Our storytelling training and mentoring has a place based focus and can be applied across a number of sectors and genres including climate, travel, narrative non-fiction and memoir.
We offer a selection of off the shelf workshops and skills shares to both individuals and organisations which can be taught in person or on-line. We also offer tailor made training and mentoring. This training can be applied to different storytelling formats from writing blogs to creating an audio story.
Get in touch to discuss your training and mentoring needs: stories@openroadltd.co.uk
Sample Workshops
Our workshops are typically two to two and half hours long.
Evoking the History and Future of Place in Your Writing
As writers on place, we have the ability to let their past, present and possible futures speak through us. The better you know a place, the better you’ll be able to write about it. In this workshop we’ll explore how to create a sense of place in your writing – real or imaged – and take readers on a journey into the future, while also rooting them in the past. We’ll explore the importance of maps, what aspects of place, and those who inhabit it, fascinate us and how they can be effectively recreated when writing about climate. There’ll be plenty of time for writing, discussion and sharing, as well as learning.
How to be a Good Ancestor
Using Roman Krznari’cs book The Good Ancestor as inspiration, this workshop reflects on the past of a community as far back as seven generations, before looking forward seven generations and to a community’s future. We’ll explore what we can do now to safeguard the community for future generations and ways we can make a difference, as a community and as individuals.
Creating a brilliant blog post
In this workshop we explore five steps to creating engaging blog posts. We work through all stages from planning and research to the use of images and audio to bring your blog to life. As well as check in on rights and permissions and what you may need to put in place.
Sample Skill Shares
Our skill shares are typically an hour long.
Connecting to Self
Before you put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboards, to begin to write your climate or place based story, you must first identify what you want to say and why it matters to you. In this skill share we work through the attitudes, values and experiences that have shaped you. By the end of the session ,you’ll have greater insight into what you know, care deeply about and want to say in your writing.
How to Bring Your Place Based Story to Life
From creating strong characters to crafting your own voice, this skill share will work through a list of ways to breathe life, personality and presence into the climate stories you want to tell. By the end of the session you’ll have a list of writing tips and time to try them out.
Writing that Creates a Sense of Place
Whether it’s a landscape or a cityscape we are all drawn to certain places. This skill share will explore what aspects of place, and those who inhabit it, fascinate us and how they can be effectively recreated when writing about climate.
Creating Strong Characters
Each character in your place or climate story should have their own voice, motivations and thoughts. In this skill share we’ll peel back the layers of character and learn tips on how to create ones that aren’t merely an extension of ourselves, but with distinct passions and personalities all of their own.