As a child growing up in the days when Muslim communities in Australia were small and scattered, I was puzzled at the social studies lesson taught us in primary class. My heroes were everyone else’s villains! I would return home full of questions about what I was hearing which my father patiently reinterpreted with only […]
Justin was like any normal kid, he loved table tennis and watching Rage. What made him different was that he lived alone with a Mum who often cried uncontrollably and wouldn’t get out of bed. He was forced to grow up fast and learn firsthand the pain and confusion of a lived experience of mental […]
‘I just don’t have an interesting story to tell’ is a common belief of students when it comes to life writing and memoir. I thought the same about my life, until I sat down and thought more about my experiences. The workshop aims to convince students that everyone’s life is unique – and that there […]
This workshop examines techniques writers can use to create characters. Do you look at a character you’ve created and think, she’s really the same person as the protagonist in my last story? In fact she’s really my mother in another dress? Using a series of photographs of faces, we will explore ways of creating character. […]
Life on the road and the story of Free Wheels East. How two cousins made the decision to go on a bike ride into the unknown, to leave friends, family, home and all that was familiar behind them in search of adventure. A quest to discover the world through their own eyes and see it […]
Ideas for story are all around us, however the writer requires a keen set of eyes and ears to recognise them. In this session I deconstruct my illustrated YA story Dog 37, focusing on the story’s real life origins and demonstrate the simple techniques used to develop a basic premise (a sharp pin and a […]