Writing at the Centre

Sunday, 5 March 2017

Irish Folklore: A workshop with Helen Hagemann, Friday 10th March

This workshop "Irish Folklore" is a brief study of Irish folklore and also a glimpse at an Irish writer, Peader O’Guilin, who recently attended the 2017 Perth Writers Festival. Friday, 10th March, 1pm-3pm. We will read a short story by Paeder O'Guilin called The Drowner. Writing exercises will look at the elements of folklore and how we gain inspiration for our characters and setting. For some writers folklore may be a stepping stone to fantasy or YA fiction.
Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 2.
Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save). Please note: No credit card facility and new attendees who arrive without the class fee will be asked to pay on the day via direct debit transfer.
For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com

Folklore includes all the human knowledge, customs, and beliefs that have been passed down through the oral tradition.' Obviously, the definition for folklore is a wider net than myth or legend. In the nineteenth century, W. J. Thomas coined the term 'folklore' for the term 'popular antiquities,' usually used to refer to the unrecorded traditions of a given group. By this understanding, folklore also encapsulates superstitions, customs, proverbs, riddles, and pseudoscientific lore. However, a more commonplace understanding of the term is that folklore is 'stories told by folks,' which generally indicates a level of popularity and informality, even entertainment.

Peader Ó Guilín is an Irish novelist. He grew up in Donegal though he went to school in Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare. He is now based in Dublin where he works for a computer company. Raised speaking Irish and English, Ó Guilín is also fluent in French, and Italian. He has written a number of stories and novels. His first novel, The Call, was published to critical acclaim in 2007 and translations into nine languages including Japanese and Korean. Before writing novels, Ó Guilín wrote a number of plays and worked on a weekly print comic with the artist Laura Howell, Sneaky, the Cleverest Elephant in the World, aimed at kids. The Times Educational Supplement called his first novel "a stark, dark tale, written with great energy and confidence and some arresting reflections on human nature." Paeder O'Guilin also writes Short Stories. He has been writing short stories all his life and has published them in all kinds of venues. If you have a kindle reader, you can find his collection, Forever in the Memory of God and Other Stories. Some of his stories have been turned into free podcasts. Heartless, The Sunshine Baron, The Drowner, and The Evil-Eater.

Wormholes in the Cupboard: A Workshop with Helen Hagemann

Wormholes in the Cupboard: Discovering a different past.

Have you ever wanted a different past? One that is more exciting that your own. This workshop on Friday, 24th February 1-3pm is about finding that wormhole in the cupboard, entering into that time warp and discovering that you have a completely different past to the one you know. Writers will read an excerpt from Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau (a debut novel). Writing exercises will help you look back in time when perhaps your father was a rock star, your mother was a Queen, or your uncle was a TV star?

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 2 or possibly the Print Room (enquire at the desk).

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save).
Please note: No credit card facility and new attendees who arrive without the class fee will be asked to pay on the day via direct debit transfer. For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com

Every Anxious Wave
by Monique Daviau
A high-spirited and engaging novel, Monique Daviau's EVERY ANXIOUS WAVE plays ball with the big questions of where we would go and who we would become if we could rewrite our pasts, as well as how to hold on to love across time.

Writing about Food, using the Five Senses with Helen Hagemann

Writing about Food, using the Five Senses with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 10th February, 1pm-3pm. This workshop is designed to help writers understand the importance of a three dimensional world in their writing. In particular, ways in which writing about the sensory world of food can highlight their fiction. We will read an extract from The Historian's Daughter by Rashida Murphy to discover how the author presents Indian food in the novel. Writing exercises will involve descriptive writing, character and setting all revolving around food.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 2.
Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad
Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save).
Please note: No credit card facility and new attendees who arrive without the class fee will be asked to pay on the day via direct debit transfer. For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com
The Historian's Daughter
In an old house with ‘too many windows and women’, high in the Indian hills, young Hannah lives with her older sister Gloria; her two older brothers; her mother – the Magician; a colourful assortment of aunts, blow-ins and misfits; and her father – the Historian. It is a world of secrets, jealousies and lies, ruled by the Historian but smoothed over by the Magician, whose kindnesses and wisdom bring homely comfort and all-enveloping love to a ramshackle building that seems destined for chaos.
And then one day the Magician is gone, Gloria is gone, and the Historian has spirited Hannah and her brothers away to a new and at first bewildering life in Perth. As Hannah grows and makes her own way through Australian life, an education and friendships, she begins to penetrate to the heart of one of the old house’s greatest secrets – and to the meaning of her own existence.

