Category: Uncategorized (page 1 of 5)

Novel Studio alumna Katharine Light shortlisted for 2024 Selfies Book Awards

We were delighted to discover that Novel Studio alumna Katharine Light has been shortlisted for the 2024 Selfies Book Awards for her debut novel, Like Me.

Launched by BookBrunch in 2018 to recognise excellence in the self-publishing market, the awards are sponsored by Ingram’s self-publishing platform, IngramSpark®, and are run in association with the London Book Fair and Nielsen BookData.

The winners will be announced at this year’s London Book Fair on Tuesday 12 March.

Also on the adult fiction shortlist with Katharine are Shooters by Julia Boggio, Ostler by Susan Grossey, Hidden Depths by Jason Mann, Darcy: A Pride and Prejudice Variation by Alice McVeigh, The Eagle and The Cockerel by Alan Rhode and Artificial Wisdom by Thomas R Weaver.

Katharine will be one of our guests at the spring term City Writes on 27 March, so if you want to hear her read and talk about her path to publication, do register here.

And if you want to find out more about the Novel Studio, the course Katharine took at City, come and meet one of our tutors, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, who will be manning the Novel Studio enquiry desk at our free short course taster event on March 26.

Congratulations to Katharine and all the shortlisted writers. We look forward to hearing more next week!

From Short Course to Stand Up – Suchandrika Chakrabarti’s Writing Journey

Suchandrika’s sell out show I Miss Amy Winehouse

Suchandrika Chakrabarti is carving out quite a name for herself on the comedy writing circuit, but you may not know that many years ago she took some writing short courses at City.  Back in 2009, she took Novel Writing and Longer Works class, then taught by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and in 2010 she took part in the Novel Studio.

Speaking of her experience on City’s courses, Suchandrika said ‘I guess I’d have to preface this with some context on where I was in my life at the time, because that really affected my experience, and my relationship to writing. I was in my mid-twenties, and I had lost both my parents in my late teens, so I was really in the depths of double bereavement. I had always thought of myself as a writer, and my parents had enthusiastically supported me in that idea, but I wasn’t writing. I came to the courses at City in that headspace, i.e. not the ideal one.

‘In the years since I took the courses, I have gone on to teach others how to write personal essays, which are often about trauma. I’ve found that there are two stages in wanting to write about the experience: the first is often the result of a rush to make sense of what happened for the writer themselves. It’s incredibly vulnerable and isn’t conducive to editing; it shouldn’t be published. The second stage is about shaping the experience in a way for the reader to find meaning in it; this version can be published, as the writer has processed the trauma, at least to some extent.

‘I was deep in stage one at the time I took the courses. I wasn’t ready for class feedback, or to write from my own emotional experience. It did feel good to be writing at all, though. I found the teachers supportive and very encouraging. The courses introduced me to the process of getting class feedback, the value of being around other writers and of engaging with their work, too.

‘The courses gave me back some faith in my own writing as the teachers were so thoughtful and considered in their feedback. I had a story published in a literary magazine called Decongested Tales, and had the chance to read it out at an event at Foyles bookstore. These were really important events that helped me gain some confidence back in writing, and I still think of them fondly.

‘It wasn’t until I went freelance in 2018 that I was able to make some headway. I started with writing personal essays, in which I explored using metaphor and more literary language to write about grief, my parents’ stories and my experiences.

‘Over the next two years, I wrote a number of personal essays for a wide array of journalistic outlets, from Marie Claire to Prospect Magazine, by way of Artsy.net and gal-dem. Then the pandemic happened, and during that time I found myself teaching online, setting up a Personal Essays Masterclass with the London Writer’s Salon.

‘Personal essays were a helpful middle ground between journalism and memoir / fiction for me; they allowed me to write what I had once felt was unwriteable, and put it out into the world.

‘I’ve always loved comedy and watching stand-up, but I had no idea how to begin with trying it out. After hosting a podcast at my last staff journalist job, at the Daily Mirror, I had a lot of people asking me if I did stand-up. I wanted to give it a go, but couldn’t guarantee free evenings until I went freelance. Finally, in January 2020 – the twentieth anniversary of my mum’s death – I did a six-week stand-up course at The Bill Murray in Islington, a two-room north London pub set up by comedians. I loved it, and found that performing improved my writing – plus I was in a much better frame of my mind to take on the live feedback that stand-up comedy brings.

