Dramatic Studio: Advanced Play Writing Techniques

Who: Timothy Daly
When: 8 x Saturday afternoons: 1, 8, 15, 22 June; 6, 13, 20, 27 July, 1pm-4pm
Cost: Full price: $800; Member: $560; Conc Member: $480

These eight intensive sessions are designed to teach you the techniques for writing full-length plays and selling them to the national & international theatre markets.

Each week you will receive comprehensive notes and information, based on Timothy Daly’s knowledge and extensive experience of the national and international theatre scene.  In the second half of each session you will be workshopping your own developing plays. A specific ‘selling strategy’ will be designed for each participant and their play. .....

The Business of Being a Writer

Who: Judith Ridge, James Roy, Angelo Loukakis, Sophie Hamley and guest
When: Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June, 10am-4pm (Please note date was incorrectly printed in the course program as July)
Cost: Full Price: $320; Member: $225; Conc Member: $190

You decided to become a writer because you’re good at expressing yourself creatively. What you weren’t expecting was all those other aspects you have to deal with – contracts, copyright, finances and how to promote yourself.

This seminar is a newly revised and expanded version of a previous one day course. Over the two days, we will provide you with an introduction to the business side of being a writer: those legal and financial aspects you may not be familiar with or don’t have the expertise to deal with. We’ll talk copyright and royalties, tax and superannuation, as well as finding out a bit more about what you can expect from a relationship with an agent or publisher. We’ll weigh up the pros and cons of self-publishing, and look at the changes being brought to the industry by digital publishing. And we’ll explore the most effective way writers use social media and other aspects of self-promotion. In addition, participants will have an opportunity to write and present a book pitch. .....

Getting to Grips with Grammar

Who: Mark Tredinnick
When: Saturday 15 June, 10am-4pm
Cost: Full Price: $165; Member: $115; Conc Member: $100

Everyone who wants to write will need to get comfortable with the inner life of sentences. If you’re going to write, you’re going to need to get to grips with grammar.

What really goes on inside a sentence? What is your subject, and where is your verb, and what is its tense, and where is your modifier, and why does it matter? Where do you put the commas and why? Why are dashes and semicolons so misunderstood? When is it which and when is it then? How can you be sure your sentence is as sound and sassy as you’d like it to be? .....

Writing a Sense of Place

Who: Felicity Castagna
When: Sunday 16 June, 10am-4pm
Cost: Full price: $165; Member: $115; Conc Member: $100

Annie Proulx once said that Brokeback Mountain isn’t about two gay cowboys; it’s about the West and its sense of place. The expression ‘a sense of place’ is a critical catchphase that often defies clear understanding.  As readers we know when a writer has created a ‘great sense of place.’ But what does that mean? It’s hopelessly vague. In this course students will meticulously consider the techniques used by writers to convey ‘a sense of place’, as well as looking at the role it plays in creative writing. When writing about place, the writer must consider more than just its physical attributes or location. .....

Moments of Grace: A Poetry Workshop

Who: Peter Skrzynecki
When: Saturday 22 June, 10am-4pm
Cost: Full Price: $165; Member: $115; Conc Member: $100

Throughout the centuries, poets have tried to capture moments of spiritual awakenings when the world as we know it falls away and we enter a different realm. We return changed, having become part of an experience that liberates us and transforms us, however momentarily, into a new self, touched with an awareness we did not possess previously. These moments of grace, as they are often called, are not exclusive to any religion, tradition or culture. They exist primarily at an elemental level but fill us with understanding, love and compassion of humanity that is universal. Moments of grace occur often in encounters with silence, stillness, light, love, music, birds/

Fiction Feedback

Who: Elizabeth Cowell
When: 8 x Sunday mornings: 30 June; 14, 21 28 July; 4, 11, 18, 25 August, 10:30am-1:30pm
Cost: Full Price: $960; Member: $670; Conc Member: $580

Bring your fiction writing to the next level by learning to evaluate and edit your own work in this intense but friendly focus group, convened by experienced fiction editor Elizabeth Cowell.

Prior to each meeting, four writers from the group of eight will submit samples of their work—either short stories or extracts from a novel (a maximum of 6000 words per piece). Each member of the group, including the convenor, will provide critical feedback on these pieces. The writers will have a chance to respond to this feedback, and a general discussion of writing fiction will follow. Group members are welcome to discuss particular challenges they are facing in their work. .....

Writing the Perfect Crime

Who: Barry Maitland
When: Sunday 30 June, 10am-4pm
Cost: Full Price: $165; Member: $115; Conc Member: $100

Would you like to write gripping fiction, with vivid characters, strong and ingenious story lines and a powerful sense of place? Crime novels have all of these, and are among the most popular forms of fiction published today. In this workshop, Barry Maitland will talk about the craft of crime-writing and conduct focussed exercises which will help you to develop skills in key areas of practice, including: .....

Exploring Creative Non-Fiction - Masterclass

SOLD OUT – please email to be placed on the waiting list.

Who:Robin Hemley
When:Saturday 1 June, 10am-4pm
Cost:Full Price: $200; Member: $140; Conc Member: $120

Robin Hemley is the newly appointed Director of Writing at Yale-NUS College, he is the former Director of the Non-Fiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, one of the world’s most prestigious university writing programs. Critically acclaimed, Robin is one of America’s foremost practitioners of the craft of creative non-fiction. .....

Advanced Memoir

Who:Patti Miller
When:6 x Wednesday mornings: 24 & 31 July; 7, 21 & 28 August; 4 September, 10am-1pm
Cost:Full Price: $600; Member: $420; Conc Member: $360

This is an advanced memoir course for those who want to write more than a record or a history, for those who are ready for a creative journey.  This course will refresh the technique of writing from original memory and creating the texture of lived experience on the page, and will explore narrating voice, story-telling and narrative pacing and structure. There will be a special trouble-shooting section on the problems in finding form – an invaluable insight into the structural pitfalls that can await the memoirist – based on Patti’s work critiquing hundreds of manuscripts.  .....

Presentation Skills for Writers

Who: George Catsi
When: Saturday 13 July, 10am-4pm          
Cost: Full Price: $180; Member: $125; Conc Member: $110

You’ve written your work and now you’re being asked to read it out loud.  Whether at a festival or any form of public reading these are promotional moments that can convert a listener, if you read it well. You can prepare yourself for these moments. This one-day intensive works directly on enhancing you as a public reader of your work. Working with the group we’ll introduce performance techniques to help you find your voice. This is an active day: part-public speaking, part-theatre, with speakers at all levels and any genre able to explore their voices. Award winning writer and performer George Catsi will be able to give individual feedback in a group context.  .....