Welcome to the Original Writers
Welcome to our diverse and vibrant writing community! Whether you are a poet, novelist, playwright, scriptwriter, historian, or philosopher, we offer a supportive space for conversation, sharing, planning, and workshopping your writing.
Click here to register for emails on workshops and events
The Tuesday Evening Workshop
Next Workshop: Tuesday, 13 January 2026
Our workshop runs twice a month on Tuesday evenings via Zoom, from 7 to 9 pm (UK Time).
- Format: We workshop up to eight pieces of writing per session, with about fifteen writers usually present.
- Reading & Feedback: Each writer is allowed seven minutes to read their work, followed by up to seven minutes of constructive feedback from the group.
- Focus: We focus exclusively on work in progress (first drafts or tenth drafts) to ensure all listeners can provide valuable feedback and engage effectively. We do not workshop published work.
We welcome new attendees! If you’re just starting out or don’t have anything to share yet, we encourage you to join a session to experience the evening and gain motivation from hearing how others achieve their writing goals.
The Peerclass
Peerclass is a fresh, grassroots take on the traditional writing masterclass, run by The Original Writers of London. The format is simple: we learn by doing, with members taking turns to lead classes and sharing their knowledge with their peers. Join for the wisdom, stay for the craic!
The Latest Original Writers Blog Post
A Christmas Carol: How Charles Dickens Changed the World with Fiction
As writers, we see A Christmas Carol as the definition of the festive season. Everyone has adapted this cosy fireside myth from The Muppets to the Royal Shakespeare Company. However, to view Charles Dickens’s novella merely as a holiday ghost story is to ignore the feverish, desperate, and highly technical process of its creation. For…
Free your imagination! Join us to discuss writing and stories.
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message, and the Physical Courage of Writing
For any collective of writers, whether aspiring novelists, seasoned journalists, or poets navigating the quiet solitude of the draft, the figure of Ta-Nehisi Coates stands as a singular, provocative study in the power of the written word. He is not merely a commentator on the American condition; he is a craftsman who has systematically dismantled…
Helen Garner and the Narrative Construction of Self in ‘How to End a Story’
Helen Garner, born in 1942, is widely recognised as one of Australia’s most significant contemporary literary figures. Her career spans multiple genres, including those of novelist, short-story writer, journalist, and screenwriter. Educated at the University of Melbourne, her literary debut, Monkey Grip (1977), was explosive, immediately establishing her as an original and often controversial voice…
The Booker Prize Winner 2025 – David Szalay
The Architecture of Ambition: David Szalay’s Booker Win with Flesh The announcement of David Szalay as the winner of the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel, Flesh, was more than the handing over of an award; it is the validation for one of contemporary literature’s most distinctive and ambitious aesthetic projects. Szalay has long been…
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