Once a week on a Tuesday our writer’s group gathered at Avid Reader bookshop in West End. We’d filter in, browsing at books as we went. We’d greet each other amidst that stunned transition from day job to evening creative workshop, from computer to the real world.
We’d walk past dozens of books by published authors without so much as a skerrick of formal writing training so what made us think we could learn our way to joining their ranks?
It is a perennial question: can writing be taught?
The Fabulous Faberinos. The 2023 Faber Academy Writing a Novel Course, Brisbane.
After completing the Faber Academy Writing a Novel Course with tutors Emily O’Grady and Kristina Olsson in Brisbane recently my answer to the question is yes, absolutely.
Writing is such a solitary business and gauging the worth of your own work is notoriously difficult. Identifying lack or overreach and what should be done to improve it is mind-bendingly hard at times. It can feel like there’s a key to the door but it’s out of your reach.
Our group’s writing was as diverse as the second-hand book stall at a primary school fete—from auto fiction and upmarket ‘women’s bookclub fiction’ to a six-book series about serial killers.
I was one of several historical fiction writers and three or four writers were exploring the important issues of intergenerational trauma, mental health and homelessness. There was a creative mash up of The Weekend meets political thriller and others were traversing the muddy paths of magic realism. If you’re looking for tale about why good people do bad things or if spec fiction titled Psychosis in Utopia appeals, keep an eye on these writers.
Here was a group of talented writers and superbly decent humans that I probably wouldn’t have met if we weren’t gathered around that table every week. The diversity bred great debates.
As promised, our accomplished tutors took us through ‘essential concepts such as narrative structure, character development, narration, voice, plotting, scene setting and more’.
They brought readings that challenged the way we looked at story. They led discussions that brought theory to practice.
Each week we critiqued each other’s work and asked questions to understand character motivation, setting, plot and themes. We stretched our reader’s minds as well as our writerly intellects.
By the end of the eight-month course we watched writing go from rough to polished, from sketch-on-a-page to powerful depiction.
We learned how to learn about writing. What a gift.