For workshops in zoom, I try to replicate as far as possible the real-life experience of gathering around the table with other writers, so I keep the groups small and require everyone to have video enabled.
Please note: I’m based in the UK so do check the timings work for you if you are booking from other time zones.
I Will Hold You: Writing the Precious Gift of Friendship
Six Wednesday evenings, 4th November – 9th December 2026, 7.30-9.30, in Zoom
Friends are vital part of everyone’s story, whether they are in it for a reason, a season or a lifetime. Childhood friends, friends in need, imaginary friends, writing friends… intergenerational friendships, unlikely friendships, friendships lost and found…
This course is an invitation to explore the gift of friendship in either memoir or fiction – your choice. Venturing into worlds of memory and imagination, we’re all in it together at the virtual writing table, friends for the duration.
This course is now FULL
New Beginnings: Writing the New Year In
Saturday 2nd January 2027, 10.30-12.30 and 16.00-18.00, and Sunday 3rd 16.00-18.00 in zoom
Get the New Year off to a cracking start with this deep dive into the exhilarating energy of new beginnings. There will be poetry, there will be fiction and finally there will be focus, finding a strong sense of direction for your life and writing as we head into 2027.
Map and Compass: Plotting compelling fiction using the Hero’s Journey
Eight consecutive Wednesday evenings starting January 6th 2027, 7.30-9.30 in zoom
The hero’s journey is often misunderstood. It isn’t just a formula for writing fiction – it’s a mythic template for every human experience and you will already be using it unconsciously in your writing as well as living it in your everyday life.
You can use it deliberately to structure strong stories, both fiction and memoir, and at the end of this course, you will have a useful tool for checking the plotting and pacing of any other stories you are working on, as well as the bones of a new one you might like to develop further.
If you’ve done ‘Map and Compass’ before you will notice this new version runs to eight sessions instead of six – a slightly slower pace if you fancy coming back and creating a new story.
If you prefer writing memoir, you can choose to write a story from your own life over the eight sessions, using the Hero’s Journey to focus and drive the narrative.
I loved understanding more about the hero’s journey. I had heard of this as a concept but don’t think I’d really grasped it. I thought of classic adventures and epic sagas, I didn’t know it was in ‘normal stories’ – and even my life! The biggest surprise for me (after the relief of finding my notepad filling up) was to go back to my stack of stories, some from decades ago, and find the hero’s journey already there. Anna Levin
This has been the best writing course I’ve ever done. It’s been more like coaching than just a course. And it’s been so enjoyable! – Sally
A wonderful course. It was so much fun and very inspirational. It was lovely doing something knowing there was a kind, safe pair of hands facilitating everything – Karen
Under the Ice – Writing the Cold Heart of Winter
Saturday 6th February 2027, 10.30-12.30 and 4.00-6.00 in zoom
Winter is the fallow time, in nature and in the cycle of all our endeavours. It’s the time for rest and recovery after the bright bloom of summer and autumn’s harvest, the time for stillness before the first stirrings of new growth in spring.
Take a break from business as usual to savour the deep peace of the season with this calm and contemplative winter writing day.
Your Writer’s Journey: Becoming the Writer you Want to be
Three Wednesday evenings, March 10, 17 and 24, 2027, 7.30-9.30, in zoom
The Hero’s Journey is the master myth; it’s the template for all our experiences as we go through life.
If you’ve been on one of my courses about how to plot using the hero’s journey, this mini-series is an opportunity to walk it again, but you don’t need to know anything at all about it to come and find out how to use the hero’s journey to plot a course towards achieving your writing dreams.
You must find your dream, no matter how old you may be, then the way becomes easy – Herman Hesse
Private bookings
I can offer workshops on fiction, non-fiction, memoir and poetry, from sparking ideas to redrafting. I also teach writing workshops that draw on creative dreaming and image-work.
I’ve worked for nationwide organisations including The Society of Authors, Lapidus, Writing Magazine and The Scattered Authors; residential providers including The Arvon Foundation, Endelienta and The Writing Retreat, and a wide variety of small independents such as writing groups, after school clubs and home-educating families. I’m happy to work with groups of all ages and stages of experience.
Contact me without obligation if you would like to discuss your own event
What people say…
I’ve just finished one of Jenny Alexander’s courses. I went along just for the craic and to get some ideas — ended up with the makings of a new novel! Her style of teaching is very gentle but really encourages you to dig deep and get writing. I’d recommend her to writers at all levels. Sheena Wilkinson
A fascinating and inspiring course. I had no knowledge of the Tarot but was definitely Tarot-curious – and now I’m hooked! What a great aid for writing (and for life). Sandra Greaves
I enjoyed Creative Journalling so much I have done it twice! It helped me feel creative outside of the ‘pressure’ to get a novel finished. All the exercises were magical and it was fascinating hearing each person’s response – all so different! Penny Joelson
I thoroughly recommend this course – it’s so much fun playing in your journal! Alex English
This course taught me how to bring my journal to life – to use it as a working document, to record, to cut and paste, to colour, to cut out, to draft and redraft. But most importantly to be bold when facing the blank page. I’ve learned to embrace my weaknesses (as perceived by me) and turn them into joy, to be free just to let stuff flow ~ Carol Cook
I’ve made it to the chapter book prize long list. It was the journaling course that really got me going with the ideas for this one – I shall never stop journaling now! ~ Cheryl Nosworthy
Everything seems to be flowing so much more easily… I feel reconnected, supported by a dream life I’d given no real attention to previously, and just aware of an opening of creative possibilities ~ Jackie Taylor
Jenny’s workshops taught me to stop panicking about my creativity and to start listening properly to my own inner thoughts. I’ve used her workshop ideas again and again to help me cope with creative problems ~Moira Butterfieldhttp://www.moirabutterfield.com/
Jen’s techniques – and her generous sharing of them – have been responsible for many of my own personal breakthroughs as a writer ~ Liz Kessler http://www.lizkessler.co.uk
During Jenny’s collage workshop, which she led with a soulful gentleness, I had a sense that disparate parts of my mind spoke their sorrows and dreams, and discovered they all wanted the same things. Several years on, I am still nourished by the clarity and the freedom that emerged from the sweetness and excitement of that afternoon ~ Moira Munro http://www.moiramunro.com
In one short session, Jenny showed me the possibilities for taking my writing somewhere else, and now I am working on new ideas that expand what I learnt with her ~ Alison Boyle http://www.artificialsilk.org/
What I say…
You can listen to me talking about my approach to teaching workshops in this interview I gave recently for a new online course on Running Writing Groups, hosted by the Professional Writing Academy and written and taught by experienced writers and group facilitators Victoria Field and Anne Taylor.
