Duration: 2 hours
Suitable for: High school. Works best with a year group (eg year 8 or year 11) or a mixed group of particularly keen writers, drawn from Years 7 – 12.

Workshop overview

Sarah draws on her years of experience as a novelist and journalist to teach techniques to get students’ creativity flowing, as well as concrete, practical tools to create narrative tension, deepen character, and create a sense of immediacy for the reader.

She gives comprehensive handouts, 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.

Topics covered:

• Free-writing as a brainstorming tool and fast, effective way to write a first draft.
• The drafting process – how a first draft is different to the final draft.
• Exercises to flesh out character.
• Using detail to show rather than tell.
• Writing a ‘sensory brainstorm’ to generate material to bring a piece of action alive.
• Student Q and A.

Duration: 3 hours
Suitable for: High school. Best for year 9 and up, unless students are focused, keen writers.

Workshop overview

Sarah draws on her years of experience as a novelist and journalist to 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 gives comprehensive handouts, 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.

Topics covered

• 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

Duration: 30 minutes to 1 hr
Suitable for: Stages 2-6 and adult. (NB: can be adapted to include stage one in small schools.)

Workshop overview

Autobiographical talk using anecdotes, images, video and the Web to trace how Tristanʼs books relate to his life story. From schoolboy in Sydneyʼs Blue Mountains to teen TV actor and presenter in Australia and London, through travel and university to filmmaking and life as an author. Discover the books Tristan loves to read, how he finds inspiration and how he makes a living telling stories for page and screen. Along the way, have lots of laughs, gain valuable tips on using your own life to inspire your stories and help create a weird, funny, gross short story for the next My Life book.

Topics covered

• How to find story inspiration
• Top 5 writing tips
• Making writing an active, contact sport

Duration: 1, 2 or 3 hrs
Suitable for: Stage 4

Workshop overview

How can you use all the odd, boring, funny stuff that happens to you and turn it into excellent stories? Author Tristan Bancks used bits from his life to inspire his short story collections My Life and Other Stuff I Made Up and My Life & Other Stuff That Went Wrong. Like the time his sister made him eat Vegemite off her toe and the time he had his appendix removed just to get out of school detention. Learn how to mine your own life for cool, weird, funny stories that your friends and teachers will love.

Topics covered

• Using memory for story inspiration
• Mashing truth and fiction to create authentic, entertaining stories
• Freewriting practice to discover untapped story ideas

Duration: 1-3hrs
Suitable for: Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5 to adult.

Workshop overview

Participants observe, experience and let the world around them rush onto the page. The forward-motion and physical exercise bring the writing experience alive, forging new and unexpected stories. Can be done in the school playground! https://www.tristanbancks.com/2018/01/byron-bay-writing-safari-2.html (Inspired by Tristan’s writing process on his book Two Wolves.)

Topics covered

• Writing outdoors for story inspiration
• Present-moment awareness as a storytelling tool
• Discovering character inspiration from the people and spaces around you.

Duration: 1-3hrs
Suitable for: Stage 3, stage 4

Workshop overview

In-depth writing workshop for very keen / talented writers aged 10+ wanting to take their work to the next level and excavate the stories locked inside them. This workshop goes beyond ʻGetting Startedʼ and plunges into Voice, Setting, Character Development, Conflict, Plotting, Analysis of Great Writersʼ Work and saying more by saying less.

Topics covered

• Writing outdoors for story inspiration
• Present-moment awareness as a storytelling tool
• Discovering character inspiration from the people around you.

Duration: 45mins
Suitable for: All ages

Presentation overview

Jesse has entertained audiences from ages 4 to 94 in Australia and internationally with her tales of writing, researching, and extremely unusual creatures. Passionate about becoming a vet from childhood, she ended up becoming an author instead and has written a series about friendships between humans and animals.

