Start to Write - Faber Academy

auckland online

auckland online

Start to Write

w/ Ruby Porter

Have you always wanted to write fiction? Everyone needs to start somewhere, and Start to Write is the course designed to get you across the basics, as you begin to generate ideas and get your very first words down on the page.

Tuesdays 6.30 pm – 8.30 pm (NZST), 7 – 21 May 2024

Online

Autumn sale price: AU$125
(Normally: AU$175)

This is a past course.

Over three weekly evening sessions, you’ll get the hands-on teaching you need to start writing fiction, from acclaimed novelist Ruby Porter. Working with Ruby and your fellow classmates you will:

Discover the tools you need to start writing.
Overcome common problems shared by emerging writers.
Understand some of the key fundamentals of writing fiction.
Meet other aspiring writers starting out in a welcoming, supportive online classroom.

This course is designed to help you foster ideas, play with structure and techniques, and to get your words going – plus, practical advice on ‘where to next’. Interactivity is encouraged throughout, and there will be space for questions and answers during each session.

Your course includes:

A complimentary copy of a recent A&U publication
On completion of the course, alumni discounts on future Faber Writing Academy courses and books from the Allen & Unwin website.

Please note this course will be delivered online and all times refer to New Zealand Standard Time (NZST). Students from both New Zealand and Australia are welcome to enrol.

Writers you'll be working with:

Ruby Porter

Ruby Porter is a writer, artist and PhD candidate. She tutors creative writing at universities, for festivals, and in high schools. Ruby was the winner of the Wallace Foundation Short Fiction Award in 2017, and the inaugural winner of the Michael Gifkins Prize in 2018, with her debut novel Attraction, published in 2019 by Melbourne-based…

Course outline

Session 1: May 7 2024
Point of View: This workshop will cover everything you never knew about point of view. It will teach you how to get deep inside your protagonist’s perspective, and give nuts and bolts advice about the use of first, second and third person.

Session 2: May 14 2024
Character and Setting: This workshop will examine how to develop your characters and your settings, in terms of both time and place. It’ll move you away from tired details and clichés, and into descriptions which are fresh and vivid. It will offer ways of making your language more concrete, more specific, and more evocative.

Session 3: May 21 2024
Narrative Structure and Revision: This workshop will encompass both narrative structure and revision. It will explore the drivers of fiction: conflict and desire. We’ll also consider emotional arcs and dramatic arcs, emotional and dramatic moments, pacing, scene structure, and good editing practices.

How to Book

This is a past course.