Writers Workshop

Jerry Jenkins has been steeped in the craft of writing for more than 50 years. With 21 New York Times bestsellers (seven debuting at #1), over 200 books, and over 73 million copies sold, he has become one of the most commercially successful writers of our time.

Jerry Jenkins

If you’re big on horror, suspense, supernatural fiction, crime, and science fiction novels, then you’ll love this 34-minute Stephen King interview

The renowned author’s calm persona stands out throughout the interview, especially as he shares some of his inspirations, likes, and dislikes about the authorship business.

It’s unbelievable how you can know so much about one of the world’s most revered authors in just slightly over half an hour. Charlie Rose (the interviewer) outdoes himself by asking the right questions– from King’s main inspirations to his books adaptations to films, and how he creates (and kills) his main characters

If you’re a budding writer, you’ll probably learn some important tips and tricks from this informative yet flawlessly entertaining interview

Stephen King 1993

Stephen King 2013

Tim Winton

Timothy John Winton is an Australian writer. He has written novels, children's books, non-fiction books, and short stories. In 1997, he was named a Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, and has won the Miles Franklin Award four times.

These videos will give you an insight to the life  of Tim Winton. An ordinary bloke with extraordinary talents.

Alice Walker

Widely viewed as one of the finest African-American authors, Alice Walker leaves no stones unturned in her narrations and realistic storytelling in her poems, short stories, and novels.

In this 82-minute interview, Walker sheds more light on her writing style in front of several starstruck University of California students.

Dean Nelson (the interviewer), fully aware of the sensitive nature of Walker’s topics, takes a bold yet cautious approach while asking the questions.

From asking Walker whether she writes with the audience in mind to how she decides which topics to write on, Nelson truly sets the pace for an informative interview that allows the author to express herself (much to the audience’s delight).

Sure, this isn’t one of those flat-out funny interviews that’ll have you on the edge of your seat. But if you listen in until the end, you’re almost certainly guaranteed to learn more about Walker, her style, and the role her works have played in modern society.

Walker also shares how she overcomes negative press and energy. And as she boldly asserts in her replies, an artist must remain focused as people will continue to talk whether they do good or bad!

Margaret Attwod

Margaret Atwood was born in 1939 in Ottawa and grew up in northern Ontario, Quebec, and Toronto. She received her undergraduate degree from Victoria College at the University of Toronto and her master's degree from Radcliffe College.

Throughout her writing career, Margaret Atwood has received numerous awards and honourary degrees. She is the author of more than thirty-five volumes of poetry, children’s literature, fiction, and non-fiction and is perhaps best known for her novels, which include The Edible Woman (1970), The Handmaid's Tale (1983), The Robber Bride (1994), Alias Grace (1996), and The Blind Assassin, which won the prestigious Booker Prize in 2000. Atwood's dystopic novel, Oryx and Crake, was published in 2003. The Tent (mini-fictions) and Moral Disorder (short stories) both appeared in 2006. Her most recent volume of poetry, The Door, was published in 2007. Her non-fiction book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth ­ in the Massey series, appeared in 2008, and her most recent novel, The Year of the Flood, in the autumn of 2009. Ms. Atwood's work has been published in more than forty languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic and Estonian. In 2004 she co-invented the Long Pen TM.

Margaret Atwood currently lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

J K Rowling

Joanne Rowling was born on 31st July 1965. Her younger sister, Dianne, was born almost two years later and her arrival was Joanne’s earliest childhood memory. Joanne and her family lived in Winterbourne, Gloucestershire until she was nine, when the family moved to Tutshill, near Chepstow.

Joanne grew up surrounded by books as her mum and dad loved reading – she says, ‘I lived for books … I was your basic common-or-garden bookworm, complete with freckles and National Health spectacles.’

From an early age Joanne wanted to be a writer. She wrote her first book at the age of six – a story about a rabbit called Rabbit. When she was eleven she wrote a novel about seven cursed diamonds and the people who owned them.

Joanne went to school at Wyedean Comprehensive School and then went on to study French and Classics at the University of Exeter. Her Classics studies would come in very handy later when she was thinking up all the spells in Harry Potter, some of which are based on Latin!

J.K. Rowling first had the idea for Harry Potter while delayed on a train travelling from Manchester to London King’s Cross in 1990. Over the next five years, she began to plan out the seven books of the series. She wrote mostly in longhand and amassed a mountain of notes, many of which were on scraps of paper.

She arrived in Edinburgh in 1993 with three chapters of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in her suitcase. By now she had a baby daughter, Jessica, but she continued to write in every spare moment she could find. When Joanne had finished the manuscript, she sent the first three chapters to a number of literary agents, one of whom wrote back asking to see the rest of it. She says that it was ‘the best letter I had ever received in my life’.

After finishing the first book and whilst training as a teacher, Harry Potter was accepted for publication by Bloomsbury. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone quickly became a bestseller on publication in 1997. As the book was translated into other languages, Harry Potter started spreading around the globe – and J.K. Rowling was soon receiving thousands of letters from fans.

The Harry Potter books have since broken many records. In 2007 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows became the fastest-selling book ever, selling 2.65 million in the first 24 hours in the UK. The Harry Potter series is now published in 80 languages, and over 500 million copies have been sold across the world.

J.K. Rowling has also written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (in aid of Comic Relief and Lumos); as well as The Tales of Beedle the Bard (in aid of Lumos).

In 2015 J.K. Rowling's 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published under the title 'Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination' (in aid of Lumos and university financial aid at Harvard). In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital company Pottermore was launched, which became Wizarding World Digital in 2019. Pottermore Publishing continues to be the global digital publisher of Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and the Wizarding World.

In addition to J.K Rowling's collaboration on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II, an original new story by J.K Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany (adapted into a play by Jack Thorne), she is has made her screenwriting debut with the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a further extension of the wizarding world, released in 2016.

J.K. Rowling has received many awards and honours, including an OBE for services to children’s literature, France’s Légion d’Honneur, and the Hans Christian Andersen Award.

What Authors say about writing

The number one piece of advice that most authors have for other authors is to read, read, read.

Here’s why.  Stephen king Wrote that.

1. “If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” 

2. “You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. To download quotes from famous authors click here