How do you make an ordinary place feel as though something isn’t quite right?
Join bestselling psychological thriller author Alex Stone for this live, interactive two-hour masterclass exploring how setting and atmosphere can become powerful tools for creating tension and unease.
During the session, you’ll:
- Explore how setting can become an integral part of your thriller
- Use atmosphere to influence how readers experience a scene
- Explore isolation, confinement and vulnerability
- Use sensory detail to make settings feel vivid and believable
- Discover how familiar, everyday places can be transformed into environments filled with tension and unease
Whether you’re choosing the setting for a new story or want to make greater use of the world you’ve already created, you’ll be able to apply the session to your own novel and ask questions along the way.
Thursday 15 October 2026 | 7–9pm UK time | Live online via Google Meet
Also included: Writers’ Hub
Your booking also gives you access to the Author Events Writers’ Hub — an informal live online hour where you can ask questions, discuss how you’re applying the teaching to your own novel, and connect with Alex and other writers.
Want to continue?
This masterclass is Week 3 of Alex Stone’s 12-week Write a Psychological Thriller programme.
Each week explores a different element of writing a psychological thriller, taking you from premise, character and setting through structure, suspense, voice, twists, endings, revision and publication.
You can join individual masterclasses, book a four-week block, or take part in the complete 12-week programme.
Full 12-week programme: 1 October–17 December 2026
Thursdays, 7–9pm | Live online
The complete programme is £595, or £565 for Author Events members, and non-member full-programme bookings include 12 months’ Author Events membership.
Want to explore the complete programme?
View the full 12-week programme, weekly topics and guest experts →
Find the option that works for you
Join for one masterclass, choose a four-week block, or follow the complete journey with the 12-week programme.
