Category Archives: News

BWC and WriteFest news

Writing for Children (Postponed)

Posted on by

The proposed workshop has been postponed until further notice.

 with

Astrid Lindgren said:

“I don’t want to write for adults. I want to write for readers who can perform miracles. Only children perform miracles when they read.”

Two days only
Saturday May 23 & Sunday May 24
Bundaberg Writers’ Club, Impact Community Services, 108 Bargara Road, Bundaberg East.
Saturday May 23 (10am – 2.45pm)
$65 includes morning & afternoon tea.

Creating Picture Books

‘Hands on’ how to build and shape that idea workshop. Language and structuring a picture book. Creating characters. Pacing and paging. Crafting and drafting.

Industry Overview

A session focussing on the nuts and bolts of getting your children’s story published. Manuscript presentation. Writing cover letters. How to approach publishers and Editors. The Pros and Cons of agents and multiple submissions. Various formats and their differences. Genres and themes. Covering from Picture Books to Young Adult stories.
Sunday May 24 (10am – 4pm)
$85 includes morning & afternoon tea.

Writing Chapter Books & Junior Fiction Series

Should you be considering the newly independent readers. How about writing a chapter book, or creating a series? How do you create a storyline and characters that keeps readers wanting more. This workshop looks at popular themes for older age groups, using language, pacing and the role of illustration.

How to be a hooker: Creating hooks that keep readers turning pages.

Analysing the different types of hooks, from killer opening lines to captivating chapter endings, find why they work and which is best for your type of story.

How to write the perfect pitch and the One Most Likely

Learn the secrets of writing a great pitch and have a go yourself in a supportive environment.

Book Now.

Meredith Costain’s work ranges from picture books through to novels and chapter books, poetry and non-fiction.

Her books include Musical Harriet  (adapted for television by the ABC), CBCA Honour Book Doodledum Dancing  and tween series A Year in Girl Hell. Her latest series is the best-selling, quirky Ella Diaries, which has been shortlisted for both environmental and children’s choice awards and published around the world.

Meredith has worked as an editor for children’s magazines and as the managing editor of several literacy schemes. She regularly presents writing workshops for adults and children in libraries, tertiary institutions and schools both around Australia and overseas and has taught Writing for Children and Young Adults in the Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT and at the Victorian Writers’ Centre. Find out more at www.meredithcostain.com

 

Advertisement

Coming to Bundaberg: How to Write Popular Fiction

Posted on by

 

Queensland Writers Centre and Bundaberg Writers Club will be hosting a two day workshop covering the A-Z of Writing Popular Fiction.

These interactive workshops suit beginners and emerging authors, or experienced writers who feel they need to refine their technique.

Venue: BWC Meeting Rooms, 80A Woongarra Street, Bundaberg Central.

 

 

On Saturday, May 18

10.30am – 4.30pm

Learn how to pace your novel so that a reader won’t want to put it down.

Develop and  improve your writing skill-set through practical exercises and group discussion.

  • Create compelling hooks and story questions
  • understand the different pacing required in different genres
  • understand pacing needs to vary within a novel
  • learn how to slow or speed the pace of your story
  • recognise the boring bits, and have the courage to leave them out
  • learn how to ratchet up the tension in each page
  • understand how structure affects pacing

Book Now

On Sunday, May 19

10.00am – 4.00pm

Everything you need to know about writing commercial fiction, in a nutshell

Explore key areas using practical exercises.

  • how to generate ideas and turn those ideas into a workable premise
  • investigate voice, and how voice relates to genre
  • Understand conflict, and how it generates plot
  • What is ‘classic story structure’?
  • Learn to develop a framework for your story
  • Learn about character arcs and how to show character growth and change.
  • Understand the commercial fiction market and pathways to publication

 

Book Now

Title Me Trivia October 6, 2018

Posted on by

Q: Aidan Turner loses his shirt in this latest television outing for Winston Graham’s story of 18th century Cornwall. Can you name the novel?

PS. Just curious.  Does the delightful Ross (played by Aidan) scything the field bare chested, or rising from the Cornish foam, improve the story, or enhance viewer experience, or both?

So, you’re writers, and readers, and movie goers. Right!  You know how, sometimes, the movie isn’t a patch on the book. And how occasionally the movie matches the book. And how seldom the movie exceeds the book. We could chat about this for ages, mostly because there are hundreds of adaptations to chat about and each is different.

The real question is, how many movies do you know of that started off as a short story or a novel? You might be surprised.

