Building the Novel: Hive Writers Day
A Hive Young Writers’ Day with Rachel Bower
In partnership with Sheffield Libraries Year of Reading
11th April 2026 | Free | For ages 15-26 | booking below
“A novel is not written, it is built.”
…so says novelist E.L. Doctorow. Meanwhile Zadie Smith believes a novel to be ‘like a house you have to live in while you’re still constructing it’.
But what does it actually mean to build and realise a full-length work of fiction? What are the ‘bricks’ that will allow you not only to start one but keep the cement coming when the excitement fades and the story threatens to crumble? How do writers turn sparks, fragments and characters into something solid?
If you’re itching to consider the answers, then join award-winning writer Rachel Bower for a fun and inspiring Hive writers’ day exploring all things the novel. Through writing tips, inspiring texts and creative prompts, we’ll create snippets of new writing and consider how we can construct from the raw materials of character, voice, narrative, place, plot, dialogue, rhythm and more.
This day is for anyone curious about longer fiction: whether you’re laying the foundations of an idea, or deep inside a sprawling draft.
Rachel will share insights from her own writing journey and what it’s like to take a book from early idea through to publication. We’ll discuss how writers plan (or don’t), how to build momentum and scaffold ideas, and how to hold your nerve with a long game fiction project.
Expect a relaxed, supportive atmosphere with time to test drive techniques and leave with fresh inspiration and practical tools for building from the foundations upwards.
Open to young writers aged 15–26, with any experience level. Come to start something new, or to strengthen what you’re already building.
In partnership with Sheffield Libraries Year of Reading
11th April 2026 10.30 to 3.30pm | for ages 15-26
Where: The Carpenter Room at Sheffield Central Library
Free | places limited: To book: [email protected]
Rachel Bower is an award-winning poet and novelist based in Sheffield. She is the author of three poetry collections and her debut novel, It Comes from the River was published by Bloomsbury in January 2025. Rachel won The London Magazine Short Story Prize 2019/20 and the W&A Short Story Competition 2020. She has also been listed for the White Review Short Story Prize 2019, the RSL V.S. Pritchett Short Story Prize and the BBC Short Story Prize. Her poems and stories have been widely published, including in The Guardian, The London Magazine, The White Review, Magma and The Rialto. She edited the Family Lines anthology with Simon Armitage (Faber & Faber, February 2026). Her latest poetry collection, Bee, was published by Hazel Press in June 2025 and her work is represented by Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.