NINA MILTON'S
KITCHEN TABLE NOTEPADS:
A MENTORING PROGRAMME FOR
CREATIVE WRITERS
WHO WANT TO GET
PUBLISHED
…Embark on Nina Milton…and you won’t stop reading… (Naomi Lewis, Sunday Observer)
The Kitchen Table Notepad is a unique approach which allows new writers to gain confidence skills and strategies to get them on the road to good creative writing.
I hold an MA in Creative Writing and am a Fellow of the The Higher Education Authority. I've been working with students of writing for over ten years, and also write coursework for all degree levels. The Notepad comes in seven parts, sent as email attachment or by post. Each Part is designed to set the new writer on the road to creating good prose writing of any length and any genre for adults.
When you sign up to the Programme, you will receive, one by one as you progress, the seven Notepads which are packed with good advice, technical, creative and practical, exercises, project work and a unit-by-unit building of the subtle understandings of writing fiction. Each part functions as a text book, research document and exercise book in one by combining three elements:
•
• A modular approach. Skills and techniques are constructed and re-constructed until they feel ‘natural’. Each Notepad has flexible and inventive exercises (writing, reading, reflecting and researching) that can be used to further a project already started or to spark new ideas and inspire writing.
• An emphasis on using intuitive, imaginative and other psychologically enticing techniques to enhance confidence and eradicate the ‘blank page’ syndrome.
• Almost all aspects of creative writing; style, structure, plot, inventing characters etc can be improved by right and left brain perceptions, which are clarified then utilized throughout Notepad Programme.
• The facility for the student to write within the Notepad. This is perhaps the most unique aspect. Empty pages that welcome scribbles, jotting and notetaking, as well as first draft outpourings are interspersed throughout each Notepad, encouraging the writer to write when they are most in the mood to do so, and make notes that, it is emphasised, will only be read by themselves until they are happy with the work. The feeling of achievement, as the writer looks back through work completed, will be evident.
• The facility, if purchased as computer document, to access the web directly by clicking recommended links on the page.
The Kitchen Table Notepads:
1 Developing and monitoring your progress
2 Developing your characters
3 Developing landscape and location
4 Developing your plot
5 Developing scenes and dialogue
6 Developing your narrative
7 Learning to Fly
The style is personal and directed
at the reader as a potential writer.
Your mentor for this programme is me, Nina Milton. I researched and wrote the Notepads and I will appraise the work you do after each of the 7 notepads myself. The theme is primarily the creation of fictional works, both full-length and short, but there are also sections on poetry, autobiography, screenwriting, blogging and non-fiction. Each Notepad, around 8,000+ words of advice, offers a similar layout and structure, making it easy to use and return to:
• Space for the writer to work with their own writing
• Mentoring: I read and comment on 7 submissions
• Mentoring: I read and comment on 7 submissions
• Techniques and Guidelines
• Research and other evidence-based work
• Reading guide
• Advice and Instruction: writing skills and comprehension build during the Programme's modules
• A broad examination of the parts of writing, including forms, genres, histories and styles
• Exploration of right and left brain techniques, motivation and confidence building
COST:
7 UNITS NOTEPAD PROGRAMME inclusive of tutoring delivered by post = £285
Identical 7 Unit Programme inclusive of tutoring delivered by email attachment = £185
Writers have been sending me their work and coming to my workshops and talks for half a decade now. Below are just some of the many positive comments I've received...
...I was delighted with your comments and ticks, as well as feeling very willing to take your fiurther suggestions on board... You seem to be on my wavelength to have appreciated this work so well, or given your experience of writing and tutoring, very capable of getting on different wavelengths...Your comments were not only enjoyable to read but they helped me enjoy the story as well as opening new doors...(Roger, OCA Student)
At last I'm almost ready to make my Notepad 2 submission. I've been working on another story and am completely re-writing the opening to improve it, so I'll include this with a future Notepad submission. Your Notepads and blogsite is so inspirational! (Kate, overseas Notepad student)
Just wanted to say a massive thank you for yesterday - 'Discover your Creative Self'. I got a lot out of it and I think you have a real talent for engaging and inspiring students. When I think of the cash I've blown at prestige workshops...you knocked them all into a cocked hat...(Sally, Workshopper)
You became all I could have wished for, knowledgeable, friendly, supportive, perceptive, encouraging and very professional... I have a great respect for you opinion on my work ... (Tasmin, OCA Student)
Nina Milton is a prize-winning writer of novels,
short fiction and children's stories.
