BilliLit Workshop: How to Structure a Gripping Novel

Event information

Join bestselling author and publishing industry expert Sara Starbuck as she shares how to keep the reader hooked for the duration of a novel. In this 1.5 hour workshop, you will explore ideas for how to structure a whole novel as well as looking at individual chapter structure and, in particular, the all-important first chapter. Come along with your Work-in-Progress, or get inspired if you just have an idea for your novel.

Sara Starbuck has spent twenty-five years working in UK trade book publishing. In that time she has been a commissioning editor, desk editor, a development editor and also an author’s agent. She has worked for Hodder and Stoughton, Gillon Aitken, United Agents, PFD, Darley Anderson, Templar and Hothouse Fiction. Nowadays Sara works independently as a freelance editor and as a featured editor for Homepage | Writers & Artists. She is also a proof-reader and writer, specialising in all adult fiction, YA and children’s books. She is the author of nine published works so far, including the non-fiction memoir Breakfast Epiphanies (Atlantic Books, 2006); the children’s adventure novels, The Dread Pirate Fleur and the Ruby Heart (Random House, 2009) and its sequel, The Dread Pirate Fleur and The Hangman’s Noose (Random House, 2010); The Fairythorn Tales series under the pseudonym, Lara Faraway (Templar Publishing, 2013); two children's non-fiction books, Lions (Hachette Publishing Group /Born Free Foundation, 2015) and Leopards (Hachette Publishing Group /Born Free Foundation, 2016) and psychology book Pig Wrestling (Ghost writer. Penguin, 2009).