Melbourne Girls' College

MGC Writers' Festival

Author Workshops

“I’m allowed to have voices inside my head, it’s my job”- Michael Pryor

On Wednesday and Thursday of Week 5, MGC had two Australian authors come and talk to students about how to write a book and then, how to publish it. These two authors, Michael Pryor and Ellie Marney, are renowned across Australia for their books and successful careers!

 

On Wednesday the 16th of May, Michael showed MGC the magic to his fantasy-writing job by introducing students to the secrets behind his successful career. Although he is 61, he is still in love with fantasy writing and claims that he has ‘the best job in the world’. He wanted to be a writer from a young age and always knew he was destined to write what he loved to read the most, fantasy.  Michael has published everything from plays to poems, and has also written 56 short stories, 38 novels and 1 book that catches fire when opened, and diminishes when closed.        

That sounds like a LOT of writing to do, doesn’t it? Well what makes it even more impressive is that Michael is self-taught. He said himself, “most writers teach themselves through trial and error.” What Michael learned through that process of “trial and error” was that to avoid writer’s block, you need to create a map of your fantasy world. We learned that, (1) creating new things on the map will sprout ideas in your brain for future writing reference and (2) your map gives you a solid plan of how to describe your characters’ whereabouts. It is such a crucial part of writing a story that Michael said one of his author friends spent 5 YEARS on his map before starting to write his book. This map ended up being 2 metres in length, and 1 metre in width! Another way to produce ideas is to name things first. You can name things after, geographical locations, famous people, important objects or ideas produced from your imagination. Thank you Michael, for visiting Melbourne Girls College. We hope to see you again next year!

 

“When you utilise your own feelings and memories, it is sometimes the best piece you will ever write”- Ellie Marney

Ellie Marney is the famous Australian crime author of the “Every series”, the 8th most borrowed YA (Young Adult) book in Australia. On Thursday 17th May, MGC was fortunate enough to have her come and talk about her career in the writing business as part of the Writers Festival, Authors Workshops. On the day of her workshop, Ellie explained to the students participating in her workshop, not only how to start a good book, but how to start a career in writing. If you want to start a career in writing, use the following 5 steps to help you:

  1. Before you write a book, you need to have a detailed character biography. Ellie commented that she Googled some questionnaires and scrolled through Pinterest before figuring out what her character biographies needed to contain to be useful
  2. Inspiration for a story. You can use external sources such as articles, music, images, books, eavesdropping or boredom. Ellie highly recommends using boredom. “Boredom is a really great way of getting inspiration”, she exclaimed! Or you can use your internal sources, your imagination, your dreams (night and day) as well as images or something else that only you can see
  3. Write a book about the inspiration you receive and include all the information from your character biography in it
  4. Win a writing competition to get wider recognition and publicity
  5. Bring your book to a publishing company or self publish your book into the world. Self-publishing has become popular and soon may overtake traditional publishing. Therefore, self-publishing is a great way to get your book out there.

Thankyou Michael and Ellie for visiting MGC, we hope that you come back next year to teach us more about your amazing styles of writing!

 

If you are interested in reading any of Michael or Ellie’s books, they have each written one short story in the #LoveOzYA Anthology available at the MGC Library.

 

By Jess Edbrooke, Year 7

Writers’ Festival Evening

 

On Friday, the 11th of May in celebration of the new library’s official opening, parents, students, teachers and member of the Melbourne Girls’ College community came to support the creative talents of MGC.

 

The evening started with the amazing musical talents of Layla Tse, Imogen Meskauska, Ava Morison, Madeline Coronica and Jaeda McPherson who performed songs and played instruments to entertain us. We were also treated to a delicious range of finger foods prepared and served by Year 10 Food Technology students.  

 

Once everyone was seated, our school captains, Claudia Junge and Ky Luong, and Principal, Karen Money, gave a welcoming speech and a short introduction to the night. 

Throughout the previous year, MGC students submitted some writing pieces, poems, art, and designs, which were put into Melbourne Girls’ College Creative Anthology. Three students read their writing to the audience. Lucy Xu, a Year 12 student read her poem “Home”, Claudia van Vliet, a Year 9 student read her poem “The Rain” and Claudia Mountjouris, also in Year 9, read her short story, “What a Shame”. Following the reading, the Melbourne Girl’s College skilled debate team performed a debate on “The Death of Journalism”.

 

 

Then our special guest speaker, Jessica Watson, shared her story. Jessica Watson sailed the world at only 16 years of age. She was named Young Australian of the year in 2011 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. Jessica Watson told us about how she got into sailing, how she prepared for her voyage, her journey around the world and what life was like when she returned. Jessica Watson also spoke about her new book, “Indigo Blue”, which was published earlier in the year. The evening concluded with in an informative and inspiring Q&A with Jessica Watson. 

 

 

Thank you to all the staff and students who contributed to the Writers Festival. Thank you to the music students who performed, the school captains, the debate club, the students who shared their Anthology pieces, and of course the Writers’ Festival Student Ambassadors Laura Wilcox, Imogen Leigh, Claudia van Vliet and Jo Vosos. Thank you especially to Lisa Rosos, Shaunagh O’Connell, Sylvan Dorney, Paul Carter, Emma McCowan and Louise Excell for their tireless, hard work to make the evening possible. Thank you to Ashley O’Brien, Lenore Twist and the marvellous year 10 Food Technology students, Anne Corry and her fantastic performers, the one and only Jessica Watson for talking to us, and the various other authors who came and ran Masterclasses during the week. Also, a special thank you to Ms. Karen Money and the Parents Association for providing the funds to make this all possible! 

 

 

 

Claudia van Vliet, Imogen Leigh and Laura Wilcox

Writers’ Festival Ambassadors