Begin - Derbyshire Writing School Podcast

Episode 50 - New Year, New Goals! Writing in 2022. In this episode, Pete and Laura chat about the difference between New Year Resolutions or New Year Intentions. Pete talks about his newsletter – The Art of Memorialising as well as his ‘Intentions’ to increase the % of his income from online projects and products.  Laura maps out her first quarter plans based on yearly intentions, quarterly goals,...

Episode 49 - Guest Interview - Derbyshire Author - Shirley Mann  Shirley Mann is a journalist who has worked across newspapers, radio and television. She spent most of her career working as a reporter, producer, and presenter for the BBC on programmes across radio and television, including Radio 4 and Countryfile. She then set up her own media company with lecturing as a sideline, producing short...

Episode 48 - The Writer’s Toolbox - The Tool of Journaling In this episode, Pete and Laura chat about journaling.  What exactly is journaling?  How can this help us as writers? Journaling is getting your thoughts from your head onto paper. But what are some benefits of Journaling? Journaling can: Help us manage stress and anxiety – positively affecting our mental health.   Develop our creativity a...

Episode 47 – The Writer's Toolbox – The Tool of  Creativity  Writing is an act of creation. When we write, we bring new ideas, stories, even people, into existence. The more we write, the more we learn to craft and shape narrative. We learn what sounds good and we develop extra levels of creativity and imagination. In this Writer's Toolbox episode, Pete and Laura chat about the tool of c...

THE WRITERS’ ROOM - Where Do Ideas Come From?  Where do ideas come from? Do find you have a never-ending supply of creativity coursing through your mind? Or do you struggle to find inspiration? In this episode, Pete and Laura chat about creativity – where they find ideas spark and how they develop those ideas. They also ask, can we have too many ideas?  Where to look for ideas? Go on an Artist Dat...

THE WRITERS’ ROOM - Who Else Thinks Technology Can Hinder Or Help Our Writing? Do you find technology helps you write, or does it become something else you can use to procrastinate and put off writing your novel? Pete lists 19 – yes 19! Software, apps or platforms he thinks he might use to publish the book his working on. Excessive? You need to listen to find out. PERSONAL PROJECT S - In this sect...

Episode 44 - How To Write Crime Mystery Fiction - Guest Interview Tom Mead Tom Mead is a Midlands-based author. He has previously written for Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine , Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (amongst various others).  He is a great admirer of golden age authors of the locked-room mystery subgenre (John Dickson Carr, Clayton Rawson, Helen McCloy) and has written many stories in t...

Episode 43 - The Writer’s Toolbox  - The Tool of NaNoWriMo NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month. It started back in 1999 in the States and has grown into a vast community. It’s a non-profit organisation, with the sole aim of helping you to tell your story. The challenge is to write 1,700 words a day, every day for a month.  There are a few rules: Only words you write in November count. One aut...

Episode 42 – The Writer’s Toolbox – A Writing Tribe In this episode, Pete and Laura take another delve into The Writer’s Toolbox and add the tool of a Writing Tribe to the toolbox. Writing can feel lonely. Not just the act of tapping away at the keys, but losing yourself in your work and wondering if another pair of eyes will ever read it.  Creating a writing tribe can be a wonderful way to find m...

Episode 41 - Guest Interview - Chris Gregory - How To Write Audio Drama Chris Gregory is the founder of the Alternative Stories and Fake Realities Podcast .  Alternative Stories have provided content to BBC and North American radio stations, represented the UK at the International Radio Drama Festival for the past two years and has been nominated for many Audio Verse Awards (for podcast drama) as...

We are back in the writers’ room and we have a guest in our hot seat this week! The Derbyshire poet - Karey Lucas-Hughes . Karey was born and grew up in north London in the 1960s. She studied French and English at Lancaster University before spending a few years living and working in Tokyo, Japan and Hamilton, Canada, with her husband Martin.  They moved to the Peak District nearly 20 years ago, w...

THE WRITERS’ ROOM - Should You Focus On One Writing Idea At A Time? “What you stay focused on will grow.” ― Roy T. Bennett There is a metaphor describing the delicate balance of holding many projects on the go at the same time - plate spinning. Like the circus act, with all the plates spinning, you work successfully with several things at once. Can you do that with writing projects?  Pete and Laur...

Episode 38 – The Writer’s Toolbox – The Tool of Life Documentation In this episode, Pete and Laura take another delve into The Writer’s Toolbox and add the tool of life documentation as a writer.  Creative writing has many benefits, but often it can be intimidating to start. One way to dive into creative writing is through documenting your memories. In doing so, you can treasure them forever. Even...

