In the atmospheric surroundings of Tynemouth’s historic Watch House Museum, home of the Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade, you’ll explore the traditions and techniques of the classic Christmas ghost story, with a distinctly maritime twist. Inspired by the dark waters of the North Sea, shipwrecks and the stories of those who went out to sea and never returned, you’ll explore ways to create tales of supernatural suspense that chill long after the fire has died.

You’ll immerse yourself in the ingredients of an effective maritime ghost story: a leaden atmosphere, a wild setting, rising suspense and revelations. Along the way, you’ll peer into the windows of haunted lighthouses and phantom ships and swim the sunken wrecks with long-drowned sailors. Who will rise from the inky waves and which ghosts will come home for Christmas?

Through discussion, creative exercises and practical writing activities, you’ll develop your own Yuletide ghost story, drawing on the uncanny, the unsettling and the unexplained to create a tale to draw down the dark.

Whether you love the classic Victorian tradition, Gothic fiction, maritime folklore or modern supernatural horror, come and discover how to make the sea itself part of your haunting.

This truly immersive creative writing course is suitable for beginning and emerging horror writers.

The tide is coming in. But what travels with it?

Address: The Watch House Museum, Spanish Battery, Tynemouth, North Shields, NE30 4DD

Where is Wintertide: Ghost Stories for Christmas taking place?

Wintertide: Ghost Stories for Christmas is taking place in the old library at Tynemouth Volunteer Life Brigade – The Watch House Museum on Saturday 5th December at 13:00.

Who is Wintertide: Ghost Stories for Christmas suitable for?

This course is best-suited to beginning and emerging horror writers, as well as people looking to try their hand at something new.