‘During the pandemic, I made a start on a novel that drew on my experiences of grief, but was definitely fiction. That wasn’t quite the right format though, and I felt that maybe the narrative voice sounded more like stand-up. So I challenged myself to write my story as my Edinburgh Fringe debut. I wrote I Miss Amy Winehouse, which is creative non-fiction rather than fiction, written in a month (May 2021). I worked it out in various performances across the UK and Europe, then took it to Edinburgh in August 2022, supported by Soho Theatre’s Edinburgh Labs. It’s the closest I’ve come to writing my novel.

‘I’ve had a couple of poems published recently, and I’m working on some scripts, as well as my second Edinburgh show. I’ve even started playing about with character comedy, including wigs and other silly props! I wrote for TV for the first time this year, on ‘Have I Got News For You’, which would make my parents incredibly proud.

‘Writing a novel is still the ultimate dream, and I really hope to get there one day.’

Author and comedian, Suchandrika Chakrabarti

Suchandrika Chakrabarti is a writer, comedian and podcaster from London. She is currently working on her second solo show, Doomscrolling.

If you’re interested in following in Suchandrika’s footsteps, check out our full range of short writing courses HERE.

Or see what else we offer HERE.

 

 

 

City Writes Autumn 2023 – The [bad pun pending] Advent of the Season!

By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

 

The 13th December 2023 was the perfect night for a wonderful selection of readings from competition winners and our professional, Caroline Green. At the showcase event for all the fantastic talent coming from the Creative Writing Short Courses here at City, University of London, this term’s City Writes brought the supernatural into Christmas and took us on such an emotional journey it was like living through a night with Scrooge. What a way to celebrate a season where we all want to cosy up and hear stories around the fire.

We heard from the competition winners first. Chosen from a group of students and alumni of Creative Writing Short Courses who sent in 1,000 words of fiction or non-fiction, this term’s winners had me crying from laughter and despair.

We started with skullduggery loving, Writers’ Workshop alumnus, Martin Corteel whose extract, ‘Cat Among the Pigeons’, is taken from his novel-in-progress Dover Soul about battling publicans at the outset of the First World War. His lively reading followed publican Archie who attacked a rival pub dressed as a temperance lady. No need to say more. It was hilarious.

Martin was followed by Vasundhara Singh, a Novel Studio graduate joining us from India. Vasundhara’s story, ‘The Last Woman of Gwalior’ was a harrowing tale in which the women of India have been wiped out by a virus. The museum to the lost women was both beautifully and wittily depicted. Without women to beat and complain to, the men drift about and stare at off-coloured bras in the museum. There’s so much more to it than this, though – what a story.

We came back to the UK with a painful and moving story of a woman haunted by the loss of her baby. Alumna of An Approach Creative Writing, Cathie Mullen, read her story ‘Tulips’ leaving many eyes on those zoom screens very moist. The sparse space of simple domestic tasks laced in the dull agonies of despair was very powerful indeed.

Thankfully, Novel Studio, Crime and Thriller Writing and Writers’ Workshop alumnus, Mike Clarke took us to Spain next with an extract from his novel-in-progress. Magenta Bougainvillea and White Jasmine took us into the secluded mansion of an imposing older woman walking with a skull-headed cane. It was such an atmospheric piece with floral scents and basking lizards and left us all wondering quite why these three women were meeting after so long and what secrets or relationship dramas were about to unfold. Get writing, Mike!

Tunde Oyebode, alumnus of the Writer’s Workshop, who is working on a collection of short stories, read next. If his story ‘Never Born’ is anything to go by, we have to hope he gets this collection out soon. Even over Zoom the silence was palpable. The story was told from the perspective of a young boy writing about feeling he wished he was never born as he witnessed the distress caused to his fragile, but caring mother around their difference in skin colour and hair texture. A boy at school says that can’t be his mother because they don’t look alike. They get into a fight. You’ll have to watch the Zoom recording to find out more. A very powerful, personal and nuanced story about love and systemic racism.