Why not CRASH the CRUSH Block Party, catch up with the club in Post Office Lane on October 6, and test your knowledge at AWESOME ADAPTATIONS. It’ll cost you $2pp to enter into a fast half hour of trivia testing, with three rounds between 5pm and 7.30 pm.

Yes, there is loot to collect. Books, naturally. We are a writers club.*

Kidslit                                                     AA Children's prizes

Mainstream                      AA Mainstream prizes

Comics                                                         AA Comics prizes

*

To be honest,  Shop 85, the comic book shop, as well as giving us comics, has included a little something unexpected, a $30 barber shop voucher for your favourite hairy hero. And for the true comic nerd, Bundaberg’s own Shane Foley (currently inking Phantom comics) has donated an original artwork, The Shadow King. IMG_1982

All you have to do for a chance to win is be there for the 7.30- 8pm slot – carrying that $2 entry fee.

Thanks to all the sponsors helping make Awesome Adaptations the best trivia event on the block.

 

sponsors.jpg

Oh, the answer to the challenge: Name the novel adaptation in which star Aidan Turner loses his shirt. It is, of course, Poldark.

Poetry’s Gift to Prose

Posted on by

Simon Kindt – Cool

Every now and then a book arrives full to bursting with an idea so thought provoking, or titillating, that nobody cares how well it’s written. Despite the novel’s faults, people who’ve hardly read books (let alone buy one) will see it for sale in a service station, or games emporium, or stacked in a toy store, and buy it just because they’ve heard the buzz this little slab of paper created.

Even while you shake your writerly head over them, you can’t deny the power of the ideas that gave us Fifty Shades, Ready Player One, Da Vinci Code or even those Potter books.

The rest of us can’t rely on coming up with a world defining idea.

We’re going to have to haul ourselves out of the ordinary with our word skills, and that’s where the gift that is poetry enters the mix. While prose is all about sentences and what comes next, it’s the poetic eye (or is that ear) that adds the colour and feeling to the prosaic. When your writing is too flat, too ordinary, too bolted down to reality, it’s poetry that helps writers add sensory detail, playfulness, and a rich imagery deftly drawn.

Poetry is about nuance, about showing and suggesting connections. Story should be about nuance too, but it’s so easy to forget all that when your main aim is to achieve a word count.

And, of course, poetry is about language and how it fits together to create an effect as well as create a story.

Simon Kindt – in action

On Saturday, May 19, Queensland Writers’ Centre is bringing Brisbane poet, arts worker and teacher Simon Kindt, to Bundaberg, to our rooms at 80A Woongarra Street.

The morning session, The Spaces Between: An Introduction to Poetic Writing   is an exploration of metaphor, imagery and writing for sound, designed for writers who want to test the notion that poetry can lift there words out of the doldrums.

The afternoon session focusses on bringing poetry off the page. Beyond the Page: Exploring Movement, Sound and Music  is for beginner and intermediate writers, and explores the power of sound and music intrinsic to poetry.

To book, click on the links above. Costs per session range from $30 QWC members’ concession to $55 non-member non-concession.

Two day Workshop: Writing for the Screen

Posted on by

“Books and movies are like apples and oranges.  They both are fruit, but taste completely different.” Stephen King.

Do you dream of writing a movie – or a television show – but you’ve only ever written prose, articles, plays or short stories? What is it makes writing for a screen different than other forms of storytelling? Do you wonder how exactly you can take an idea from a blank page to a full length script?  Then this two-day workshop is for you. Bookings are now open for non-members of the club who might be interested in screen writing, but be quick, places are limited.

Bookings close Wednesday, April 4.  For more details or to secure a place, please contact The Secretary.

WRITING FOR THE SCREEN is a two-day workshop designed for storytellers who are new to the principles that underpin successful screen storytelling.

Over the two day workshop participants will be given a broad introduction to what they’ll need to know before embarking on writing a screenplay from scratch, or adapting a screen story from another source.

Participants will learn about the four pillars of story (character, plot, structure and theme). They will learn what differentiates screen writing from other forms of writing, how screenwriters develop their ideas into full scripts via the use of short documents, and, finally, what constitutes excellence/best practice in the screenwriting field.

Matthew Dabner, who was trained in screenwriting and producing at the University of Southern California’s school of Cinematic Arts. Matthew has been working in the film and television  industry for over twenty years developing and financing independent and studio-financed films, and working extensively as a script editor. Matthew has also taught screenwriting at the Australian Film Television and Radio school.

Participants will be provided with a produced screenplay ahead of the workshop to use as a reference example and as a tool for further analysis.

On the second day participants will have the opportunity to workshop their own one-page idea for a screen story and will be provided with the tools to continue developing their ideas into the future.

