Developing Characters with Molly Aitken: 4-Week Course

Molly Aitken is running a four-week creative writing course on character creation at Orchard Square this November, and it's one of those things that's easier to get your head around if you look at the whole month rather than a single date. It runs every Tuesday evening throughout November — the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th — from 6:30 to 8:30, so you're committing to four sessions in a row rather than just dropping in for one. The sessions can't be booked individually, which makes sense for a course that builds on itself week by week.

Aitken is a novelist and prize-winning short fiction writer based here in Sheffield, though she hails from Ireland. She published her debut, The Island Child, in 2021, and followed it with Bright I Burn in 2024, which was shortlisted for the RSL Encore Prize, named a BBC Best Book of 2024 and became an Irish bestseller. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker and Ploughshares and was dramatised for BBC Radio 4, so she's coming to this with a fair bit of ground covered across both novels and shorter work.

The course is run by The Writers Workshop, a Sheffield nonprofit social enterprise on a mission to share the joy and power of creative writing. They put on in-person workshops, classes and social events focused on community, creativity, craft and careers for writers of all backgrounds. It was founded by Beverley Ward, and they also run 'Weird Weekend', an annual programme of magic and fantasy-themed creative-writing workshops. This one is a bit more grounded, focusing on the nuts and bolts of how to build a character from the ground up.

It all takes place at Orchard Square, 14 Orchard Square, Sheffield City Centre, S1 2FB. General admission is £109, and if you're a Writers Workshop member it's £87. With the sessions running 6:30 to 8:30 on Tuesdays the 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th of November, it's a good way to spend your Tuesday nights throughout the month.