A fibreglass seeing eye dog sets sail for the frozen south in Stay: The Last Dog in Antarctica. A young rider tries to save a wild horse in danger in Paruku The Desert Brumby, and a city kid has to draw on all her courage to save a koala from a cyclone in Dexter the Courageous Koala. Each of the books has school curriculum relevance, and teacher’s notes. Jesse has researched all her books out in the field, and her presentation follows her adventures with dramatic audio visuals in a highly engaging format for schools. She is also an international award-winning author of historical and contemporary fiction for adult readers.

Topics covered

• Finding story inspiration
• Researching an idea for a story
• How authors create characters using language and images
• Characters in context
• Author Q&A

Duration: 45mins – 2hrs
Suitable for: All ages

Workshop overview

It’s a rollercoaster ride as international award winning author Jesse takes participants through the thrills, chills and spills of creating a story. Activities include brainstorming ideas and story-worlds, creating memorable characters, how to make a story irresistible, and how get over the finish line. Jesse refers to her own junior novels and how they were created. She tailors every workshop to suit the ages and abilities of participants – she has taught hundreds of writers aged from seven to seventy in Australia and around the world, and is a passionate and enthusiastic teacher.

Duration: One full day
Suitable for: Extension 2 English students

Workshop overview

This full-day workshop examines each of the requirements of the Extension 2 English syllabus and provides a ‘plan of attack’ for ensuring students have all the information and strategies they need to create wonderful Major Works.

Elements of the Writing Process to be covered include:

• How to choose the form, themes, and voice for your Major Work.
• How to approach the writing process using a systematic protocol of creation, evaluation, and revision.
• Sophistication of ideas and execution are what score the highest bands in the HSC and this workshop shows students how to demonstrate deep engagement and create erudite work.

Key aspects of the Syllabus will be covered including:

• Viva Voce: What is involved and how to prepare.
• Literature Review: Why it’s important and how to do it.
• Critique of your Creative Process: What should the critique focus on and how to write it.
• Creative Work: How to make your writing shine.
• Reflection Statement: Crafting reflections that justify decisions and demonstrate a clear understanding of the syllabus.

Duration: 2 hours
Suitable for: Stage 6

Workshop overview

This 2 hour workshop explores the various facets of the Stage 6 Craft of Writing module, identifying the key elements of literary craft and providing students with a clear understanding of each element, a series of examples, and a host of strategies for writing with depth and nuance.

Topics covered and activities undertaken:

• Defining ‘craft of writing’
• Distinguishing literary analysis from writing craft
• The core ‘craft of writing’ elements
• How to scaffold narratives using the five most important elements of craft
• Free-writing for ideas
• How to brainstorm for complexity without weighing down the words
• Sophistication – both in terms of ideas and writing

Duration: 1-2 hours
Suitable for: Stage 3-5

Workshop overview

This 1-2 hour workshop engages students on a creative journey of exploration, ideas, character, and story. Designed for Stages 3-5, this workshop encourages students to engage creatively with language and to find meaningful, fun, and affirming ways of expressing their feelings, experiences, ideas, and stories. The focus is on inspiring creativity (playing with language), demystifying the writing process, and providing students with opportunities to write creatively. We will be brainstorming, writing, sharing ideas, and playing with images and words. At the end of each session, students will have produced two articles of writing – a piece of poetry and either a work of flash fiction or an evocative description.

Siboney’s aim with these sessions is to encourage students to be fearless in their approach to writing by making it as experiential and fun as possible. As well as developing writing skills, students will also develop self-confidence and the courage to take risks with their stories.

Duration: 1hr – 2hr
Suitable for: Stage 4

Workshop overview

You’ve written a story. Then what? The next step is putting on your editor’s hat and editing! Editing is an essential part of the writing process, but most kids stop at the first draft. In this fun workshop, Zanni leads kids through professional editing techniques they actually like! One Year 3 boy reported after a Sweaty Brain Editing session: ‘I speak for everyone, well myself at least, when I say I discovered how much I loved editing!’

Topics covered:

• Structural editing
• Line editing
• Show don’t tell
• And much more!