Date/Time
Date(s) - Wed 16th Jul - Wed 24th Sep, 2025
6:00pm - 8:00pm
Companions in the Wild
Following the success of Elizabeth’s Reeder’s A Year of Writing in 2022-23, we are happy to be able to offer this course again in 2024-25. This is a four-season writing course, now on the final season , open to writers of fiction and non-fiction with a work in progress. It is led by Elizabeth Reeder, author of An Archive of Happiness (Penned in the Margins) and microbursts (Prototype), and will run fortnightly (approximately!) on Wednesday evenings.
This course has a limited number of places for writers to join us. You are welcome to join on a season by season basis or book the whole year. If you choose season by season we’ll do our best to give you first choice to allow you to participate in the next season.
Course outline
Elizabeth’s year-long course, run season by season, is intended to support you and your writing process as you undertake a long-form fiction or creative non-fiction project. The premise is that by writing in the company of others, figuring out what sort of habits, goal setting and flexibility work for you, discussing elements of craft and process and what will bring the most joy as you write, even if it’s bloody tough at times – you will have more resources to complete a longer project.
In each season we will meet six times over three months, with a mixture of Craft and Process Workshops and Writing Space sessions. We will also have one or two sessions in which we talk about and share our work.
The process of writing a longer manuscript (fiction, non-fiction, hybrid) is a wild and bold commitment for us to undertake. There is so much we can know and dedicate ourselves to – setting aside time and focus to the process and the work; finding trusted readers and writers to share our work and our process with; writing in the company of other writers; learning craft through reading, writing and discussion; and building a humour and pleasure are all parts of the creative process.
Throughout the year we’ll have ongoing discussions on specific elements of craft (character, point of view, setting the scene, language) as well as embracing creative failure, creative processes and editing.
This course offers an open, supportive, dedicated space for you to write a work-in-progress in the company of other writers, and with Elizabeth building and holding a kind and supportive frame within which we can do our best work.
Each writer will also receive a one-to-one 40-minute tutorial with Elizabeth each season and can choose to submit up to 3,000 words of writing to be discussed during the tutorial.
Seasonal themes:
Season 1 – Autumn 2024 Living Colours: planning, playing and pacing
Season 2 – Winter 2025 Overwintering: being steady, celebrating
Season 3 – Spring 2025 Bog Cotton: when being in process is as beautiful as being in bloom
Season 4 – Summer 2025 Long Days: a short season of long days
Season 4 Summer 2025
Long days: a short season of long days
This is the final season for this iteration of A Year of Writing and we are heading into summer. This is the time of long days in Scotland and a certain energy that can be here. But it’s also a time where focus can be pulled in many glorious directions – often outside and away from our writing.
So this summer is about living, welcoming this sharing of focus, and within this writing and nurturing the conditions to make best use of these longer days. As a part of this, this season will be mainly about writing, being supported by and accountable within this space and to set individual goals for your writing and this project and to make them ambitious and flexible and make the goals that will work for you where you are. Give space for process and learning as well as word count.
Our meetings are intended to inspire and support you where you are in the writing of your project. Some of you are further along on the longer project and some of you are just setting out – this is great as we will each be setting our own goals and that’s how we’ll mark our own movement through the course.
We’d love to invite new writers to this season who want to dedicate time this summer to their writing and who might find a group and ‘light-touch’ discussion and craft/process sessions really useful. This summer season is about focusing on the writing, having a view of the project, setting goals and clearing the space to let the text live and breath and develop. It’s for anyone who has part of a full m/s and wants to use the summer (and a supportive, knowledgeable group of writers) to write and push it towards completion.
Companions in the Wild: Season 4 includes:
- a 2-hour introductory session, also including a writing space
- two 2-hour craft and process sessions
- one 2-hour writing space
- one 2-hour peer-to-peer group workshopping session
- one 40-minute one-to-one tutorial and feedback on up to 3,000 words
- a closing sharing space / online ceilidh to share your work with your group
- Contact and support from your community of writers via Google Classroom and Padlet (both optional)
Timetable
Wednesday 16 July 18:00–20:00 (re)-Introduction(s) / Writing space
We’ll introduce ourselves, discuss this season, and settle into writing space / exercises
Wednesday 30 July 18:00–20:00 Craft session
Open Structure Group Q&A. Perhaps a targeted reading if something comes up in the introductions.
Wednesday 13 Aug 18:00–20:00 Writing space
Chat, write, chat!
Wednesday 27 Aug 18:00–20:00 Craft session
Next Steps – discussion about where we are, perhaps a query letter and synopsis workshop/sharing
Wednesday 10 Sept 18:00–20:00 Group workshopping / Writing space
Work in small groups to feedback on each other’s writing
Wednesday 24 Sept 18:00–20:00 Ceilidh
A closing celebration, giving an opportunity to share a short reading of your work with your group
Tutorials
Your one-to-one tutorial with Elizabeth will take place from the end of July and through August at dates that will be announced at the start of the season. Tutorials usually scheduled in the late afternoon or early evening. The slots will be published on Padlet (a shared online platform) in July 2025 for you to choose the most suitable date and time.
Tutor
Elizabeth Reeder writes fiction, experimental essays, poetry and hybrid work. She has two recent books: a novel, An Archive of Happiness (Penned in the Margins), which was longlisted for the Highland Book Prize, and a collection of hybrid lyric essays, microbursts, which is an artistic collaboration with Amanda Thomson (Prototype Publishing). From 2021-2024, Elizabeth is one of three Endangered Landscape artists in residence with Cairngorms Connect, and she co-runs DeathWrites, a Royal Society of Edinburgh-funded network of Scottish writers exploring illness, dying, death and grief. She is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow.
Signing up
This course will run with 12 participants each season. Writers who have taken part in all four seasons will be offered a £40 discount of their Season 4 fee.
New participants will also be welcome each season if spaces are available.
Fees
The full fee for Season 4 is £340. A deposit of £100 is required to secure your place, which is non-refundable after a 14-day cooling-off period. The balance payment of £240 is due six weeks before the course begins.
Bursaries are available, and you also have the option to pay in instalments, please email online@moniackmhor.org.uk to enquire.
All activity takes place on Zoom, and workshops include a short break. Moniack Mhor staff will be on hand to support you during your course.
For more information please email online@moniackmhor.org.uk.
Access
Please let us know in your booking form if you have any access requirements when working online so we can do our best to support you. For more information about access to our courses, please visit our Access page.
Terms and Conditions
Please read our Terms & Conditions before booking.