Find your material.
Discover more possibilities for shaping it into fiction.
You may be beginning with a subject you want to explore.
You may have scenes, characters, images or fragments but not yet know what they will become.
Or you may already have material you want to write, but not yet know what form that material should take.
My courses are designed to help you search for your material, deepen your knowledge of narrative, and find more ways to shape that material into fiction.
What I Offer
My courses approach women’s writing from different starting points, but they share one underlying idea:
there is no single form a story has to take.
Some courses begin with reading women writers and discovering the literary traditions available to you.
Some focus on self-expression, censorship, and searching for your material.
And some go further into the relationship between material and form—and the possibilities available when you begin shaping that material into fiction.
The aim is not to replace conventional rules with a new set of rules for women.
It is to give you more knowledge, more possibilities, and more ways to work with your own writing.
Here's How We Can Work Together
Find your literary mothers & sisters
A 4-week self-study course in women’s literature
Discover the women writers who came before you and begin widening your sense of what women have written—and what writing can be.
This is a good place to begin if you want to place your own writing within a larger literary tradition and discover more of the work available to you as a woman writer.
Find your own female tools of expression
A 4-week self-study course in women’s writing
Explore the ways women have written against silence, self-censorship, and inherited expectations—and begin paying closer attention to what you want to express in your own writing.
This course is for you if you want to work more directly with self-expression, censorship, and the material that keeps returning.
Find your own female narrative tools: 8-week course
An 8-week course in narrative form for women writers
Deepen your understanding of the relationship between material and form, and discover more possibilities for shaping your material into fiction.
Through close study of women writers and practical experiments in your own writing, you’ll begin investigating what different formal possibilities can do for the material you are working with.
This course is for you if you already have material you want to work with and want a larger repertoire for shaping it into fiction.
Not sure where to start?
Start with Beginning (Again), my free 30-day email course.
It gives you time to begin searching for your material and noticing what keeps returning in your writing before deciding what kind of support you need next.
Who's behind this?
I’m Madeleine Ferre.
I teach women writers, bringing together creative-writing practice, narrative theory, feminist approaches, and women’s literary history.
My work is centred on helping women find their material and discover more possibilities for shaping it into fiction.
What women say about the work
The courses are different, but they share the same aim: to widen what feels possible in your writing.
"I am in awe and wonder with all these amazing doors that Madeleine Ferre is opening in such a non-linear, but very, very relating way to each other. My mind is going so many places with every new thread that unravels of this great tapestry that is women's writing world. Thank you all also for sharing your insights and adding value to this amazing non-linear trajectory that we are walking together here!"
— Rita Ruivo, participant in the courses Find your Female Tools of Expression and Find your Female Narrative Tools
How to begin
If you want to begin by searching for your material, start with Beginning (Again), my free 30-day email course.
Over 30 days, you’ll receive prompts and reflections to help you notice what keeps returning in your writing:
subjects, images, voices, scenes, memories, questions and fragments.
The aim is to begin recognising what you want to write about.
Questions? Email me at info@madwomenwriters.com.
Ready to write your story?
If you want to begin by searching for your material, start with my free 30-day email course.
Over 30 days, you’ll receive prompts and reflections designed to help you pay closer attention to what keeps returning in your writing:
subjects, images, voices, scenes, memories, questions and fragments.
The aim is not to force those things into a story too quickly.
It is to begin recognising what you want to write about.
We respect your privacy.
© Mad Women Writers 2025