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Second Year Writing Retreat


  • Shepherds Dene Retreat House Riding Mill, England, NE44 6BF United Kingdom (map)

Second Year Writing Retreat 19th-24th May

For year PhD researchers in their second year (or penultimate year if part time) **

Sample Content (mornings):

Day One: We meet you ‘as writers’ and reflect on the challenges that all writers face. Perhaps you’re in the ‘Muddled Middle’, feeling your research proliferate, bringing you original plans into question. Can you re-orientate yourself with skilful questioning and feedback from your peers?

Day Two: How do you find your writing voice as a result of honing your focus? We help you create spaces – literal and conceptual – designed to draw out your original lines of thought and to help you find expression at every level of your PhD.

Day Three: Story structure – we explore the elements of story and how you can use them to create narrative drive through your thesis. More than any other day this week, this is the day for troubleshooting!

Day Four: Who are you writing for? We introduce ‘connective tissue’ – a technique that ensures you keep your reader with you at all times, directing and guiding them through the twists and turns of your argument so they never get lost.

Day Five: How do you keep the show on the road? We’ll explore ways of working that will help you tap into your best creative state and ensure you continue to make regular progress with your writing. We recap what you’ve learnt during the week and you’ll plan your next steps.

By the end of the course:

  • You will have reassessed the direction your research is taking and achieved more clarity and focus.

  • You will have found new confidence in your writing voice and learned how to use it to guide and direct your readers.

  • You will have strengthened the spine of your thesis, and identified its major points of articulation.

  • You will have a clearer sense of who you are as a writer, and of how to access your own best creative state.

  • You will also receive 2 x individual tutorials with the course leaders.

By registering below you are requesting a place on this training programme or selected sessions that form part of the programme. A member of the CHASE team or the workshop leader will contact you in due course to confirm that a place has been allocated to you. If you are allocated a place but can no longer attend, please cancel your Eventbrite registration or email training@chase.ac.uk so that your place can be reallocated.

CHASE training is free to attend and events are often oversubscribed with a waiting list. Failure to notify us of non-attendance in good time means your place cannot be reallocated and repeated failure may mean that your access to future training is limited.

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15 May

CHASE Creative Writers Network Meeting

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22 May

AuralPluralities Network Event: Composing Place