Date/Time
Date(s) - Thursday 5 Nov - Friday 27 Nov, 2026
7:00pm - 9:00pm
Letting your characters take the lead
We often hear writers describing how their characters wrote their books for them, by coming fully alive and taking over the storytelling. This may or may not be true, but it can certainly feel that way when your characters are visceral, vocal, physical and real enough to almost touch. In this course with novelist Diana Evans, you will explore ways of bringing characters to life so that they are ‘off the page’ and memorable, as well as the torchbearers through your story. You will examine how character development is closely linked to plot and therefore structure, as well as the related mechanisms of description, setting and dialogue. Through a range of writing exercises and close readings of character-rich fiction, you will receive a boost to your novel-in-progress, or find new routes into a story you are dying to tell.
Moniack in a Month: Character-Driven Novel Writing includes:
- a short introductory welcome session
- four stimulating online workshops, preceded by optional drop-in social time
- one 30-minute tutorial
- a final ceilidh session – sharing of work
- Contact and support from your community of writers via Google Classroom (optional)
- Drop-ins before each workshop to help you get to know your group (optional)
- Support from your Moniack Mhor host
Diana’s workshops will focus on the following themes:
Workshop 1 – Who are your people?
Everything begins with character. This opening session offers practical methods for getting to the heart of your characters, giving you the tools to ignite their leadership power whatever their personalities.
Workshop 2 – The story and the frame
Even if you are not a ‘plotty’ writer, every story has a journey and a structure. Explore approaches to finding a frame for your novel and using character trajectory as your guide.
Workshop 3 – The Looks and Feels
This session will focus on setting and description to help you colour in your characters’ physical and sensory environments, using selectivity to avoid overwriting or cluttered prose.
Workshop 4 – Delicious Dialogue
If you are scared of writing dialogue or think you can’t do it, discover what happens when you take the plunge and get your people talking on the page.
Timetable
Week 1 Thursday 5 Nov 18:30–21:00 Welcome Session and Workshop 1
Week 2 Thursday 12 Nov 19.00-21.00 Workshop 2
Week 3 Thursday 19 Nov 19.00-21.00 Workshop 3
Week 4 Thursday 26 Nov 19.00-21.00 Workshop 4
Week 4 Friday 27 Nov 19.00-21.00 Ceilidh
Tutorials
Your one-to-one tutorial with Diana will be scheduled when the course starts and will most likely take place in weeks 2 or 3.
Tutor
Diana Evans is the author of four novels and a collection of nonfiction. Her work has received many prize nominations, including the Guardian and Commonwealth Best First Book awards for 26a, and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction for Ordinary People, which won the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature. Her fourth novel, A House for Alice, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and her journalism/essay collection I Want to Talk to You: And Other Conversations was nominated for the Jhalak Prose Prize. She is a former dancer and has published widely as a journalist in Vogue, The Guardian, Time Magazine, The Observer and Harper’s Bazaar among others. She has taught creative writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, Arvon, First Story, Curtis Brown Creative, Guardian Masterclasses and the University of East Anglia, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Fees
The full fee for this online course is £360. 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 £260 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.