Hours
Found Time
Locate the hidden pockets in an ordinary week and turn 250 words a day into a draft over a year of unremarkable days.
Open studioThe neighbouring rooms
Companion studios
The Scriptorium is one room in a set of free studios by Stewart Ferris. These six sit beside the historical novel: time, word count, the opening sentence, character, names, and plot.
Word counts
Quillmark
A blotter for daily word counts: set a target, watch the week and the month fill, and keep a twelve-week record of the manuscript as it grows.
Open studio
Openings
The First Line
How to write a first sentence that keeps a promise. Principles, tests, and a private reading of the line you are about to send into the world.
Open studio
Characters
Dossier
A literary character workshop. Build round characters with nine sections of lists — class, accent, desire, trauma, politics, and the lie they live by.
Open studio
Names
Nomina
Names with meaning. Choose a grain — origin, temper, element, role — and receive given names and surnames whose etymologies fit the character you are writing.
Open studio
Plot
Threshold
A plot atlas for novelists and screenwriters. Map a story against Campbell, Vogler, Harmon, Murdock, Hudson and Snyder — the stations of the hero’s journey.
Open studio