Reeling a little, we were brought back into the festive spirit with Emma O’Driscoll’s extract from her crime novel-in-progress, Trapped by the Flood. An alumna of the Crime and Thriller Writing Summer School and Novel Writing and Longer Works courses, Emma took us into the soon to be sold and dismantled manor house recently inherited by Richard. With the whole family gathered for Christmas and the flood trapping them in the house, Richard lords his control of the family finances over the family and, for fun, suggests a game of murder… I think we were all hoping he’d be the one to go.

Having gone on such an emotional rollercoaster with our competition winners, we went from the closed-room style mystery of Emma O’Driscoll to crime writing with a supernatural twist as we delved into brilliantly compelling world of the Rose Gifford series as our professional prize-winning writer and City tutor, Caroline Green read from her novel The Whisper House, the second in the Rose Gifford series.

Caroline Green is not only a tutor at City, she also teaches for the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and is writer in residence at both Pentonville Prison and East Barnet School. Alongside her teaching, Caroline finds the time to write prize-winning fiction in three different genres: YA, adult psychological thrillers and crime. We were very lucky to have her.

Not only did we get treated to a reading from The Whisper House, Caroline was kind enough to answer some of my questions as well as several from the audience who asked about how she plotted out her novels, which parts of writing she liked the most, what her writing schedule was like, the research aspects of writing crime and what it was like to work in Pentonville Prison. Caroline explained the midpoint is the most significant focal point for her planning – that she doesn’t always know what will happen at the end. We heard about her days writing at the British Library and the amazing writing competition she recently held at Pentonville prison.

For more on this, all of Caroline’s extra tips and of course, a full rendition of all the wonderful readings, you can watch the night in full here. City Writes was definitely my advent of the season.

Don’t forget the City Writes competition next term when we have a double act from Novel Studio alumni Laurence Kershook and Katharine Light. The Broygus by Laurence Kershook came out in 2022 and Katharine Light’s Like Me came out earlier this year. This promises to be another fantastic night. Watch this space for more information in the New Year.

And for any past or present City Writing Short Course students, there’s 10% off if you book a spring 2024 short creative writing course (excluding the 1, 2 or 3-day courses) by 20 December 2023.

 

City Writes Summer 2023 Competition Open: Share the online stage with award-winning author, Emma Grae – Deadline Friday 9th June

City Writes guest, author Emma Grae, image courtesy of Lissa Evans

by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone

City Writes is the Showcase event for the Creative Writing Short Courses here at City and we are delighted to announce that author and journalist, Emma Grae will be joining us on the 5th July 2023 on Zoom at 7pm. Register to hear from this fantastic, award-winning Writers’ Workshop alumna here

Emma Grae is a Scottish author and journalist from Glasgow. She is a passionate advocate of the Scots language and breaking the stigma around mental illness. She has published fiction and poetry in the UK and Ireland since 2014 in journals including The Honest Ulsterman, From Glasgow to Saturn and The Open Mouse. Her debut novel, Be Guid tae yer Mammy, was published by Unbound in August 2021 and was awarded the Scots Book of the Year at the Scots Language Awards 2022. Her second novel, The Tongue She Speaks was published by Luath Press in October 2022. As a journalist, she writes under her birth surname, Guinness, and has bylines in a number of publications including Cosmopolitanthe Huffington Post and the Metro

For your chance to read your work alongside Emma on the online stage, all you need to do is send in your best 1,000 words of creative fiction or non-fiction (no poetry, drama or children’s fiction – though we do accept YA) along with details of your City Creative Writing Short Course to rebekah.lattin-rawstrone.2@city.ac.uk You can find full submission details here and the deadline for submissions is midnight on Friday 9th June. 

We can’t wait to read your work. In the meantime, do register now for your chance to hear Emma Grae.

 

Good luck and see you on the 5th July!

Why You Should Learn Arabic – Top Tips from our Arabic tutor Ahmed El-Shareif

Arabic tutor Ahmed El-Shareif

City Short Courses has a dynamic range of online language courses, which are a great way to immerse yourself in a foreign language. We cover everything from French to Japanese, Italian to Korean. With over 422 millions speakers worldwide, demand for fluent Arabic speakers is on the rise. We caught up with City’s Arabic tutor, Ahmed El-Shareif to find out more about this fascinating language and his approach to teaching.