Episode 37 – The Writer’s Toolbox – The Tool of Motivation In this episode, Pete and Laura take another delve into The Writer’s Toolbox and add the tool of motivation as a writer.  How Do You Write When You Don’t Feel Like It? There are days when we feel like we could write forever. When we know just what we want to type, when we reach a state of flow . Those are the days.  But we can’t have those...

We have a guest in The Writers’ Room this week - Alex Davis. Alex is an author and literature professional based in Derby. Today he joins Pete and Laura to talk about How To Write A Ghost Story. As a writer, Alex has published a novel - THE LAST WAR - a science-fiction novel and a non-fiction book along with 50+ short stories and poems. Among them four short stories called - FIGHTING CATS AND DOGS...

Episode 35 - How Do I Find Time To Write? In THE WRITERS’ ROOM - How Do I Find Time To Write? Finding time to write feels impossible. There is always something else that seems more important. As they say, a writer’s house is never as clean as just before they sit down to write!  But in all seriousness, how do we find time to write? That’s the question we’re tackling in the Writer’s Room on this ep...

Episode 34 - Derbyshire Writing School – Happy 1st Birthday!  Derbyshire Writing School is one-year-old! Our aim has always been to create courses, workshops and resources that balanced the creative and the practical.  Derbyshire Writing School — Creative writing taught the way it should be: Fun Heartfelt Practical So how has Derbyshire Writing School faired in its first year? It’s been a rollerco...

We have reached the last episode of season one! For 33 weeks we’ve shown up week in and week out and have lots of fun creating this podcast, but this isn’t goodbye, it’s see you soon.  Taking 9 weeks off for summer, we will work hard to plan and create the best podcast episodes about writing. We are writers and we want to share what we’re learning to help you grow as a writer too.  So we will be b...

Episode 32- How To Review Writing Goals Pete and Laura are back in the writers’ room. Back in January we shared an episode about writing goals (Episode 10) . We looked at how to set writing goals and how to measure them, but 6 months into the year where are we with these goals?  Join us this week as we talk about the mid-year check-in and how we can assess where we are with our goals as we reach t...

Episode 31 - Guest Interview - Lucy Thorpe - How Do I Become A Freelance Writer? Lucy Thorpe is a freelance writer who works with brands and publications in health, lifestyle, beauty and marketing. Lucy writes content, copy, editorial and provides marketing services to businesses around the world. For more information, visit - www.lucythorpecontent.com In this episode of the podcast, Laura and Pet...

Episode 30 - The Writer’s Toolbox - The Tool of Editing In this episode, Pete and Laura take another delve into The Writer’s Toolbox and add the tool of editing as a writer.  Hate it or love it, editing is a huge part of writing. We can’t avoid it, so it’s best to embrace it and ensure it’s part of or writing process. In this “Toolbox” podcast Peter and Laura chat about what we mean by editing? Ed...

Episode 29 - The Writer’s Toolbox - Constructing Characters In this episode, Pete and Laura take another delve into The Writer’s Toolbox and add the tool of constructing characters as a writer.  This week we are looking at the tool of characterisation and specifically ‘how to get inside your character’s head.’ Why You Need To Get Inside Your Character’s Head? Getting inside your character’s head i...

Episode 28 - Hot Seat Interview - Laura Stroud - Founder of Derbyshire Writing School We are back in the writers’ room and we have a guest in our hot seat this week! I am really pleased to interview Derbyshire author, and the founder of Derbyshire Writing School, Laura Stroud.  Pete asks Laura several questions about her writing and how they came to start Derbyshire Writing School. When did you re...

Episode 27 - Why Should I Use Writing Prompts? THE WRITERS’ ROOM - Why Should I Use Writing Prompts? “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don’t see any.” — Orson Scott In the Writers’ Room this week, Pete and Laura chat about the benefit of using writing prompts. Following on from the launch of The Prompt Box...

THE WRITERS’ ROOM  In the Writers’ Room this week, Pete and Laura chat about writing non-fiction.  Pete’s non-fiction books are: Nailed To The Cross : How Primitive Methodism Liberated The White Slaves of Bromsgrove  Death Goes Digital : How Funeral Directors Can Use LinkedIn To Demonstrate Professionalism, Build Reputation and Create Visibility Laura’s non-fiction books are  -  Everyday Storytell...