Even though the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival has come and gone, there are still plenty of writing opportunities coming up at the South Coast Writers Centre, including SIX new writing courses and workshops for everything from romance to memoir.
Join Dr Rosemary Montgomery in Mapping the Course of Your Novel, a three-session program with two class options: 26 July – 30 August or 8 November – 6 December at Wollongong Library. Mapping the Course focuses on how you can draw together the elements of your story to fulfil your novel’s potential for good reading. It encourages the development of a dynamic approach that will help the writer keep pace as their novel grows and changes and as their writing skills develop. A past participant had this to say: “What an eye-opener. It’s not that mapping makes writing easy. It’s that I can see my way ahead—and that’s done wonders for my confidence.”
Dr Rosemary Montgomery also presents this year’s Tools for Writing Fiction, focused on developing writing ideas, techniques and practice, along with a strong strand of supportive editing of your work. The course is designed for people over 25 who want to develop new skills or extend the skills they already have in writing fiction. This course gets rave reviews from students and will book out—so get in quickly! Class begins 16 August and runs for seven sessions until 15 November at Wollongong Library.
If memoir writing is your passion, then look no further than our online course Go Write Yourself: Your Memoir from Draft to Done. This six-week intensive is specifically tailored for memoir writers and covers editing, publishing and promoting your memoir. However, it’s equally apt for those with simply a memoir underway; it’s never too early to develop good editing habits. Course convenors are memoirists Mike Cavanagh (One of Its Legs Are Both the Same and A Pocket Full of Days) and Anne Howell (All That I Forgot). Class runs online on Thursday nights from 7 August.
Want to tell your story through podcasting? In this one-day workshop, Audio Storytelling: The Podcast, experienced producer Jennifer Macey will guide you through the art of crafting compelling audio narratives. Learn how to structure your podcast storytelling for maximum impact, how to draw out powerful, story-driven conversations through interviews, and how to work with sound and editing to adapt your storytelling style for audio. Saturday 6 September, 10am – 2:30pm at Coledale Hall.
If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of writing a romance or need help with the romantic elements of a story, then Alyssa J. Montgomery’s Writing Romance one-day workshop is for you! Whilst the workshop focuses on the romance genre, many elements can also be applied to other genres. Alyssa aims to answer questions and discuss key elements to help you write emotionally satisfying and page-turning romance. Enrol today for an opportunity to help turn your dream of writing a compelling story into a reality. Saturday 18 October, 10am – 2:30pm.
And finally, the SCWC is thrilled to return to our program the popular Writing for Over 50s course, beginning 19 October at Coledale Hall. This 5x 1.5 hour weekly and interactive workshop is for the mature aged writer who wants to flex their imagination and their writing muscles. It will explore what it is to be a writer, how we harness our ideas and experiences and how to get words on the page despite our self-doubts and barriers. Convened by Julie Keys, whose debut novel The Artist’s Portrait was published by Hachette in 2019 when she was 57.
Book online for all upcoming writing workshops: southcoastwriters.org/upcomingevents