  1. Please tell us about yourself

My name is Ahmed El-Shareif and I am a native Arabic speaker from Egypt. I got my First Master of Arts in Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language from SOAS, University of London in 2012. I am currently finishing my second  MA in academic practice at City, University of London. I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a qualified external examiner and an External Examiner for Pearson Education, the Chartered Institute of Linguists and other government establishments.

I am also interested in the development of Arabic teaching, and I am always looking for new ways to improve my teaching methods. I design and run training courses for the development of Arabic teachers abroad and in the UK and I am a member of several professional organisations and regularly attend conferences and workshops. For example, I have attended several workshops in Texas, USA and Spain. I am a member of the British Association of Teachers of Arabic (BATA).

I am passionate about teaching Arabic and I believe that it is an important language to learn. I am committed to providing my students with a high-quality education that will help them achieve their language learning goals.

2. What do you teach at City?

I currently teach Arabic at City, University of London’s School of Languages (Bayes Business School & LGPModules) and for their evening online short courses. I have previously taught at Suffolk College, Westminster University, International House London, Kings College London and SOAS.

3. Why do you think it’s important to learn Arabic?

Arabic is a major world language. It is the official language of 22 countries, and it is spoken by over 420 million people worldwide. This makes it an important language for business, diplomacy, and travel.

Learning Arabic can help you understand Arab culture. Arabic is a rich and complex language that is closely tied to the culture of the Middle East. By learning Arabic, you can gain a deeper understanding of this fascinating culture.

Learning Arabic can open up new career opportunities. There is a growing demand for Arabic speakers in many industries, including business, government, and education. By learning Arabic, you can make yourself more competitive in the job market.

Learning Arabic can also be a rewarding experience. Arabic is a beautiful and challenging language to learn. The process of learning Arabic can be a rewarding experience that will enrich your life in many ways.

City University is a great place to learn Arabic. The university has a strong Arabic program with experienced and qualified lecturers. The university also offers a variety of Arabic courses to meet the needs of students of all levels.

4. What are your top three tips for learning Arabic?

  • Set goals. What do you want to achieve by learning Arabic? Do you want to be able to read and write Arabic, or do you want to be able to speak and understand Arabic? Once you know what you want to achieve, you can start to develop a plan to reach your goals.
  • Find a learning method that works for you. There are many ways to learn Arabic. Some people prefer to take classes, while others prefer to learn independently. There are also many different resources available, such as books, apps, and websites. Experiment with different methods and resources until you find one that you enjoy and that helps you learn effectively.
  • Be patient. Learning a new language takes time and effort. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Just keep practicing and you will eventually reach your goals.

Here are some additional tips that may help you learn Arabic:

  • Immerse yourself in the language. One of the best ways to learn a language is to immerse yourself in it. This means surrounding yourself with the language as much as possible. You can do this by watching Arabic movies and TV shows, listening to Arabic music, and reading Arabic books and articles.
  • Find a language partner. A language partner is someone who is fluent in Arabic and who is willing to help you practice speaking and understanding the language. You can find language partners online or through local language schools and community centres.
  • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes when they are learning a new language. The important thing is to not let this discourage you. Just keep practicing and you will eventually get better.

5. Why would you recommend learning Arabic ?

Business: Arabic is the official language of many countries in the Middle East, which is a region with a growing economy. By learning Arabic, you can open up new business opportunities for yourself and your company.

Diplomacy: Arabic is the language of Islam, and it is spoken by many people in the Middle East. By learning Arabic, you can improve your understanding of the Middle East and its culture, which can be helpful in a diplomatic career.

Travel: Arabic is spoken in many countries in North Africa and the Middle East. By learning Arabic, you can make your travels to these regions more enjoyable and easier. 22 countries speak Arabic.

Education: Arabic is the language of many important works of literature, philosophy, and science. By learning Arabic, you can gain access to this vast body of knowledge.

Personal enrichment: Learning a new language can be a rewarding and enriching experience. Arabic is a beautiful and challenging language to learn, and the process of learning it can help you to grow as a person.

