UWA Extension

What is women’s fiction and what makes it ‘work’? In this interactive workshop Liz Byrski will examine the combination of elements that create engaging fiction for and about women. Work out just what your story is about and take the journey from the seed of that idea to a story line and the characters and events through which the it can be told. You’ll explore character development, setting, narrative voice, pace, dialogue and the crucial balance of scene and summary. This workshop ... [More]

How do you begin to write about your experiences, your past and your memories? This course will cover all forms of life-writing including memoir, family history, the personal essay, blogging and more. Everyone’s life contains enough excitement, emotion and adventure to form the basis of a wonderful story. Writing your life story can be a way to preserve memories for your family. But it can also be so much more. Whether you’re interested in writing a comprehensive record of your life... [More]

Completing the first draft of your manuscript – whether for a novel, short story, non-fiction book or magazine article – is a major achievement. Yet this is only the first step in a long journey to getting published. In this course you will learn the step-by-step process including market research, finding an agent, approaching publishing houses, and the pros and cons of self-publishing. Your first draft is only the beginning. Now comes the rewriting, and yet more rewriting; then the... [More]

Nowadays much of our communication takes place via email. Every email you send reflects on both you and the organisation you may be representing. This workshop will show you how to write emails that get action and, at the same time, build trust and rapport. If you deal with clients via email (and these days who doesn’t) this workshop is a must. Email has changed our life for the better in many ways. It’s an invaluable tool for doing business – many of our communications now take pla... [More]

This course is designed for those who have either finished or are well into the process of writing a draft of a short piece of life-writing or a chapter of a longer piece. It is not necessary for you to have completed the UWA Extension course ‘Life Writing: turning your life into a story’ but it is important that you have about 2500 words that you can bring along to this course for workshopping and redrafting. OUTLINE The morning session will focus on the importance of structure, na... [More]

This is a course for anyone who wants to begin writing or who has started and got stuck. We will work with simple exercises that will take you off your intellectual guard, bypass the inner critic and bring your writing into flow. Central to our work will be the recovery of the artistic imagination as a creative source for the writer. The imagination is born in stages during childhood and youth. If these stages are missed, creativity remains stunted. In this workshop we will re-enact... [More]

Whether you’ve read a few blogs or never heard of one, this course will get you blogging. Find out how to write and manage a blog, what to include, who your audience is, and how you can even make money from blogging. Participants will have the opportunity to start their own blog. For beginner bloggers, the process of starting up a blog can seem daunting, but this course will show you how and get you off on the right foot, all in just one day. Learn about how to set up your blog, how... [More]

This is an online course. To find out how our online courses work, please click here. From Harry Potter to Twilight, young adult fiction is one of the hottest genres for today’s novels. Teens and adults alike have discovered the excitement and passion of these stories, and publishers are hungry for more. If you’re eager to break into this market, this course provides you with the recipe for creating your own successful young adult story and shows you how to get it published. First, ... [More]

Narrative structure is about choices and about writing your novel, short story or script in scenes. The choices hinge not only on the integration of the story and the plot (which are subtly different) and the voice and point of view of your characters, but also on the sequence of the scenes. In other words, do you start your narrative at the beginning, the middle or the end? Or even after the dénouement? The choices you make about your characters and your story’s sequence, as well a... [More]

Dialogue should leap off the page. In novels, short stories, scripts and screenplays it must move the story forward, reveal character and provide essential exposition. Yet it must also be dramatic and believable. All of which is a hard ask. How to reconcile these apparently incompatible necessities is the subject of this dynamic and interactive workshop presented by John Harman. A story is a completed process of change which has the ability to move readers' feelings powerfully and p... [More]