Training

Storytelling & Writing

Crafting evocative writing about the outdoors, adventure and travel can be challenging. But it’s also incredibly powerful when it connects fully with the reader. Powerful writing is driven by powerful storytelling. I create bespoke training sessions which explain how to harness key techniques.

Digital Storytelling & the Outdoors

These sessions help you use writing for web and social media to inspire people to visit, engage and act. Britain’s outdoor spaces are rich in compelling stories. Working with writer and digital specialist, Fi Darby, we help you work out what your narratives are and how best to convey them in ways that reach out to and resonate with specific audiences. We then train your teams so they can devise and deliver that content themselves.

Clients

Our storytelling and writing courses are tailored to suit your needs. Clients include

• Wilderness Scotland Two-day staff training sessions in writing and storytelling
• Explorers Connect Sessions held over a weekend for paying participants

“A thoroughly enjoyable and informative course. Belinda is a natural teacher and her enthusiasm and rich experience across all mediums is absolutely invaluable to any budding writer. The best writing course I have personally been on”

Belinda Kirk; Founder, Explorers Connect

Industry & Education

Training spans writing, copywriting and radio journalism.

Clients range from the BBC and marketing organisations, to university colleges and adult education providers.

Industry

Bringing in copywriters each time you need to reframe your messaging or re-write basic text can be expensive. I offer training so that your teams can do some of that day to day work themselves.

Clients include

• Wilderness Scotland Storytelling & writing workshop (2019); see above.
• Visit Kent (2013) Copywriting workshop. Writing to a brief; target ‘audiences’; empathetic, emotive text; structure; brevity; meter; rhythm; ‘sound’.

“Belinda is a very effective communicator and her background as a professional broadcast journalist and writer brings credibility and insight to her teaching practice“

Liz Miller, Course Leader, Marjon

“The session was highly inspirational, inclusive for all and above all fun“

Lynnette Crisp, Visit Kent

BBC

More than 20 years’ experience as a BBC radio journalist informs my training on voice work/news reading; creative story treatments; news writing; creative packaging; radio car lives. Clients include BBC Guernsey.

Education

I’ve been devising and delivering Higher Education sessions for more than 17 years.

• University of St Mark and St John (Marjon), Plymouth (2003-current). Journalism BA (Hons). Broadcast (Radio) Journalism module covering: recording; interviewing; digital audio editing; writing; ethical practice; crafting, voice training and structuring a radio documentary.
• Falmouth University (2005-2010). Visiting Lecturer, Broadcast Journalism MA. Voice work, bulletin preparation, news script writing, news judgement, use of language, running the news desk, freelancing.
• Exeter College (2007-20010). Associate Lecturer. Adult Education course in Freelance Journalism.

Outdoor Learning

I delight in communicating skills in unconventional locations. From mountains and moors to beaches, whether it’s about the locations we’re in, or much broader themes – we often learn better when we’re outside.

British Exploring Society

My role as a Creative Media Leader for the youth development charity, the British Exploring Society has seen me help lead five-week expeditions to Iceland (2019), the Canadian Yukon (2017) and the Indian Himalaya (2016). The voluntary role involves working in challenging expedition environments.

My videos convey what the young explorers make of their personal development pathways. Click here for a five-minute insight into British Exploring’s 2017 Yukon expedition.

Creative Reflection

I communicate a wide range of media skills to help our adventurers reflect on their experiences, capture them and share them. Crucially, we explore ways to use media as a tool to facilitate and reflect on personal development and as a means to convey it.

Awards

Winner of the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom Advocate Award, 2017

“Belinda is one of our most active and progressive Media Leaders – volunteering across both our Open and Invited expeditions. She develops and facilitates fun, challenging and rewarding reflective learning experiences through her inventive use of a range of media  – and she receives extremely positive feedback from our explorers.  The British Exploring team also love working with Belinda – she is energetic, positive, challenging, creative, thoughtful and utterly engaged with our mission and vision”

Honor Wilson-Fletcher MBE, CEO British Exploring Society