The Quran was revealed in Arabic, so it is important to learn the language in order to understand it fully. However, at the moment City only offers Modern Standard Arabic (MSN)  which is spoken and understood by all.

Thank you so much, Ahmed!

To find out more about learning Arabic at City, visit our course page HERE.

For all City’s language short courses visit our home page HERE.

And for all our short online courses visit HERE.

Canongate buy Novel Studio alumna Lara Haworth’s debut novel Monumenta

Lara Haworth

We are beyond excited to announce that Novel Studio alumna Lara Haworth has sold her debut novel, Monumenta, to Canongate. World rights were acquired from Lara’s agent, Jo Bell, at Bell Lomax Moreton and the book will be published in June 2024.

Lara is a writer, filmmaker and political researcher who specialises in the UK’s move to become carbon zero by 2050. An extract from Monumenta that she turned into a short story won a Bridport Prize, and her poem ‘The Thames Barrier’ was awarded a prize in the Cafe Writers Poetry Competition. Lara was an exceptionally talented member of the Novel Studio 2018/19 and we could not be more delighted with her publication success. Watch this space for more about the book and Lara’s development as a novelist.

For anyone interested in finding out more about the course Lara took at City, The Novel Studio is now open to applications with a deadline of 30 May 2023.

For all our writing short courses visit HERE.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming: What It Is And How It Can Improve The Way We Do Business

by Helena Dias

I bet if you were told that you could train your mind and connect with others, without saying a single word, you wouldn’t believe it.

Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP—simply put, an ‘Instruction manual for the mind’—doesn’t teach us how to read or control minds. Instead it teaches us how to deal with our own emotions and how to build rapport with others. Through a simple set of tools, you can improve the way you see yourself and others and, in turn, the way people see and interact with you.

Background

Therapeutic Intervention?

I first came across NLP when I was battling anxiety and Nyctophobia—fear of the dark. I’d tried Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, yoga and meditation. All helped, but only for a short period, after which the negative feelings would always come back. A friend suggested I try hypnotherapy and I started seeing a therapist that combined hypnotherapy with NLP. After the session he would give me techniques to practice on my own and for the first time I felt empowered and in charge of my own recovery process.

Seeing the results in myself led me to start my own NLP practitioner journey with the aim of helping others.

NLP was developed in the 1970s in California by psychologist Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder. They believed it was possible to combine techniques from different forms of therapy and self-help practices to create a tool kit for the mind.

Take our fight or flight response. It was designed to aid survival in dangerous or threatening situations, and yet most of us are no longer in constant contact with danger. We become fearful of something going wrong even when we have no proof that it will go wrong. We develop phobias of things that can’t really harm us, and we create ideas and thoughts in our brain to counter these phobias, manifesting anxiety, stress and fears in physical form. NLP teaches us to use our brain power in a way that can dismantle these ideas and thoughts and impact us more positively.

How NLP benefits individuals

NLP can increase our self-worth and confidence leading to better communication, influence, and leadership skills. It works by changing the way we talk (linguistic) to, and about, ourselves (neuro-brain).

In NLP the use of the word “don’t” is discouraged. It is based on the belief that our brains find it difficult to process negative statements. We respond better when we think about the things we want to happen, rather than those we don’t.

For example, you could approach the following situation in two ways:

Negative: I’m prepared, therefore I won’t fail this presentation.

Positive: I’m prepared, therefore I will give a great presentation.

To negate a fear, first we must think of that fear and make it more present in our mind. For example, if I tell you to not think of a blue tree you first need to think of the blue tree to tell your brain to not think of it. If we can visualise our success instead, we present ourselves in a more confident way, leading others to trust us.

How NLP benefits our dealings with others:

Body Talks?

When we consider that 93% of our communication is non-verbal, it makes sense to pay attention both to our own body language and others’, and use our observations to help build rapport.

When we meet people for the first time, we may have the feeling that we’ve met them before. We feel comfortable around them. NLP teaches us to label this experience body language matching or mirroring.

We can then use those labels and knowledge to connect and build rapport with others. For example, if you are in a meeting and you want to connect with the person you are presenting to, observe their body language and try mirroring it by moving your hands at a similar speed, smiling, or leaning in the same direction as the other person. The idea is that this will bring us towards the other person’s world and help them feel more comfortable and more open to connect with us.

