Planning With Purpose
So, you’ve got this great idea and you’re certain that it deserves to become a novel – but now what?
What do we need to consider and know before we start writing? How does planning work and how much should there be? What are the big decisions that need to be made? And how will our responses to these decisions contribute to the creation of both the story and the narrative voice?
In this practical and stimulating workshop, award-winning novelist Richard Yaxley will focus on the many options that are available to writers of fiction. Participants will be exposed to a range of exercises designed to make them consider key developmental phases in the construction of a longer narrative work, and analyse narrative excerpts in order to unlock the secrets of voice-creation in these stories.
Please note that these are self-contained workshop exercises: it is not necessary to have ‘an idea for a novel’ already in place.
Learning Outcomes
Develop a better understanding of planning processes
Make links between the pre-writing and writing phases
Consider the significance of character development
Examine options for different ways of telling the same story
Analyse existing narratives so as to better understand the production of voice
Format
This is an in-person workshop at Queensland Writers Centre with a focus on craft. It is a level 1 course suitable for beginners who would like to write extended fiction.
About Richard:
Richard Yaxley has written seven novels for adult and young adult audiences. He is a past winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature, the ACU Book of the Year Award and the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction and is a former recipient of a Fellowship from the May Gibbs Literature Trust. Richard has a background in secondary school teaching, as well as Masters Degrees in Cultural Studies and Human Rights.
Recent publications include Harmony (2021), A New Kind of Everything (2020), The Happiness Quest (2018); This Is My Song (2017); Joyous and Moonbeam (2013).