Year of the Novel first workshop

Hello everyone

My first Saturday session of Year of the Novel was on the weekend. It was really great! The mini lectures we had were great about character, structure, narrative ideology, how to create characters.

We did a cool little acting session where we created a character in groups and we got to ask the player out the front various questions about this character. Needless to say there were stitches of laughter! A cross dressing man in a bikini, a womanising politician who said he loved a "good shag" and the King of the Bear Clan, Urs. It was very interesting and funny and we learnt a lot about all of the things we need to think about when creating characters.

Especially, mannerisms are a good thing to remember in creating a character.

It was really great to meet other authors, or would be authors. It was a tad depressing hearing how long it takes even for established authors to produce their final drafts of published novels. It was good to be reminded that the "pros" are still struggling with the craft even after they are well established for 25 years.

I am going to go through my notes and pick out some great quotes for you, in my next post.

We have exchanged email addresses and I think that will be really great to keep in touch with other writers in this sometimes frustrating and hard to continue process!

Having two children myself and having to work as a copywriter - to make a living to feed my children, I know what it is like to get distracted by life! Surviving and general living.

Anyway - more later. It was a great day. Highly recommended next time this course comes around if you live in Queensland or if the other states offer this kind of thing, just to keep some kind of focus happening the whole year round!

Happy writing or reading whatever your thing may be!