Write A Chapbook In A Weekend
£69
Self-paced · Read at your own speed · No live sessions
The self-paced version of Roger's sold-out live workshop - delivered straight to your inbox
Roger's live Write a Chapbook in a Weekend workshops sold out at £100–150 a seat, helping poets take a scattered group of individual poems and start seeing the book inside them.
This self-paced version is built from that workshop - using Roger's teaching, editorial process and exercises, with short video clips from the original live sessions.
No dates to hold. No Zoom to log into. No cohort to keep pace with.
From the original live Chapbook Weekend
Join the self-paced Chapbook Weekend for £69 and work through it whenever you're ready.
Just your poems, a clear structure, and Roger walking you through the decisions that turn a pile of poems into a manuscript.
You have the poems.
Some belong together. Some probably don't. There may be a poem missing that you haven't written yet.
Somewhere inside the pile is the shape of a chapbook - if you can stop looking at the poems individually and start seeing the book.
Across the weekend, Roger takes you from writer to editor:
finding the question your chapbook keeps asking
deciding what belongs
recognising what's missing
spotting the images that hold the manuscript together
testing the sequence
and understanding what your opening and ending are asking the reader to feel
How it works
You'll receive 7 emails, arriving roughly an hour apart on the day you sign up - so you can start straight away if you like, or open them at your own pace.
Each one is labelled by weekend - Friday evening, Saturday, Sunday - so you know the order to work through them and can space them out over a real weekend if that's what suits you.
Friday evening: 2 emails - setting up the weekend, then starting to see the book inside your poems
Saturday: 3 emails - cutting, drafting and looking at the images holding the manuscript together, with video clips from the live workshop
Sunday: 2 emails - sequencing, opening and ending, and reading the manuscript as a whole, with video clips from the live workshop
By the end, you'll have
A clearer sense of the question your chapbook keeps asking
A working shape instead of a pile of poems
A stronger sense of what's missing and what needs to go
A tested sequence, not a guessed one
The editing process Roger uses, so you can keep using it after this
Also included
Roger's 60-prompt Poetry Prompt Pack, giving you somewhere to turn if the manuscript shows you that something new needs to be written - or you simply hit a blank page during the weekend.
£69 - one payment, yours to keep and work through at your own pace.
A few things you might be wondering
Do I need a finished set of poems?
No. Bring around 10-20 poems you think might belong together. They don't need to be finished, and you don't need to know what the chapbook is about yet.
When do the emails arrive?
All 7 emails land in your inbox the same day you sign up, spaced about an hour apart. They're labelled Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday so you know the order to work through them - but nothing is held back or scheduled to a specific date. You can read straight through in one sitting, or save them and spread them across a real weekend whenever you're ready.
What do I need?
Your poems, something to make notes with, and a simple way to move poems around - paper, index cards, Word or Google Docs. There's no special software and no Zoom sessions to attend.
Are writing prompts included?
Yes. You'll have exercises throughout the weekend, and Roger's Poetry Prompt Pack is included for moments when the manuscript shows you that something new needs to be written.