Louisa Ashton

Hi there!

I'm a working writer with a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester, and I absolutely love supporting other people of all abilities, experience and ages (from primary school to seniors) to find their creative voice!

Here's a little look at how I like to plan our sessions -

First, I usually like to have a discussion about what you're looking for through our sessions. This will be a free chat so I can understand how I will structure our sessions and provide you with the best support possible. We will then both decide on a direction to work towards. This could be to explore a specific form, like memoir or play writing, or this could be to deepen your understanding of story structure. Or, we could just be exploring and having fun. You may not know exactly what you'd like to do, and that's great! We can experiment and play with different things and discover the different elements you'd like to explore. Writing is an excellent creative outlet and is often a wonderful way to nourish the mind and support our mental health.

Each session will be tailored for you, but a typical session's structure might begin with a discussion looking at specific teaching points and looking at relevant examples in books or scripts. We might then work through a few writing exercises, exploring and experimenting these points. We will then round-off the session by reflecting on the exercises and I can set homework if you are happy to take some on. Homework is not necessary, but I can recommend some further reading and give you longer writing exercises that you can undertake outside of the session.

Here's a list of things we can explore during our sessions:

- Gently begin to explore all the possibilities of story writing for the beginner or young learner
- Generating ideas and finding inspiration
- Writing fiction or non-fiction
- Finding your voice
- Story structure
- What about research?
- Creating plot
- Character creation
- Looking at Dialogue
- Exploring form (play scripts, screenplays, radio scripts, short stories or novels)
- Drafting & Editing
- Finding your writing process
- Building confidence
- Finding a routine