Free Resources from National Centre for Writing

You can get Free Resources from National Centre for Writing, an organisation that supports the artistic and social power of creative writing and literary translation. Their on-going programme engages writers, literary translators and readers  to support new voices and new stories.

Based at the fantastic Dragon Hall in Norwich, NCW runs workshops and mentoring for writers at all levels, both face-to-face and online.

NCW also has some excellent free resources for writers. The Early Career Writers’ Resource Packs are supported by Arts Council England.

Video and audio presentations provide expert advice from writers including Jenny Offill, Kieron Gillen, Eimear McBride and Sarah Perry. You can download character and world building templates and explore topics from plot to character to dialogue.

1. Beginnings
   Advice on getting started from Laura Stimson, Julia Crouch and Sam Hacking.
2. Method
   Discover the methods of Eimear McBride, Jenny Offill, Motoyuki Shibata, Bregje Hofstede and Simon K Jones.
3. Character
   Bringing your characters to life on the page with Sarah Perry, Michael Donkor and Joe Dunthorne with free character templates to download.
4. Plot
   Nicola Upson, Okechukwu Nzelu, Inua Ellams and Simon K Jones share techniques for wrangling plot.
5. World building
   Create your own unique worlds with Kieron Gillen, Abi Daré, Farhana Shaikh and Ian Nettleton.
6. Dialogue
   Write engaging, convincing dialogue with Chris Beckett, Femi Kayode, Carys Davies, Hannah Berry and Taylor Beidler.
7. Structure
   Rob Shearman, Rebecca Watson and Chitra Ramaswamy discuss structure and why it is critical to the success of a story.
8. Editing
   Editors and writers talk about their process.
9. Endings
   A guide to deliver a satisfying ending.
10. Research
    Exploring a range of research methods and idea gathering.
11. Love
    A multi-media look at writing the many aspects of love.

There is also The Writing Life Podcast available monthly which discusses all things writing with guest writers and editors.