Spec Fic: Writing the Future with Helen Hagemann

Spec Fic: Writing the Future with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 25th November, 1pm-3pm. This workshop is designed to help writers think about ways in which we might look further ahead into the future and be slightly prophetic in our speculative fiction / sci-fi. We will read an extract from The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver set in the years 2029- 2047. Writing exercises will involve looking at some of the individual posibiblities that Shriver raises in her work. And being our last class of the year we may even discuss 2017 before it arrives!

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 3.

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver
The year is 2029, and nothing is as it should be. The very essence of American life, the dollar, is under attack. In a coordinated move by the rest of the world’s governments, the dollar loses all its value. The American President declares that the States will default on all its loans–prices skyrocket, currency becomes essentially worthless, and we watch one family struggle to survive through it all.

The Mandibles can count on their inheritance no longer, and each member must come to terms with this in their own way–from the elegant expat author Nollie, in her middle age, returning to the U.S. from Paris after many years abroad, to her precocious teenage nephew Willing, who is the only one to actually understand the crisis, to the brilliant Georgetown economics professor Lowell, who watches his whole vision of the world disintegrate before his eyes.

Split Narratives: Dividing the Narration of a Story with Helen Hagemann

Divided narrative in Gone Girl

Workshop: Split Narratives in Fiction with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 11th November, 1pm-3pm. This workshop will look at the choice writers can make by dividing their stories between two (or more) characters. The class is suitable for the novelist and also the short story writer. Writing exercises will revolve around telling one story, but from the different perspectives of two characters.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 3.

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save).
Please note: No credit card facility and new attendees who arrive without the class fee will be asked to pay on the day via direct debit transfer. For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com

A split narrative allows both sides of a story to be told: particularly handy if the author is seeking to explore issues like the lies we tell ourselves (and others), or the ways in which events are inevitably filtered through our experiences, our pasts, our moods. Gone Girl does this by splitting the narrative between Nick and Amy, two partners in a strained marriage.
Reference: http://www.aliventures.com/split-narratives/

Workshop: Writing Narrative Puzzles with Helen Hagemann

Workshop: Writing Narrative Puzzles with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 28th October, 1pm-3pm. This workshop will look at the process of writing narrative puzzles that are used mainly in games, however from the writer's point of view the practice is essentially the same as plotting your fiction. Writing exercises will prompt writers to solve the various puzzles in their writing.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 3.

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

An OOTA Prose Workshop with Marlish Glorie

A workshop on Setting, Character and Plot with Marlish Glorie Friday 14th October 1.00 - 3.00 p.m.*

Setting, characters, and plot are the three support legs stories are built on.
A novel needs all three legs to be strong and steady. My workshop will be focusing on writing exercises to develop participants’ skill at writing stories that establish setting, while concurrently revealing character and plot.

Tutor Biography
Marlish Glorie is a novelist and playwright. She has had two published novels, The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street and Sea Dog Hotel, and is currently working on her third. A number of her plays have also been produced. She is a popular teacher of creative writing and mentors young and emerging novelists.

*Marlish would love to see you all there! Fremantle Arts Centre, Uptairs Room 3. Class fees OOTA $20/ NON OOTA $25*

No class means I'll be bored!

Dear Writers
While I'm away on leave, please note the following classes and dates for Writing at the Centre and for reasons beyond our control the Fremantle Arts Centre do not have a room for us during the Sep/Oct holidays.

*SEPTEMBER*
Friday 30th Class XXLD - School holidays - no room available
*OCTOBER*
Prose Friday 14th 1pm-3pm with Marlish Glorie
Prose Friday 28th 1pm-3pm with Helen Hagemann

*A workshop on Setting, Character and Plot with Marlish Glorie Friday 14th
October 1.00p.m.-3.00 p.m.*

Setting, characters, and plot are the three support legs stories are built
on.

A novel needs all three legs to be strong and steady. My workshop will be
focusing on writing exercises to develop participants’ skill at writing
stories that establish setting, while concurrently revealing character and
plot.

