The Writer's Toolkit

Stuff you need to know
Three full day craft workshops over two weekends with Tony Maniaty for non-fiction, Ariella Van Luyn for Fiction and Linda Nix for Editing.
The Writer's Toolkit focusses on a complete preparation for writers, from crafting great work to understanding the whole editing process and learning how to successfully self edit.
About the workshops...
Non-Fiction with Tony Maniaty
2nd of March

Non-fiction immersion writing covers life stories (autobiography), personal memoir, travel writing, sometimes highly-engaged journalism. It’s where you, the narrator, are the story, or you’re a significant character within the story. The ‘self’ transposed to other worlds (often beyond the writer’s comfort zone) is central to whatever unfolds on the page.
The possible subjects are endless — but they all require up-close and personal writing, a strong voice inside the narrative rather than detached and ‘observational’ writing from the outside looking in. To become a good immersion writer, you need to be prepared to talk and write openly about yourself – your thoughts, feelings, emotions, reactions, doubts, your anger and compassion, your strengths and weaknesses. This can seem daunting at first, but immersion writing is a journey of both learning and experience, like life itself. 
For many, it's an ongoing lesson in discovering who you really are.
This workshop has four primary objectives:
1.     A solid understanding of immersion memoir writing and how it differs from more conventional non-fiction forms.
2.     A look at practical skills specific to immersion memoir writing, drawn from published examples and workshop exercises.
3.     Considering the personal and moral implications of ‘letting it bleed fully’ in the spotlight of a globalized social/media world.
4.     Routes to getting your immersion writing published, models for written proposals, locating the ‘best texts’ of the genre.
Improve your writing through editing with Linda Nix
9th of March

This full day workshop will cover:
  • Different levels of editing: what they are (manuscript assessment, structural editing, copy or line editing, proofreading) and when they are needed
  • Editing your own work: what you can do yourself vs when to seek help from others
  • Sources of editorial feedback: professional editors, mentors, writers’ groups
  • Engaging a professional editor: how to find one, preparing a brief, budgets, and working with the editor
  • Editing tools & tips for writers – eg stylesheets
Participants should bring a short piece of unpublished writing with them eg. a short story or chapter of around 2000–3000 words.
When: 2nd, 3rd and 9th of March
             10am-4pm
Where: The Wicklow Hotel
               87 Marsh St
               Armidale
Tickets:
Full package: $210 for NEWC Members, $240 for non-members
Two sessions: $140 for NEWC members, $170 for non-members
Individual workshops: $80 for NEWC members, $95 for non-members
Click HERE to book the full package
Click HERE to book individual or two sessions
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 Tony is a lifetime communicator, working in fiction, non-fiction, journalism, and screenwriting. Based in Sydney, he worked for many years as a foreign correspondent and as Executive Producer of the ABC’s ‘7.30 Report’, and has published four books with Penguin. His novel ‘Smyrna’ was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, and his memoir of reporting the conflict in East Timor, ‘Shooting Balibo’, was described as ‘a brave and complex achievement’ by David Malouf, and by Helen Garner as ‘a real coup’. Tony was Associate Professor of Creative Practices at UTS, and is currently working on a novel based on refugee stories, ‘The House Before the World’.