From Grendel to Godzilla, monsters give form to our fears, and sometimes our desires. But after thousands of years of stories, how can we create striking, original creatures for our fiction?

Whether your stories aim to examine the monstrous in ourselves and our societies, or simply deliver a thrilling shudder, this workshop is a space to try out some new monster designs.

About the workshop

We'll meet some monsters in extracts from authors past and present, and do some informal creative writing exercises to develop original and unexpected creature features.

There will be space to share your work, but this is completely optional, you are welcome to simply listen.

The workshop will be delivered over Zoom and will be recorded, everyone who signs up will receive a copy of the recording and a list of extracts.

About me

I'm a speculative fiction writer based in London, UK. My short stories and poems have appeared in Strange Horizons, Translunar Travellers Lounge, Electric Spec, Tales From Between and more. (My monster stories have been published in Wyldblood Magazine, Sage Cigarettes, and Archive of the Odd!) I'm also the editor of Inner Worlds magazine.

I've been delivering friendly and supportive classes, talks, and workshops for individuals, charities, community groups, and schools for over a decade. Kind things people have said about my writing workshops include:

• "This has been an AMAZING workshop. Thank you so much for the wonderful timing, commentary, background material, enthusiasm. Loved the balance of information/writing. THANK YOU!"
• "Clearly you're a skilled and experienced teacher. Your positivity and appreciation of all comments and contributions was fantastic, important and surprisingly rare."
• "I really appreciate how you made the workshop a safe space with trigger warnings, not forcing people to share or speak."
• "The prompts were amazing—very generative, specific yet flexible. I have several story ideas now."

You can find out more about me and my work at https://sarah-i-jackson.ghost.io/