News & Editorial

‘But I don’t know what to write…’ Ever heard that one before? In this fun, engaging, highly imaginative (and frequently surprising) creative writing workshop, students are taken through a process, invented by Melaina one dark and stormy night… Actually, it was a moment of playfulness that led to the invention of a writing technique which has since delighted kids and adults across Australia. Both highly enjoyable and strangely effortless, the outcome of this workshop is the beginnings, bones, inspiration, and discovery of images and stories your students might never have believed themselves capable of.

Topics covered

• How to generate an idea from ‘nothing’
• How to discover and develop story through internal perception & external experiences
• How character motivations can create plot and vice versa
• How to use the senses to deepen and enrich story
• How possessions, surroundings, and memory can create and deepen story

Curriculum outcomes 

• Writing and representing
• Thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretatively
• Expressing themselves
• Create literary texts that explores students’ own experiences and imaginings
• Create literary texts using realistic and fantasy settings
• Create literary texts by using storylines, characters and settings

In this practical workshop, Sarah (who has written novels for both adults and children) will teach students techniques to get their writing flowing, as well as concrete, practical tools to create narrative tension and to deepen character. She explains how students can write ‘scene’ to create immediacy for the reader and to show rather then tell. Most students write in summary and find it a revelation to learn about writing in scene. She shows slides with examples from others’ writing, and illustrates with anecdotes from her own writing experience. She gets the students writing straight away, and they’ll do lots of writing throughout the workshop.

This workshop is targeted at stage 5 and 6 and also suitable for keen and focused stage 4 students.

Topics covered include: Free-writing as a brainstorming tool and fast, effective way to write a first draft; fleshing out character using free-written character histories; when to show and when to tell; using scene to ‘show’ and create immediacy; writing a sensory brainstorm to add effective detail to scene; student Q and A.

Picture book and middle-grade author, Zanni Louise, helps high school students develop stories that are meaningful to them. Students will do a deep dive into narrative structure, literary techniques and editing.

This self-editing workshop is a distillation of techniques gleaned from working with twenty plus editors from over ten different publishing companies and for many students is surprisingly enjoyable! The focus is not on grammar and punctuation, so much as specific editing techniques taught in a step-by-step easy format that even the most disinterested writers can use to instantly improve their writing (and marks). Great for NAPLAN or HSC preparation.

Topics covered

• A brief demonstration of the process of having a book edited and an embarrassing confession
• Distinguishing between the art and craft of writing a story
• Numerous self-editing techniques that can be repeatedly used to improve students’ drafts

This workshop takes a unique approach to discovering a character through a process of segueing back and forth between their character’s inner world of perception and outer sensory experiences. Students will literally write on a drawing they create.

Topics covered

• Discovering an original character vs inserting stereotypes into a story
• Using aspects of their character’s body to reveal and record their experiences
• Distinguishing between the character’s exterior sensory world and perceptions of it
• Learning how to use their character’s inner and outer world to create a story plot

Curriculum outcomes 

• Writing and representing
• Thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretatively
• Expressing themselves
• Create literary texts that explores students’ own experiences and imaginings
• Create literary texts using realistic and fantasy settings
• Create literary texts by using storylines, characters and settings

Writing an imaginative story is not a linear process, with the best and most unique and engaging ideas frequently originating from hidden creative depths. This workshop teaches students a variety of techniques to access their own imaginative depths, through a series of specific portals into story ideas. Especially useful for NAPLAN preparation!

Topics covered

• How the imagination works
• Stream-of-consciousness writing for warming up
• How to get ideas through a variety of stimuli including: objects, the senses, and random words and images

Curriculum outcomes 

• Writing and representing
• Thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretatively
• Expressing themselves
• Create literary texts that explores students’ own experiences and imaginings
• Create literary texts using realistic and fantasy settings
• Create literary texts by using storylines, characters and settings

Have you ever had an experience in nature where you really paid attention and for a moment felt you were part of everything around you? In this workshop, children will deepen into their own personal experience and connection to the Earth. Through creative writing and using the themes as inspiration from Wonder Earth, students will reflect on both the heart-felt significance as well as the scientific importance of a personal ‘wonder earth moment’, and create a class Wonder Earth book!

Topics covered

• Experiences in nature for story inspiration
• Patterns and processes which sustain life
• Creative writing with scientific themes
• Reflection of our relationship to the world

Curriculum outcomes

• Thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretatively
• Reflecting on learning
• Responding and composing
• Living world
• Earth and space

Would you like your students to stop and marvel at the amazing world around them and build their ecological-literacy? The Earth has so much to share if only we stop, listen and wonder. Come along on a beautiful journey of what it means to belong to our earth home through exploring a BIG version of the Wonder Earth book. Celebrate the colors and patterns of the natural world. Hear and tell an earth story. Blending creative writing with inspiration from nature, children reflect on their relationship to the world around them.

Topics covered

• Ecological themes such as the sun, water, food and patterns of nature
• Processes and relationships which sustain life
• Creative writing with nature themes
• Reflection of our relationship to the world

Curriculum Outcomes 

• Speaking and listening
• Writing and representing
• Thinking imaginatively, creatively and interpretatively
• Working scientifically
• Living world
• Earth and space