We can also use other people’s body language to help us determine the words we choose. For example, through eye patterns we can determine which ‘sense’ is more dominant for that person, and how they might be thinking. NLP classifies these senses into Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic.

When we are asked questions, we go to our brain “draws” to pick the information before we answer. Even though the action might take less than a second, after a few questions it becomes easier to identify which ‘sense’ the other person is using and adapt our language to better connect.

Connecting the Dots

A person who often looks down to the left when asked a question would be classed in NLP terms as more kinaesthetic, i.e. they are more connected to feelings and actions. When describing something to that person we may get better results if we talk about how an experience made us feel: ‘I came out of the house and I felt the sun on my face.’

By using language that others identify with we manage to connect and go into their world, leaving them more open to what we have to say.

 

In conclusion

NLP can produce results almost instantly but to see long-term benefits it requires practice.

The beauty of it is that we can come back to it at any time and any place. It helps us understand ourselves, be more confident and calmer under pressure. The more in control of our emotions we are the more we can connect with others.

Our Writing for Business and Copywriting courses include the opportunity for students to pitch and be published on our blog. This week’s blog was pitched and written by Writing for Business student Helena Dias. Helena is a Conference Organiser for UNISON and has been working in events for more than ten years. She is currently training to become an NLP practitioner with Toby and Kate McCartney.

For more on all our writing courses visit our home page HERE.

The Starlit Dancer: the magical new book by City copywriting tutor Maggie Richards

Author and City tutor Maggie Richards

In celebration of the publication of her new book, The Starlit Dancer, City writing short courses caught up with author Maggie Richards to find out more about the book and her writing career.

Short Courses (SC): Please tell us a bit about yourself and your role at City

Maggie Richards (MR): I’m a former Times, Sunday Times and Guardian journalist and author of ‘A Guide to Being a Better Being.’ At City teach a monthly sell-out masterclass on Zoom called ‘Introduction to Copywriting’. It’s a fun and practical distillation of inspiring insights, techniques and approaches I’ve learned over my 24-year career.

I love the diversity of international students that the course attracts, and witnessing their confidence and clarity grow over just six hours. Several have gone on to secure paid copywriting roles, which is great! I also teach City’s Writing for Business short course

SC: You’ve published The Starlit Dancer, a beautiful picture book for 3-7 year-olds about Mabel, a girl whose love lights up the world. It’s a really inspiring read and a great way to help children sleep better and introduce them to the idea of a loving inner voice they can trust. Meditation is a key part of your life and work. With Spiritual Adviser, Executive Producer – Christspiracy, Associate Producer – SLAY Film and Screenwriter Cher Chevalier, you co-wrote the 24 (8×3) meditations that launched Calm, iTunes App of the Year 2017. What made you turn towards writing a children’s book?

MR: Through Cher, also author of the Animals Actually A-Z of books, I’d already been guided to work spiritually with children, and had set up relaxation classes to teach them about kindness, positive thinking and meditation. Good books can change lives and perhaps it was a natural progression to uplift little ones through a something they can hold and keep.

 

SC:  Can you tell us about the process of writing and publishing the book?

MR: The Starlit Dancer is rare because it’s an inspired book – the story came flowing into my mind one day. I didn’t know it was coming! It’s always a special honour to be entrusted with words, especially when they’re so joyful.

It was important that only good energy went into our little book, which is why the author, advisers, translators and narrators are all successful veggie-vegan women.

The Spanish version was co-translated and narrated by Argentine actress, film producer and animal rights activist Liz Solari, while Australia-based voice over artist Natasha Beaumont narrates the English version, and a quick Google search for ‘vegan illustrators’ connected us with the talented Antonella Canavese from Italy.

For full control of the publishing process, I self-published with Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. It was largely quick, simple and easy, and when I needed help, the Customer Service team responded within 24 hours. 

Formatting the manuscripts as a paperback and ebook was done by professionals on fiverr.com, while the audiobook files were prepared by recording studios, and I uploaded them for free to ACX.com. Teamwork makes the dream work!

