The Invisible College

The subconscious mind can be the writer’s greatest helper – or nastiest foe. This lesson considers ways to access its mysterious depths, with archive clips of novelists Doris Lessing and Aldous Huxley and a mesmerising reading of “I’ve Known Rivers” by poet Langston Hughes.

Yes, we need talent – but we also need discipline. In other words: keep your ass in the chair. With tips from Daphne du Maurier, Graham Greene and James Bond creator, Ian Fleming.

Show don’t tell. Well, no, actually – show AND tell. This lesson explores different ways of presenting a scene, with tips from the Yiddish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer, playwright Harold Pinter, and a wonderfully creepy fairy tale from Angela Carter.

To plot or not to plot – that’s the question. Some writers plan in advance; others set out without a map and see where they wind up. Featuring archive of Angela Carter, Elmore Leonard, and Ray Bradbury, plus William Golding as the Stern Teacher.

How nosy are you about your protagonist? Do you know what she eats for breakfast? Likes to dance to? How she parts her hair? A lesson about creating characters, with tips from Graham Greene and Muriel Spark, plus Baroness Orczy reveals how she met the Scarlet Pimpernel.

How do we recognise a dancing, hell-raising word from one that just wants a quiet life flat on the page? Poet Ted Hughes helps us recognise words that act and use their muscles, plus rare archive recording of Virginia Woolf.

How do we find a voice? Figure out what’s ours – and only ours – to say? Tips from Neil Gaiman and Invisible College favourite, Ray Bradbury, plus stand-up and burps from Charles Bukowski.

If you want to write – read. Marinate your mind in the sentence and the word. With Susan Sontag on the book-drunken life; Ralph Ellison on the jazzy genius of TS Eliot; and Eudora Welty, whose mother bartered her hair for a barrel of books.