Tutor Biography

Marlish Glorie is a novelist and playwright. She has had two published
novels, The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street and Sea Dog Hotel, and is
currently working on her third. A number of her plays have also been
produced. She is a popular teacher of creative writing and mentors young
and emerging novelists.

The Short Story Revision Workshop 5: with Helen Hagemann - Freytag's Pyramid

The Short Story Revision Workshop 5 with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 16th September, 1pm-3pm. This workshop will review Freytag's Pyramid as a model for the short story and it's plot. This is the last in the series, so we will read the short story The Swimmer by John Cheever: a story that moves away from the conventional yet adds something interesting, bizarre and quirky. Writing exercises will help the writer experiment with non-traditional forms of the short story.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 3.

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

Cost: OOTA $20 - NON-OOTA $25 (ask for membership form to save). Please note: No credit card facility and new attendees who arrive without the class fee will be asked to leave. For information on joining OOTA and what we do, please visit our website http://ootawriters.com

Analyzing a story's plot: Freytag's Pyramid
Gustav Freytag was a Nineteenth Century German novelist who saw common patterns in the plots of stories and novels and developed a diagram to analyze them. He diagrammed a story's plot using a pyramid like the one shown here:		Freytag's Pyramid 1. Exposition: setting the scene. The writer introduces the characters and setting, providing description and background. 2. Inciting Incident: something happens to begin the action. A single event usually signals the beginning of the main conflict. The inciting incident is sometimes called 'the complication'. 3. Rising Action: the story builds and gets more exciting. 4. Climax: the moment of greatest tension in a story. This is often the most exciting event. It is the event that the rising action builds up to and that the falling action follows. 5. Falling Action: events happen as a result of the climax and we know that the story will soon end. 6. Resolution: the character solves the main problem/conflict or someone solves it for him or her. 7. Dénouement: (a French term, pronounced: day-noo-moh) the ending. At this point, any remaining secrets, questions or mysteries which remain after the resolution are solved by the characters or explained by the author. Sometimes the author leaves us to think about the THEME or future possibilities for the characters. You can think of the dénouement as the opposite of the exposition: instead of getting ready to tell us the story by introducing the setting and characters, the author is getting ready to end it with a final explanation of what actually happened and how the characters think or feel about it. This can be the most difficult part of the plot to identify, as it is often very closely tied to the resolution.
Adapted from http://users.aber.ac.uk/jpm/ellsa/ellsa_openboat3.html

The Short Story Revision Workshop 4 with Helen Hagemann

The Short Story Revision Workshop 4 with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 2nd September, 1pm-3pm. This workshop will look at writing the short story without a plot. We will read an extract of Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin: a short story that is not plot-driven, yet relies on the reader's ability to take in the narrative constructed in this way. Writing exercises will help the writer construct a narrative arc; one that creates meaning, yet also emphasizes and amplifies the story.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre, Upstairs Room 3.

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

The Short Story Revision Workshop 3 with Helen Hagemann

The Short Story Revision Workshop 3 with Helen Hagemann @ the Fremantle Arts Centre, Friday, 19th August, 1pm-3pm. This workshop will look at the process of short story writing from creating the best hook for the beginning, your plot middle and the final resolution. We will brainstorm your work to help you enter either one, two or three stories in lieu of the upcoming competition. ie. Flash/Micro/Short Short Fiction to the Long Short Story. The OOTA Spilt Ink Competition 2016 closes on 31st August. This workshop will especially concentrate on entering a point of history and also binaries into your stories to add to the drama.

Venue: Fremantle Arts Centre,

Time: 1-3pm. What to bring: Notepad, pen, laptop or iPad

Writing at the Centre

Sunday, 5 March 2017

Irish Folklore: A workshop with Helen Hagemann, Friday 10th March

Thursday, 16 February 2017

Wormholes in the Cupboard: A Workshop with Helen Hagemann

Thursday, 26 January 2017

Writing about Food, using the Five Senses with Helen Hagemann

Thursday, 17 November 2016

Spec Fic: Writing the Future with Helen Hagemann

Saturday, 5 November 2016

Split Narratives: Dividing the Narration of a Story with Helen Hagemann

Monday, 24 October 2016

Workshop: Writing Narrative Puzzles with Helen Hagemann

Sunday, 18 September 2016

An OOTA Prose Workshop with Marlish Glorie