In this four-hour workshop split over 2 weeks, we will use a variety of hands-on prompts to spark creativity and discover new ways of researching for historical fiction, popular history, memoir, short fiction, even poetry. Leave your new-fangled computer screen at home. We might pick up a quill and write by candlelight to practice experiential research. We might use artefacts from the Haig-Brown house to develop specificity and to learn to seamlessly integrate exposition. We’ll certainly use vintage ephemera (detention slips, daily reports, recipe cards, and postcards) to better understand our characters. And we’ll watch vintage film footage to inspire our descriptive writing. Weather permitting we might venture outside and use the natural world as our prompt. This workshop is perfect for beginning writers looking to spark their creativity, seasoned writers who are interested in new (and fun) methods of research, and writers hoping to break that dreaded writer’s block.
Facilitator:
Claire Mulligan, 2026 Writer in Residence at Haig-Brown House. Claire holds an MFA in Screenwriting with a focus on adaptation and has over fifteen years’ experience as a story consultant, editor, and creative writing instructor for both screen and prose. Her historical novels The Reckoning of Boston Jim and The Dark have been nominated for the Giller Prize, the BC Book Prize, and the Canadian Authors Award, and her short fiction has won over a dozen awards.
Claire has adapted several of her own short stories—and those of other writers—into short screenplays. Her first produced adaptation, The Still Life of Annika Myers (2019), won multiple audience favourite and acting awards. Her second short film, Obscura, received the 2024 Leo Award for Best Screenwriting and Best Short Film, as well as the Directors Guild of Canada funding award.
She teaches online courses in short fiction, historical fiction, and Greek classics, and also teaches with UVic Continuing Education.