Your outside, fresh perspective has sent me in the right direction more than once. I feel my writing is more organized and deliberate since I started this course. (Peter, OCA Student)
Thank you for another instructive - and inspiring - workshop and for creating an environment where people could share ideas - and their writing - in a productive and positive way. Still not quite sure what direction the next book will take but am writing snippets as they come to me and waiting to see what develops. I think the main thing I got out of the workshop, and talking to people who are just starting their books, is that its important to just enjoy the writing and not get too hung up on the outcome. Something its easy to forget. Take care and lots of love Lin (workshopper)
Just a note to thank you for your feedback. Insightful as ever. I would’ve smacked my forehead had I not been in the bath – of course you are right about moving things about. It's going to read much better when I've done that. (Nicki, Notepad student)
Contact Nina for the full details, including the contract, at kitchentablewriters@live.com
See my CV below for my full writing history.
2016
Midnight Ink (Llewellyn Worldwide) THE SHAMAN MYSTERY SERIES No 3 Beneath the Tor
2014
Midnight Ink (Llewellyn Worldwide) THE SHAMAN MYSTERY SERIES No 2 Uravelled Visions
2013
Midnight Ink (Llewellyn Worldwide) THE SHAMAN MYSTERY SERIES No 1; In the Moors
Tangent Press UNCHAINED anthology 2 short stories
THE OPEN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS collaboration on course work module Level 2 - WRITING SHORT FICTION & Level 1 - FOUNDATIONS
2012
Chuffed Buff Books YOU ME & A BIT OF WE: short story
2011
Thornberry Press Tough Luck 9+ children’s novel
SCRIPTOR (Edition 9) 2 short stories
2010:
Earlyworks Press Anthology SEA GOD short story due out 2011
SCRIPTOR (Edition 8) SCENES IN A BEDROOM short story
Scribble - Summer edition THE ENGLISH NATIONAL COSTUME short story
Leaf Writing Magazine issue one THE MAGIC PEN – Article
Avalon Magazine Spring 2010 Summer Solstice on Windmill Hill - ArticleTHE OPEN COLLEGE OF THE ARTS course work module Level 2 - LIFE WRITING
2009:
Starting to Write – course materials upgrade for Open College of the Arts,
FACT&FICTION magazine - article
Poems X2
2000 to 2008:
BELLA magazine short stories ( 12 stories published over five years)
WOMAN’S REALM short stories
QWF 1 story ACUMEN 1 story
FACT&FICTION article
WATERMARK Short Story Anthology
PRIZE WINNER: First Prize Wells Literary Festival Short Story Competition
QUALIFICATION: M.A. in Creative Writing Bath Spa University
TUTORING: Open College of the Arts. Bristol Folk House.
BELLA short stories
JUST SEVENTEEN short stories CANDIS short stories
VARIOUS SMALL PRESS MAGAZINES short stories.
BEST NEW FICTION short story anthology
BRISTOL EVENING POST regular column
PRIZEWINNER: First Prize CROSSROADS Literary Nonfiction Essay
2nd Prize Kent Literary Festival Short Story Competition
3rd Prize Sutton Writers Competition
QUALIFICATION: ‘Artists and Writers in Schools’ UWE Cert
TUTORING: Various Schools ‘writing workshops’ (marketing my fiction)
OTHER: Southern Exam Board, Sweet’n’Sour used in GCSE exam paper
PRIOR TO 1995:
Gazelle Intergalactic Holiday 7+ children’s novel
Unicorn Productions 3 11+ Children’s Novels, with Audio Tapes
Believing in Miracles
Buried Gold
Swimming the bay
BELLA short stories ANNABEL, short stories
WOMAN AND COUNTRY articles EVERYWOMAN articles
PRIZE WINNER: Short Listed – Kathleen Fidler Award, novel for children 8+
2nd Prize Tees Valley Writer Literary Competition
3rd Prize Kent Literary Festival Short Story Competition
Runner Up Various Short Story Competitions