SC: You’re a copywriter by profession. How different was it to write a story for children?

MR: Copywriting requires planning, researching, meeting the brief, and often aims to sell a product or service. The Starlit Dancer story required much less effort because it was given to me in its entirety largely as it’s written.

SC: Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to write their own children’s book?

MR: Three points come to mind:

1) Choose carefully your goal and make it good. We all have a responsibility to empower little ones by educating them in the steps to success: how to be kind, happy and harmless, for example.

2) Words (and thoughts) shape our world. It’s important to speak sweetly to children, choosing positive, loving words and phrases so as to feed their minds only ‘light’.

3) Use rhyme – it’s a great way of learning and fun to write. Repetition, too, helps very young children engage and learn.

Thanks so much, Maggie, and congratulations on the book.

You can buy Maggie’s book HERE. The Starlit Dancer is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook in English, Welsh and Spanish.

If you’re interested in taking her copywriting course, click HERE.

If you would like to try your hand at writing a children’s book, our Writing for Children short course, taught by author Bryony Pearce is HERE.

For all our short writing courses, go HERE. And for all our short course news, visit our blog HERE.

 

 

 

What Are the Most Useful Skills for Adapting to AI?

Intelligent life?

 

Technology is advancing so rapidly, it can sometimes feel bewildering, especially when thinking about what the future jobs market might look like. How do we ensure we keep pace and equip ourselves to adapt to the change? Read on for the subjects that could help you future-proof your career in the AI frontier.

Become an Expert in Data Analysis

Data has become supremely valuable, not least for its importance in training AI. Gaining expertise in data analysis is a smart way to stand out in the jobs market, and stay relevant. City has a range of courses designed to help you gain knowledge of, and insight into, data analysis. From Introduction to Data Analytics and Machine Learning with Python to our new Spreadsheet Data Analysis and Automation with Python  or Introduction to R for Data Analysis, our short courses in data analysis will give you a head start in this rapidly changing landscape.

Codebreaking

Colour coded

Sometimes known as programming, coding is essential for anyone wanting to work effectively with AI. City has a great range of short coding courses in all the major programming languages. Take our courses in C/C++, or the ever-popular Python short courses. You can also learn JavaScript or Java, used by 42.9% and 37.8% of web developers respectively working in artificial intelligence or machine learning, according to a recent survey by Evans Data Corporation.

Softly, Softly

It’s not all about technical skills. Working with AI requires soft skills too, from communication to creativity. Our short courses in Presentation SkillsEffective Communication and Stoicism will improve your interpersonal skills, while our vibrant range of  writing courses will kickstart your creativity. Adaptability is also a key soft skill, vital for coping with the pace of technology change; our highly interactive Leadership and Management course will sharpen your team-leading skills and ensure you get the most from your teams.

Keep it Safe

AI systems often deal with sensitive data and are vulnerable to cyber attacks. It’s important for businesses and individuals to understand the risks involved, and learn how best to mitigate them. City’s Cybersecurity Fundamentals short course provides a great foundation in the cyber security domains of networking, security engineering, risk management, incident response, governance control and legal practicalities.

Get Developing

Web development is an important skill in working with AI. From visualising AI outputs, to integrating AI with other systems, being skilled in web development will ensure you can utilise AI models in the most powerful ways. City’s short course in web development will teach you how to install Bootstrap and how to use its key components most effectively. Our Building Websites short course will enable you to plan, design, develop and publish a website that adheres to current industry standards and best practices, while our PHP course is best suited for back-end web development and can be embedded into HTML.

Storytelling

Turn the Page

As technology advances, it becomes more important than ever to differentiate what makes us human. Storytelling is one of our oldest skills, and remains an integral part of our lives. City’s short creative writing courses are designed to help you understand how stories are built, how they’re written and how they can be edited. Try our introduction to creative writing course or learn how to craft non-fiction with our Narrative Non-Fiction or Memoir Writing course.  For our full range, visit our home page HERE.

 

For all City’s short courses visit our home page HERE.

City Writes Springs Into Its Seventh Year!

