November writing workshops
The two last chances for you to get some writing done with me in 2025
Hello writers!
I’m writing from a glorious heatwave, the scent of fire in the air. Cape Town is flammable in spring and summer, the dry proteas ready kindling for deliberate arsonists and lazy cigarette smokers. That and every afternoon seems to be deemed a suitable occasion for a braai.
This month there are two opportunities to write online with me in a formal workshop, and I’ll be running weekly writing meet ups either on Zoom or on this platform (if I can get it together to work out how to do it) so that we can all complain together about how hard writing is and all tell each other how we must and love to do it.
Writing different forms
On the 22nd of November in Cape Town and 28th of November on Zoom, I’ll be hosting a writing workshop that focusses on exploring different writing forms. We’ll be playing with writing diary entries, flash pieces, memoir, poetry, and talking about how to structure a longer piece of writing. You can find out more about what to expect here.
Each of the five workshop themes, explained
As inspired by another Substack post I read this morning, I’ll quickly reintroduce myself for those of you who are new. I’m Jen Thorpe, a writer and researcher from Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve published two novels, a full length non-fiction book, edited three collections of feminist essays, and published three children’s books. I’m also a professional…
The in-person workshop is R500 and includes tea, coffee, and cake. The online workshop is R400.
If you’d like to sign up, pop me an email to jenthorpewrites@gmail.com
Weekly writing meet ups
Every November there used to be a thing called NaNoWriMo where people tried (and some succeeded) in banging out a first draft of a novel in one month. I have tried and failed at this many times. I thought it would be fun to host weekly writing meet ups on a Wednesday where we can join together and write for an hour, or talk about writing, or have a sort of Ask Me Anything session. If you’d like to join one of these, email me!
November writing challenge
Before we begin, there is still space in the October online workshop taking place on 31 October, 9am - 1pm, on Zoom. Sign up now for just R400, by emailing jenthorpewrites@gmail.com
Oh, and one more thing
November to January are quite quiet times for us freelancers, so if you’ve been writing all year and are wanting a fresh set of eyes on your manuscript, or short piece, I’d love to take a look. Email me to find out more about how I’ll charge for this.
Happy writing until we next meet!
Jen