Storytime

I recently attended a free writing workshop with P.D. Martin. This was part of the Casey Writers Project (Narre Warren) supported by the City of Casey and presented in association with Casey Cardinia Libraries. Have to love a writers workshop that is free! Well done all involved. This was only a small part of the workshops offered, and alas due to work and other commitments the morning session on Plotting and Structure was all that I could attend. However, even in those few hours, I had a lot to think about. I love structure....and know this requires planning...however I tend not to do either. I am always drawn to gardens that look like this. Hard landscape, strict structure and lots of forethought and careful planning. My own garden always looks like this... An untidy ramble (although this is a bit of an old photo, some things have changed). I was...notice the past tense....of the persuasion of 'oh I love that, let's put it here' and 'I nee...

A few months ago I led a Memoir Writing workshop. It was during seniors week so the majority of attendees wanted to write their life stories.  Some wanted to share their childhoods, whether it was on an isolated farm or in another country. Some wanted to share snippets of their lives such as a two year work exchange program...just imagine walking into someone else's house and living there as if it were your own. And as we talked about these ideas, and wrote and workshopped I kept bringing up the idea that no matter what you were writing there should be a theme. An underlying idea behind the memoir...or any type of writing really. There should be something that ties the piece together. Gradually people began to understand and were soon offering up some ideas as to what others could use as this 'tie' for their piece of work. On the weekend I attended a beautiful country wedding. (My niece's and she looked stunning!) Just look at that backdrop...OMG.....what...

Last night I attended, with several of my writing buddies,  the CBCA 2018 Night of Our Stars at Lamont Books in Hallam. It was an interesting night. Celebrating some of our Victorian authors and illustrators, both those who write and illustrate for picture books and junior novels, as well as middle grade and young adult. The idea behind it is to showcase the various authors and illustrators, to share their recently published books but also as a way for the audience (majority teacher librarians, teachers and librarians) to see who they would like to book for their school or library for future events. Author visits or workshops. It was a good mix of some great Victorian authors and illustrators. What was very interesting was that each guest was given three minutes- yes THREE MINUTES- for their spiel. To talk about their current books, their just published books, how they wrote, what gave them the idea for the story, how they worked around problems that arose......

I just spent a long weekend away with several of my writing buddies. Not everyone in my writing group could attend or attend for the whole time away...one recovering from surgery and unable to drive herself came for an hour (chauffeured by lovely hubby)....another came for one day and one night....another unable to attend due to sudden illness gave her place to a fellow scribe...but it was just what I needed. It was a lovely old house with a great shabby chic style inside.  Wooden floorboards that dipped and bowed, twinkling chandeliers and white washed walls. and lovely bedrooms. I arrived first and managed to nab this lovely room for myself.. Writing retreats gives us a chance to escape the everyday demands and focus on one thing. Writing. That doesn't mean that we don't do other things...most days there is at least one walk. Some great meals and chances to chat.  But we knew this time was precious and made the most of ...