Where  : 80A Woongarra Street (Club Rooms)
When   : Saturday & Sunday, April 21 & 22.
Time    : 9.30am – 5pm (Saturday); 9.30am – 4pm (Sunday)
Cost     : $50 (non-members) – covers Saturday and Sunday sessions, morning and afternoon tea and coffee. BYO lunches, or take advantage of the near-by cafes. Club Members’ booking closed.

Remember, bookings close Wednesday, April 4.  For more details or to secure a place, please contact The Secretary.

 

The Art of Story

Posted on by

Arnold Zable

 

Writer, storyteller, educator, best selling novelist and human rights advocate, Arnold Zable, brings his passion for story to WriteFest.

A compelling storyteller, he draws from memory and history to uncover the trauma of displacement, and the strengths of community in his Masterclass: The Art of Story.

The line between fiction and non-fiction is not as distinct as it once was. At the heart of any story, whatever the genre, is imagination, constructed scenes, setting and characterisation.

The question is, how to best tell your story? How to use craft to bring an idea to its full potential.

The Masterclass is full-day, October 8 from 9am-4.30pm at CQUniversity. Breaks are included for morning and afternoon tea (provided), and lunch. BYO lunch, or take the opportunity to book lunch for delivery on the booking page.

 

Authors’ DIY Publicist Class

Posted on by

Can you afford to ignore this Masterclass?

Offered as part of WriteFest, this Masterclass from Jaki Arthur, Head of Marketing Communications, Harper Collins (Sydney) provides a unique opportunity for regional writers who are ready to put their work onto the public stage.

Authors think the biggest question they have to grapple with is whether to publish traditionally, or to self-publish.

In reality the biggest question revolves around how they will make sure their works reaches an interested audience.

jaki-arthurAsk yourself, are you a proactive author, ready to work with your publisher and publicist to garner your novel the success it deserves? Or are you a writer who likes DIY, and needs to know how the professionals do it?

Jaki has over 20 years of experience in book publishing in New Zealand, the UK and Australia across retail and publishing sales, marketing and publicity. She has run her own successful arts PR agency and is currently Head of Marketing Communications at HarperCollins publishers,  Sydney. Jaki has worked and toured with authors from all over the world publicising books across all genres.

This is an interactive and feedback-focused workshop. Jaki lets you in on well-kept publicity secrets. You can gain practical skills to help place your book in the hands of your target audience. Learn how to make yourself heard over all the yelling and hallooing.

It’s a Masterclass for aspiring writers, self-published writers and traditionally published writers.

Now really, can you afford to ignore this Masterclass?

Limited places available on Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9. Please book early

Jaki facilitated this Masterclass at the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2015. Read The Guardian’s article about the Masterclass HERE.

Self-Publishing a Paperback.

Posted on by

Justin Sheedy will be at WriteFest this year offering an in-depth exploration of DIY publishing.

You’ve screamed, sweated and cried for months, or even years. The voices in your head have finally disappeared, at least for the time being. That stack of pages (even if it is on a hard drive), is finally a manuscript.jenny-a

You’ve pored over your words for what seems a hundred or more times, sent your baby out to others to read and give feedback, you’ve revised and edited, and now it’s the best you can make it. Time to publish. Get it out there and into people hands. Start raking in that longed for fortune.

One question – How?

You’ve probably noticed, or even looked into, publishing businesses who promise to get your books into all the stores, right? The type of business wanting thousands of dollars to begin the publishing process. Surely getting your novel to your readers isn’t that hard (or easy), is it?

The answer is simple. No, it’s not. You’ve been in control of this novel all the way. Why hand it over to strangers now, especially strangers full of promises who want a bucket load of your money.

No. You can publish your book, yourself. All you have to do is follow some instructions.

You can do that, right?

Of course, you can. You’ve written a book. Hundreds of pages. You can do anything. Believe in yourself. That’s the power of being an Author.

No matter who you decide to go with, the first thing to do is purchase you own ISBN (International Standard Book Number), in Australia, through Thorpe-Bowker (https://www.myidentifiers.com.au)

I have used both IngramSpark (Lightning Source) and CreateSpace (Amazon), and can recommend both. Each has pros and cons, so you’ll need to get onto their websites to really look into the workings of each, but here’s some useful info I’ve picked up.

IngramSpark. (Lightning Source®)

Ingram is the world’s largest wholesaler of print and electronic books distributing to more than 39,000 retailers, libraries, schools, and distribution partners across 195 countries. Since 1997 Ingram has been offering print on demand services through Lightning Source®.

