IDEAS: Writing workshop with Abi Hynes

It's a lot of professional writers' most-hated interview question: 'Where do your ideas come from?'

But as a writer who juggles lots of different forms of writing and who regularly needs a list of new ideas to pitch to TV companies, coming up with new ideas on a regular basis is a skill I've had to spend a lot of time honing.

So how do you get started when there's just a blank page in front of you? How do you know if it's a good idea or not, and whether it should be a stage play, a TV drama, a short story, a poem or a novel? And what do you do next with a great idea once you've had one?

This online Zoom writing workshop is open to writers of any kind - you might be interested in short stories, plays, novels, TV, film, radio drama, poetry, creative non-fiction, or all of the above. Whether you're an experienced writer or just getting started, I'll provide you with some tools, techniques and practical exercises for generating new ideas, and taking the fear out of the blank page.

Abi Hynes is an award-winning drama and fiction writer based in Manchester. Her debut short story collection, Monstrous Longing, was published by Dahlia Press and was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2024. She won the Cambridge Short Story Prize in 2020, and her writing has appeared in many journals, magazines and anthologies.

She has also written widely for stage, screen and radio; including a major adaptation of Anne of Green Gables for Audible starring Catherine O’Hara, Victor Garber and Sandra Oh. She is a graduate of the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course, the BBC TV Drama Writers' Programme, and her TV pilot script LONG LOST was on the Brit List in 2022.

Find out more: abihynes.co.uk