By Rebekah Latin-Rawstrone

Every term the City Writes event brings a sense of excitement at the prospect of listening to fantastic writers and alumni both new and established. This term was no different and remarkably, this Spring City Writes marked six years of the event. What a celebration of that landmark this event was, really showcasing the excellent writing coming out of the short courses here at City

We began with City Writes veteran and fantasy writer, Adam Zunker. An alumnus of An Approach to Creative Writing and Writers’ Workshop, Adam read an extract from his novel-in-progress, The Perfectation(loosely) based on the experiences of his Viennese grandmother as a refugee. He is pitching it as ‘Amadeus, but with alchemists’ and we were lucky enough to hear a moment of drama as one woman and her daughter, long in hiding, were captured but not by those they were expecting. The audience was left on tenterhooks wondering quite what this moment would bring for the characters. Bring on the rest of the book!

Next we took a completely different turn. Though staying with fiction inspired by real life, Angel Witney, alumna of Novel Writing and Longer Works, took us into the waiting room as her character played ‘a never-ending game of tag with the present moment’, time bending out of proportion and distorting her sense of wellbeing. Her extract ‘The Waiting Room’ was an excruciating but eloquent account of how our minds can alter reality, whetting our appetites for more of this work-in-progress.

Grayson Anderson, Novel Studio graduate, author and poet (and another City Writes alumnus!), read for us next, taking us into the passionate and dangerous world of the extra-marital affair. Fast-paced and filled with deftly observed detail and dialogue, Grayson brought the initial fall out of an affair’s discovery to brilliant and gritty light. We can’t wait to find out more about ‘Wayne’s Night Out’, another extract from a longer piece the audience couldn’t wait to read.

Moving from one kind of love to another, we journeyed down nostalgia lane with  Narrative Non-Fiction alumnus, Bruce O’Brien, next. Bruce’s story ‘The Eels of Wrath’ mixed memory, narrative and poetry to moving effect, giving us an account of an old couple who used to live in the East End of London. There were some definite signs of eyes being wiped in the Zoom windows of our audience. We hope to hear more of these stories soon.

From fiction to elegant non-fiction, we slipped into a different kind of elegy with Philipp Sandmann, another  Narrative Non-Fiction alumnus, who read his article, ‘Germans No Longer Score Penalties and That’s a Problem Or: Why the Only Thing We’ve Got Left is Bloody Great bBread…’. There were so many comments in the chat through this piece, mostly worrying that Germany couldn’t really have similar problems to our own! Philipp joined us from Berlin and is busy working on a book for a UK audience about the modern German soul and the myth of German efficiency. Judging by the City Writes reception, he has a very ready audience waiting to read it.

Aaron Payne, a Writer’s Workshop alumnus, read for us next. Aaron gave us an extract from his novel-in-progress, Our Man in the Clouds, in which a disgruntled meteorologist tries, but fails, to stay out of the global tussle for climate control. His extract took us to a remembered journey to Provence in 2015 when the narrator and his colleague, Siobhan, visited Professor Merryweather to discuss the possibility of setting up a climate school. More about the sexual encounter between Tony and Siobhan than the disastrous visit with the Merryweathers, the extract had us hooked. Another novel to look out for.

After these fantastic competition winners, we had the joy of listening to Hannah Begbie read from the opening of her second, prize-winning novel, Blurred Lines (HarperCollins, 2020), which tackles the film industry’s darker truths and the difficulties of speaking out in a pre MeToo era. We followed Becky as she attempted to impress her boss with a gift of some expensive wine before a trip to Cannes. Once at his house, having always been encouraged just to come on in through the open door, she witnessed something she wished she hadn’t. Thankfully, this time, audience members could go right out and buy the novel to find out what happened next. You can do the same here!

Alumna of the Novel Studio, Hannah was very generous in her answers to questions and particularly eloquent on the importance of writing from the heart. She shared writing tips, emphasised the importance of maintaining your writing allies, and gave a sneaky insight into her next novel.

You can hear the whole City Writes event and listen to the full Q&A with Hannah Begbie, by watching the video of the event HERE.

Don’t forget to look out for details of next term’s City Writes event and competition. Our guest writer next term will be the wonderful, Emma Grae whose debut novel, Be Guid tae yer Mammy (Unbound, 2021), won the Scots Book of the Year 2022.

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