 

IngramSpark does charge a setup fee. It’s not a lot of money, certainly not thousands of dollars. Their website http://www.ingramspark.com/ has calculators to help you set the price of your book, and find out how much you will make in royalty sales.

They also have ready-made templates to help you create a book cover. You can either design your own using the template, or send the template to your cover designer.

IngramSpark publishes world-wide, and your novel will be included in their marketing catalogue, which goes out to over 11,000 resellers.

The beauty of choosing IngramSpark is that, when you sell a book internationally, you can have it printed and posted in the country of purchase, direct to your customer.

This saves you the cost and time of having to post a book.

And your happy buyer has your novel almost immediately.

 

CreateSpace. (Amazon)

CreateSpace has been a part of the Amazon giant since 2007, publishing and manufacturing on-demand for independent content creators, publishers, film studios, and music labels. (https://www.createspace.com).

CreateSpace does not charge a setup fee and has an easy step-by-step guide to help you construct your book. They will also give you a free ISBN number, which can only be used on CreateSpace.

If you have any questions, a forum exists to give you answers.

(Hint. Google is also your friend)

CreateSpace has ready-made formatted Word template files you can copy and paste the interior of your book into. They also have a Cover Creator you can use.

Remember to READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS.

You can sell your book through CreateSpace by setting up a store.

Certain distribution disadvantages exist, especially for books in hard copy rather than digital, if you use CreateSpace.

CreateSpace/Amazon cannot make Royalty payments to Australian Banks. You will have to set up a Payoneer Account to be paid for any books you may sell.

If you wish to have books on hand to send to customers in Australia, you will have to order and have them sent to you. While you will only pay the wholesale cost for your books, postage costs from the US can be expensive.

You can order and send books internationally through Amazon/Createspace, but bookstores usually do not order books from Amazon/Createspace.

All it takes is a little time and effort to print your own books.

In Australia I generally choose IngramSpark for ease of distributing my novels internationally

While publishing may seem confusing, if you read the instructions, you’ll be all right.covers

~ J. L. Addicoat

The author of Spirit of Love and Entangled Destinies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Competition Winners Announced.

Posted on by

Thank you to everyone who submitted to this, our last short story competition for a little while. Although the competition has been especially successful, in our view, the club has decided to change focus for a couple of years to better service the needs of members.

Winner

Janice Williams for Tough Guy. Tough Guy

Janice describes the story as a ‘combination of working dog stories I have heard, and a recognition of the serious problem farmers face with depression.’

Judge’s Comment: Tough Guy is a gentle and moving story exploring the important and topical issue of depression rates amoung Australian farmers . It is well written with heart and humour, and a distinctively Australian voice. It builds powerful moments of drama through subtle characterisations and intimate moments.

Runner Up

Susan Bennett for Butterflies and Roses

Judge’s Comment: Butterflies and Roses has a sophisticated structure and delivers a great twist. Through clever writing and characterisation, it offers beautiful and unexpected insights on life and love.

Special Mention

Cameron England for  Close Contact

Judge’s Comment: Close Contact deals with compelling themes of climate change and isolation through excellent world-building. The dystiopian imagery and depth of characterisation are handled well through clear writing and subtle pacing, ending in a moment of high drama.

Short listed:

  • Mark Fowler Larrikin
  • John Pittmann Blame the Pink Umbrella
  • Carmel Lillis Submitted
  • Naomi Currie Honey Eater
  • Melanie Napthine Escape Artist

Meg Vann said: The standard of (short listed) stories overall was excellent. Each and every story offers terrific writing, characterisation and drama. The stories focussed on intriguing and topical themes, and all showed a sophisticated understanding of craft, using a high level of imagination and expression to create excellent narrative interest. It was very difficult to select the winners. I encourage all writers involved to keep honing their craft and sibmitting their stories to markets

Short Story 2016 Update

Posted on by
Meg Vann

Meg Vann

Meg Vann has agreed to be our final judge this year. She says she reads too much – loves crime and thrillers – eats too well, and is perpetually ready for adventure, which is undoubtedly why she is taking on our short list, which this year numbers eight.

For writers who may not yet be familiar with Meg Vann, she was for many years a core member of the Queensland Writers Centre, taking on the role of Chief Executive Officer for three of those years but always, always, always encouraging writers to dream of growing sustainable careers; to be valued and respected and enjoyed.

Meg is a writer, a digital experimenter, writing tutor, lecturer (now at University of Queensland) while studying criminology at Griffith, and convenor of Sisters in Crime (Brisbane Chapter).

We expect that we’ll be finalising the winner and runner-up by mid May, 2016, at the latest.

Good Luck to our final eight.