PWA Workshop with CJ Skuse - Bringing Place to Life

Bringing Place to Life: Writing Setting Effectively

This workshop explores the role of setting as a driving force in fiction rather than a passive backdrop. Aimed at writers working on longer projects, it will focus on how place can shape character and create an immersive atmosphere. Through close reading and practical exercises, participants will develop techniques for crafting dynamic settings in their own novels.

CJ Skuse is the bestselling author of the Sweetpea series (2017–2026) and six other novels across young adult and adult crime fiction. She holds First-Class degrees in creative writing from Bath Spa University and a PhD by Publication from the University of Gloucestershire. Her work has received multiple accolades, including the Dumfries and Burgh Book Award and the Jean Monnet University Student Literary Prize in France. A TV adaptation of her novel Sweetpea premiered on Sky Atlantic in 2024, with a second series currently in production. A former Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, she now writes full-time in South West England where she lives with her little dog, Billie.