Tobias Hill's workshop

Midnight in the City of Clocks, by Tobias Hill
Buy Midnight in the City of Clocks at the Guardian bookshop Public domain

Our poet-in-residence this month is one of the Poetry Book Society's 20 Next Generation Poets (see them all at the Bloomsbury Theatre on November 28). His first collection, Year of the Dog, won an Eric Gregory award; the second and third, Midnight in the City of Clocks and Zoo, both received PBS recommendations. Also an award-winning novelist, his third novel, The Cryptographer, led AS Byatt to observe that "Hill is one of the most original and interesting novelists working in Britain ... There is no other voice today quite like this." This is the second month of Tobias's residency.

Take a look at December's exercise, 'Private Investigations'.

1 Go to the nearest town, taking a notebook. Find a shopping street, supermarket, or other public place where it is possible to watch a stranger for a good few minutes.

2 Choose your subject. Get as close to them as possible. Follow them as necessary. If they notice you, ignore them. If they call the police, run away.

3 Examine the subject's physical appearance. Their body and clothes are instances of their character. Make detailed notes on their physical appearance. What are they trying to say with their clothes, and what do those clothes really say? What kind of life has their physique grown out of? What kind of background does their appearance suggest? Get close enough to check the colour of their eyes. What can you read from their face, or read into it? Come back and write up your notes.

4 Give the subject a name. Names are vital - not always for the reader, but certainly for your own understanding of the character you are writing about.

5 Now imagine the subject's partner. You are taking the fact and turning it into your own fiction. The partner may be a husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, friend or imaginary friend, long dead or separated; or met only once and never forgotten. Whatever the relationship, and whatever its nuances, the individual you create should be the love of the subject's life.

Give the partner a name. Put a face to that name. Imagine him or her as you have seen the first subject: in physical, external terms. Build the partner up from those first impressions. Dress him or her from the outside in.

6 Write a poem about the relationship between the characters you have created. Don't forget to show your readers the physical realities of the people you are describing.

Need an example? Take a look at Tobias's poem Napthalis

Submissions for this month'w workshop have now closed. Check here from Monday December 20 to read the shortlisted poems and Tobias's response.