Selected English students from Years 7 to 10 attended a one-day workshop in Term 1 on creative writing at The Literature Centre in Fremantle. Further workshops will be held each term with more published authors sharing their writing tips with our lucky students.
Anna Watts from Year 8 comments of the Years 7 and 8 excursion: On Friday the 17th of March, we had our first young writers workshop for Years 7-8. Overall it was a very enjoyable day, and full of writing! I felt that I gained a lot from this experience and writing seems less overwhelming now that I better understand an author’s perspective on how to plan, structure and begin a story. These workshops are very helpful and exciting opportunities to write, learn from different authors, increase your confidence to share your work and make your writing better. I cannot wait for the next one!
Mrs Cañas writes about the Years 9 and 10 workshop: Author Barry Jonsberg provided extension English students with some very helpful and very humorous advice on finding a story, writing it down, and re-writing and editing their work. After entertaining the workshop participants with the inspirations behind his novels The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull, Game Theory and Dreamrider, Barry walked through his writing process. Two very important steps in writing are to ‘show, don’t tell’ and to create ‘lucid dreaming’ moments where readers can experience tension through sensory details. Some other pearls of wisdom gleaned were to write every day, battle through writer’s block, and get used to the rejection letter from publishers! Students were given plenty of time to write and share their ideas. Barry encouraged us that being a published author can be anyone’s dream with hard work and a little inspiration.
