Botanic Garden Writers in Residence Workshops

As part of the 2022 SCWC x Wollongong Botanic Garden Writers Residencies, the four writers who were selected will each present a workshop in conjunction with their residency. The four selected writers - Rebekah Lambert, Karen Cummings, Elizabeth Walton and Katarina Mikac - are each running a workshop in their field of expertise across October and November of 2022, with a broad spectrum of writing styles and skills represented.

Nature Writing Workshops for Young People

SUNDAY 30 OCTOBER, 10.30am-2.30pm
COLEDALE COMMUNITY HALL

Take an eco-walk along Coledale Beach with local ecologist and nature writer Dr Katarina Mikac. During the walk we will immerse ourselves in the sights, sounds and smells of the coastal environment. In this workshop you will learn to observe the subtleties of nature and use your observations to write your own piece of nature themed micro-fiction. The workshop will involve a fieldtrip to the beach, followed by a detailed class on how to plan, structure and write micro-fiction stories based on the plants and/or animals you observe during the fieldtrip. 

This workshop will be run twice on the day, for two age groups:

10.30am-12pm: Ages 10-13
1.00pm-2:30pm: Ages 14-18

Translating Creativity Into Paying Your Way

SATURDAY 5 NOVEMBER, 3PM-5PM
COLEDALE COMMUNITY HALL

You might dream of the day where you can work from home as a creative for a living – but how green will the grass really be? Writer, freelancer and freelance advocate Rebekah Lambert takes you through an interactive test workshop in order to see how your creative freelancing dream might meet reality. In this special session, you’ll look at:

• Assessing the commercial value of your creative skills

• How to place a safety fence around your creative work

• The impact clients can have on your creative courage

• How to separate the commercial from the creative effectively

• The demands of freelance life

Dragon Tree Writing Workshop

SUNDAY 13 NOVEMBER, 10AM-11.30AM
CRATLOE COTTAGE, WOLLONGONG BOTANIC GARDEN

In this workshop participants will creatively explore Wollongong Botanic Garden's spectacular Dragon Tree. Working from the mythologies and origin stories of the Dragon Tree, Karen Cummings will take participants through exercises using sound, writing and drawing to respond to the tree and its stories, in embodied and creative ways.

Managing Complex Research for Writers

WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER, 6PM-8PM
WOLLONGONG LIBRARY

Research for writers: Managing complex research - A Case Study: How to manage three months of in depth multi-sourced research and condense it into a 900-word feature story that passes muster with the legal department. In this 2-hour workshop for writers, freelance writer Elizabeth Walton throws open her research process for writers of all genres, including how to manage that awkward call from the editor just when the team thought the story had been put to bed.

This masterclass is for writers of all levels- including university students- who are serious about managing their material. It shares methods for workflow and document management including:

• Managing notebooks – which notebook was that quote in?
• Finding information inside your computer files
• Linking points in research
• Finding source documents
• Finding urgent links
• Handling multimedia material from divergent sources including captions and photo credits
• Building the story with visual aides
• Brainstorming the story with visual aides
• Q&A