST / 9-11am PDT / 12-2pm EDT, £5-£15
• Folk Horror: New Paths, Sundays 8 & 15 September, 4-6pm BST / 8 AM PDT / 11 AM EDT, £26

On-demand writing workshops

Two workshops from my series on writing after trauma are now available as on-demand online workshops, including a downloadable video and a PDF handout. You can purchase one or both via Gumroad using these links:

• Writing About Trauma Self Care Workshop, £10
• Tools for Writing About Trauma Workshop, £10

If you'd like to get both workshops at once there's a small discount:

• Writing After Trauma Bundle, £18

Previous writing workshops

Here are some other creative writing classes and workshops that I've run recently. If you'd be keen on joining or hosting any of these please let me know at sarah.i.jackson[at]gmail.com:

• Haunted Objects: A Domestic Horror Writing Workshop
• Fairy Folklore Writing Workshop
• Write The Uncanny
• Design-A-Ghost: Writing Unforgettable Spectres
• Curious Mirrors: Writing Reality With Metaphor
• Feeling Awful: Writing Horror to Explore Emotion
• Writing After Trauma: Self Care
• Tools for Writing About Trauma

My approach

I aim for my workshops to be encouraging, entertaining, inclusive, and trauma-sensitive. I try to balance craft insights or theory with reading examples from other authors, plus games, prompts, and exercises to get people writing.

What people say

• "Clearly you're a skilled and experienced teacher. Your positivity and appreciation of all comments and contributions was fantastic, important and surprisingly rare."
• "The prompts were amazing—very generative, specific yet flexible. I have several story ideas now."
• "I really appreciate how you made the workshop a safe space with trigger warnings, not forcing people to share or speak."
• "This was phenomenal and I will definitely be recommending it to colleagues!"
• "This has been an AMAZING workshop. Thank you so much for the wonderful timing, commentary, background material, enthusiasm. Loved the balance of information/writing. THANK YOU!"

About me

My fantasy, horror, and science fiction short stories and poems have been published in magazines including Translunar Travelers Lounge, Electric Spec, and Wyldblood Magazine, and included in popular anthologies produced by Air and Nothingness Press, Dark Dispatch, and Ghost Orchid Press. Some of my work is available to read online.

I've been delivering successful in-person and online classes, talks, and workshops for individuals, charities, community groups, and schools for over a decade.

Before that, I studied MSc Gender, Sexuality, Politics & Culture at Birkbeck College, University of London, and BA English Literature at King's College, University of Cambridge. You can find more information about my education and professional background on my LinkedIn profile.

I'm a certified Write Your Self trauma-sensitive writing guide, a member of Lapidus International and the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE), and I have a Level 4 Certificate in Counselling Skills from Warwick University Centre for Lifelong Learning. I'm fully insured as a creative writing teacher via the NAWE Professional Membership Scheme.