A welcoming online home for all creative writers
The Power of Your Unique Voice
One-hour lunchtime workshops with Uju Asika
We're delighted to welcome Uju Asika to the teaching team to lead this masterclass series. Designed especially for Writing Room for writers at any stage, and whether you're working in fiction, memoir or poetry.
As a multi-award-nominated blogger, speaker, writing mentor and author of two books for adults and one for children (full details further down!), Uju Asika is the ideal person to guide us on this journey to finding our own authentic voice - a voice we can use both to write and to communicate about our writing to others.
In this series of three workshops, which can be taken as a group or as stand alone sessions, Uju will help us find and refine our own authentic voice as a writer; develop this voice as a platform to connect with industry experts and readers; and harness its power for writing that can transform us and the world around us.
Each session will include an introduction to the topic with inspiring short readings from published writers, playful prompts and writing exercises, and an (optional) opportunity to share snippets of what we've written in the session.
Session 1: Falling in Love with Your Own Voice
Session 2: Your Voice as Your Author Platform
Session 3: Using Your Voice to Tell Stories that Matter
Whether you're new to Writing Room, or have worked with us already, we'd love to welcome you to what will be fascinating and important sessions for writers of all stages.
Any questions, just get in touch with our Programme Director: kate@writingroom.org.uk
FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOUR OWN VOICE
Some of us hate the sound of our own voice - it can make us cringe! Yet as writers, voice is the thing that makes us stand out. Your own authentic voice is what resonates with readers and why they keep coming back. It’s the human element that AI can’t replicate or replace. Voice has an almost indefinable quality: we know it when we read it. Some of our favourite writers are the most ‘voicy’. But how can you discover and distinguish your own writing voice?
In this one-hour masterclass, we'll explore what defines ‘voice’ and together we'll look at passages from writers like Arundhati Roy, David Nicholls, Sanam Mahloudji and Maya Angelou to identify what makes each one sound unique. Using fun writing prompts, we’ll discover how trying on other voices can be the key to unlocking our own.
YOUR VOICE AS YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM
Writers are often mystified when they’re told to build an ‘author platform’. Does this mean going on TV or building a massive TikTok following? In this second masterclass, we'll think about your voice as being the foundation for your writing success. Your voice is the centrepiece of your author platform and once you’ve defined your voice, it becomes easier to attract the right readers.
We'll take a look at examples from writers like Gillian McAllister, Musa Okongwa, Emily Henry and Claire Linney who use their voices as a platform to talk about their writing in a natural and confident way. Through timed writing and fill-in-the-blank exercises, we will come away with a clearer idea of how to showcase yourself, without having to spend money or dance for the algorithm.
USING YOUR VOICE TO TELL STORIES THAT MATTER
Why do we write? The reasons vary from person to person but ultimately, all writing (and all storytelling) is an act of transformation. We make marks on paper to help us make sense of an unfathomable universe. Writing stuff down can change the world — whether that's the outside world or the worlds within us. In this third session of the series, we'll focus on the power of your voice to affect change. How can you use your authentic voice to tell stories that matter not just to you but to a wider readership?
Drawing on Uju's own experience of writing for social impact, as well as considering a range of other authors, we'll explore how writing voice and writing themes (or messages) are inextricably linked. We'll look at the impact and potential risks of speaking (and living) out loud, taking inspiration from writers like Matt Haig, Poorna Bell, Ocean Vuong and Oliver Burkeman. And each of us will have a go at creating our own writer’s manifesto!
FALLING IN LOVE WITH YOUR OWN VOICE
Thursday 1 October
Lunchtime workshop
12.30-1.30pm
ZOOM delivery
£22
Email contact@writingroom.org.uk to book your place
YOUR VOICE AS YOUR AUTHOR PLATFORM
Thursday 5 November
Lunchtime workshop
12.30-1.30pm
ZOOM delivery
£22
Email contact@writingroom.org.uk to book your place
USING YOUR VOICE TO TELL STORIES THAT MATTER
Thursday 3 December
Lunchtime workshop
12.30-1.30pm
ZOOM delivery
£22
Email contact@writingroom.org.uk to book your place
UJU ASIKA
AUTHOR AND BLOGGER
Uju Asika is a multi-award-nominated blogger, author, speaker, and creative writing mentor. She is the founder of the Top 5 UK family blog Babes About Town and the author of three books including her debut Bringing Up Race: How to Raise a Kind Child in a Prejudiced World, an Evening Standard *Best Books* pick, hailed as ‘timely and important’. Uju’s picture book A World For Me And You is published in the UK and North America, and her latest book Raising Boys Who Do Better: A Hopeful Guide for a New Generation earned praise from Rob Delaney, Julia Samuel, Jeffrey Boakye and Eve Rodsky.
A former journalist, Uju has also been a screenwriter for some of Nigeria's spiciest TV dramas. Her work has featured widely in, for example, The Observer, Woman’s Hour, Good Morning Sunday, Good Housekeeping, BBC London and Marie Claire and she is frequently booked as a speaker and facilitator.
In 2025, Uju was the Judging Chair for the Children's Wainwright Prize for Fiction and also a judge for The Week Junior Book Awards. She is a member of the Forthwrite Festival advisory panel and recently launched her own creative writing consultancy, Write with UJU.
Uju’s novel-in-progress has been commended as a runner-up for the 2026 Eleanor Taylor Bland Prize for Crime Writers of Color.
Born in Nigeria, Uju grew up in the UK and has lived in London, New York and Lagos. Follow @babesabouttown across social media or visit ujuasika.com
Writing Room is a registered Community Interest Company: a non-profit arts organisation committed to serving the interests of our diverse community of creative writers.
Many people are under-represented in the writing world as a result of their socio-economic background, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability. Writing Room is a welcoming online home for ALL creative writers (18+). Come and join us!
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Photography © Ruth Guthrie unless stated
