Using Shakespearean Rhythm, Rhetoric and Repetition in 2025
Introducing your April workshop "Take It From Shakespeare" with Jo Gatford.
Jo freakin’ Gatford.
You may recall her Smash Your Flash workshop last year, the one that we loved so much that we hired her to run our community corner?
Well she's created another ridiculously granular and unique workshop for us, this time offering practical Shakespearean techniques to give your work distinctive flair and sophistication.
It’s going to be fancy. It’s going to be fun. Here’s what to expect:
What can we borrow from Shakespeare when it comes to our writing?Â
A love of linguistics and a bold disregard for the literary ‘rules’!
In this generative workshop, we’ll use Shakespearean techniques to experiment with rhythm, rhetoric and repetition. We’ll explore methods of manipulating and subverting language to create layers of meaning. We’ll push boundaries, play with form, mix up syntax, and have a whole load of fun mucking about with our writing.
Whether you write prose, poetry, long or short, borrowing methods from Shakespeare can help to elevate each sentence, bring a unique voice to your work, and make every line sing. No previous Shakespeare knowledge or literary snobbery required — just a passion for words, words, words.
Workshop Takeaways
Easy Shakespearean techniques to incorporate into your writing
How to use emphasis, repetition and rhythm to create meaning
How to build up a structural pattern (and then break it)
How to play with language to add layers of emotion and subtext
Fun ways to borrow from Shakespeare to create brand new work
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This workshop begins on April 7, 2025. Paid subscribers will receive full access to this and all of our workshops for $10/mo
How It Works
Jo will publish a new lesson every Monday in April. If you're subscribed, they'll be sent directly to your email. Our workshops are self-paced, so you can take them anytime that works for you.
In the comment section of each lesson, writers taking the workshop do assigned exercises, swap feedback, and engage with each other.
At the end of the month, this workshop will be added to our collection, and a new instructor will take over to teach something else!
About The Instructor
Jo Gatford is the author of The Woman’s Part, a hybrid collection inspired by Shakespeare’s women, and holds an MA in Shakespeare & Theatre from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. She is also an award-winning novelist, poet, flash fiction writer and scriptwriter, with over 50 publications, including the Bath Flash Award, SmokeLong Quarterly, The Forge, trampset and Stylist. She has been an editor and mentor for 15 years, and has been teaching creative writing and narrative theory for over a decade. Find out more at www.jogatford.com
How do we sign up? At least one link was dead
I found it, thanks!
Amy