Surviving as a Writer with Jan Carson

Course Summary

This day long workshop will provide a rough guide to surviving some of the biggest challenges associated with writing. Combining teaching, discussion and interactive exercises the workshop will cover key elements of professional writing practice including time management, self-motivation, protecting your time and creativity, publicity and social media, public events and generating income. Informal, engaging and gleaned from years of first-hand experience in the literary sector, this is a great opportunity to learn from a writer, well established and making a living from her practice.

Course Outline

The workshop will cover 5 key topics

• Session 1- Getting Started and Keeping Going

This session will offer practical advice on how to begin writing projects with particular focus on how to stay motivated during difficult circumstances. It will offer practical solutions for surmounting writers block, creatives ways to develop your own daily writing practice and ideas for how to persevere with a project from inception right through to final draft and publication.

• Session 2 – Making Your Words Pay – Part 1

This session will focus on how to make sure your writing finds its way to the correct publisher. It will take an honest look at some of the opportunities and pitfalls associated with the current literary landscape, (offering practical experience from Carson’s own experience). It will also touch upon submitting work to journals, magazines and newspapers and alternative sources of income which can be generated from writing such as translations and film options.

• Session 3 – Making Your Words Pay – Part 2

This session will focus on ways in which you can use the skills associated with writing to generate income. It will offer practical advice on how to develop a community arts practice, how to begin teaching writing workshops and how to apply for and acquire funding, bursaries and financial assistance to fund your writing projects. Carson has worked in the community arts sector for almost twenty years and has extensive experience blending her own personal practice with community arts facilitation.

• Session 4 – Literary PR for Beginners

Most small publishers no longer have the resources to invest extensively in promoting individual books and authors. Particularly during the early stages of a writers’ career much of the PR responsibility will fall upon the writer. This session will focus on how to promote your book using social media, how to approach festivals and literary events and how to ensure your book reaches as wide an audience as possible.

• Session 5 – Avoiding Burn Out

Juggling all the aspects which go into maintaining a successful writing career can often feel exhausting and limit your actual writing time. This final session will take an honest look at developing healthy boundaries, ordering your admin and finances and putting in place structures and communities which will help you to continue writing and enjoying all the aspects of your practice. It will consider time management, reading as both respite and creative fuel and learning how to manage your own career expectations.

Course Outcomes

A better understanding of what a career in writing looks like and some practical tips to improve their opportunities as a practicing writer.

Jan Carson is a writer based in Belfast. She has published three novels, three short story collections and two micro-fiction collections. Her novel The Fire Starters won the EU Prize for Literature for Ireland 2019. Jan’s latest novel, The Raptures was published by Doubleday in early 2022 and was subsequently shortlisted for the An Post Irish Novel of the Year and Kerry Group Novel of the Year. Her short story collection Quickly, While They Still Have Horses was published by Doubleday (UK) in April 2024 and Scribner (US) in July 2024. Her writing has been aired on BBC Radio 3 and 4 and RTE. She was the Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow at Queen’s University Belfast 2025 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her first stage play, an adaptation of the children’s classic, The Velveteen Rabbit was produced by Replay Theatre Company at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast in March 2025. Her next novel, Few and Far Between is forthcoming in early 2026.