During the course, we will examine why our relationship with the darker side of fiction has endured the millennia, and why there will always be a market for scary stories. We will create haunted places and people, stoke fear and fight demons in the pursuit of unsettling and evocative fiction.

Over the course of the week, we will consider how to write relatable fear, how to create a brooding atmosphere and how to make setting an intrinsic character in your fiction. Each session will include short tutorials on technique with practical exercises, peer and individual feedback as well as reading recommendations to help you enrich your own dark fiction.

This course runs over five consecutive days. Each day will consist of a three-and-a-half-hour morning session that includes formal teaching and group discussion, plus optional writing time in the afternoons.

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is a former English tutor for young people in the PRU and care systems. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. His debut thriller, Six Stories, was an Amazon bestseller in the USA, Canada, the UK and Australia, and a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick. Hydra, was published in 2018 and became an international bestseller. Changeling, the third book in the series, was published in 2019 and was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. His fourth book, Beast, won the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Independent Voice Book of the Year award in 2020 and was followed by Deity and then Demon in 2022.

Dates: Monday 16 – Friday 20 October 2023, 10.30 – 16.00 BST
Location: Online via Zoom
Cost: £595

Further info and to book here