The Scriptorium: Ghosts - A creative writing workshop

A creative-writing workshop exploring the history, philosophy, motifs and enduring fascination of ghost stories.

In this workshop, author and storyteller Bernadette Russell (co-founder of White Rabbit) invites attendees to consider the mythical landscape of ghosts, and their enduring fascination. Exploring the themes of some classic ghost stories, Bernadette will retell a short classic and then attendees will be given a series of prompts, ideas, and provocations to begin working on their own ghost story.

This workshop is for anyone interested in creative writing, ghosts, hauntings, seances, and the folklore and urban myths around these subjects. The workshop is open to both seasoned writers and those with little or no writing experience. There will be no obligation to share what you write, so attendees are free to explore and experiment with their ideas safely. You will create several new pieces of writing which you may wish to continue working on after the workshop.

Bernadette Russell is co-director of arts organisation White Rabbit. A published author, theatre maker and storyteller, she hosted the award-winning storytelling salon 'Are You Sitting Comfortably?' for ten years in London and Brighton. She created the ghost story salon for Spitalfields Music Festival in the oldest (and reputably haunted) coffee house in East London, as well as creating ghost storytelling performances for London Month of the Dead in Kensal Green Cemetery. She is currently storyteller at Butser Ancient Farm, and has told stories at the National Theatre, Southbank Centre and the Royal Albert Hall. She is an alumni of the School of Myth and studies folklore at the Woodland Bard School. She has taught creative writing and storytelling for over twenty years.