Year of the Novel

There are still a few places left in QWC’s 2020 Year of the Novel, facilitated by award-winning, bestselling Brisbane author, Melissa Ashley. Writing a novel is an extraordinary goal and a potentially life-changing experience. This challenging undertaking offers so many personal rewards in the department of life challenges - new friends, commitment to goals, problem-solving and immersive thinking. Melissa believes that the essential key ingredient to success in completing a novel is to do it in company. The Year of the Novel offers the perfect opportunity to bring your cherished dream of writing a novel to fruition. Students participate in five, six-hour workshops, spaced across two-month intervals over the course of 2020, that step through each phase of designing, planning, drafting, structuring and editing your novel. 

Melissa draws upon her experience as an industry professional, inviting you to structure and shape your project with a view to attracting the interest of an agent or publisher from the outset of its conception. The course will provide students with exercises, facilitator critique, peer feedback, notes, readings and resources that cover all aspects of crafting a novel, including goal-setting, planning, writing-practice, character development and world-building, dialogue and effective imagery and scene-setting, re-drafting and structural and line-editing. Melissa’s industry experience means her advice and suggestions are practical and applicable in today’s competitive publishing market. She aims to assist students in producing key documents that can be used in pitches to agents and publishers. Melissa’s experience as a creative writing teacher enables her to assist students in identifying and articulating storytelling skills, resources and qualities that they already possess, honing and refining them to deliver a completed manuscript. Melissa is a friendly, passionate and open communicator who loves questions, queries and discussion. She will provide exercises, resources, and notes throughout the course, and strongly encourages student input.

Melissa Ashley has taught creative writing at university and writers' centres for more than a decade and holds a Masters’ Degree and PhD in Creative Writing (University of Queensland). Melissa’s first novel, The Birdman’s Wife, exploring the artistic career of 19th century bird illustrator Elizabeth Gould, won several awards, including the Queensland Literary Award for Best Fiction (2017). Her recently-released second novel, The Bee and the Orange Tree, centres on a scandal in the life of Marie Catherine d’Aulnoy, the 17th century French writer who published the very first fairy tale. Promoting this novel led to Melissa to one of the most exciting experiences of her literary career, discussing French fairy tale writers with her hero, Phillip Adams on ABC Radio National’s Late Night Live.