Paradise Courses » Writing

Travel Writing : Heather Hapeta : August 2010

jo — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:17:00 +0000

7 – 14 August, 2010

Earlybird discount: NZ$500 off if booked by May 8

The course
They pay you to do what? Like travelling? Like writing?
This travel writing course is run by the redoubtable kiwitravelwriter, well-known in New Zealand and expanding her readership rapidly. Her suggestion is compelling:

“Take a vacation-with-a-purpose, learn travel-writing, and then get paid to travel! Combine your writing and travel passions so you can earn money for even more travels by learning to write terrific stories at this travel writing workshop – and wonderfully, where all the topics we need will be right on our doorstep for us to experience – I believe authentic, ethical travel writers never write about things they haven’t done or seen.”

And of course you can also use the same skills for creating a setting in a novel, or short story, and to greatly improve your blogs, letters, and emails.

Topics will include (but not only):

How to write specifically for various publications
Know your market
What works – what doesn’t?
Where to sell your stories – locally and internationally
Finding your own style and the secrets of style
Use your senses; quotes; fact files
Query letters and the taxman
Considering other markets
Photography and travel writing: along with exercises, daily expeditions, and lots of talking in-between.

By your last day you should have a perfectly formed (critiqued) article ready to pitch to an editor.

Course requirements: enthusiasm and curiosity are essential.

Add notebooks and pencils; a camera; perhaps your laptop or an audio cassette – and, as we are on a Pacific island – sunscreen and swimming costumes are highly recommended!

The teacher
Who is the kiwitravelwriter?

Heather Hapeta is from Christchurch, New Zealand;
She’s a late developer who got her first passport in her forties and has made up for lost time ever since, and calls herself the passionate nomad.
During her colourful life, Heather has reinvented herself a few times: worked in real estate; been a model; a waitress on a Malaysian beach; an alcohol and drug counsellor; suicide bereavement counsellor, and once managed a cattle farm for three months.
Heather now follows a childhood dream of writing and has published ‘Naked in Budapest: travels with a passionate nomad’ which tells of her solo adventures after running away from home on her fiftieth birthday
In addition, she has many (300+) travel related pieces published world wide: magazines, newspapers and in-flight magazines.
With this successful writing background she also tutors travel writing, and is a sought after motivational speaker on travel and life related topics
She held her first photographic exhibition (“Searching for Buddha” at Christchurch Arts Centre – Cloisters Gallery) in May 2009.

See more on her website: www.kiwitravelwriter.com
Follow her on twitter: twitter.com/kiwitravwriter
She blogs here: kiwitravelwriter.wordpress.com

Programme

Day 1: Saturday 7 August
Arrive: welcome ceremony and dinner.

Day 2: Sunday 8 August
9.30am – 12.30pm: Workshop – Introduction; discussion on interests etc; planning projects.
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm: Coconut demonstration
6.00pm – 7.00pm: Reading and feedback (Daily/optional)
7:00pm: Dinner

Day 3: Monday 9 August
9.30am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
Afternoon: visit to Savusavu town
4.00pm: Tapa making demonstration at Daku
6.00pm – 7.00pm: Reading and feedback
7:00pm: Dinner

Day 4: Tuesday 10 August
9.30am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 4.00pm: Beach / boat outing
6.00pm – 7.00pm: Reading and feedback
7:00pm: Dinner

Day 5: Wednesday 11 August
9.30am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
Afternoon: free
6.00pm – 7.00pm: Reading and feedback
7:00pm: Dinner

Day 6: Thursday 12 August
9.30am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
Afternoon free for writing and own research trip
5.00pm – 6.00pm: Reading and feedback
6.30pm: Drinks at Savusavu Yacht Club and dinner in town

Day 7: Friday 13 August
9.30am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
Afternoon free: Tutor appointments if required for one-on-one discussion.
4.30pm – 5.30pm: Village visit and meke (traditional dance)
Final dinner and readings and celebratory drinks

Day 8: Saturday 14 August
Return home.

Manuscript Mentoring : Rosie Scott : August 2010

jo — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:58:51 +0000

21 – 28 August, 2010

The course
Working on your manuscript with a mentor can make a profound change to your attitude to your writing. It allows you to step back and establish the perspective you need to develop it further. This writing holiday course combines classes with workshopping and one-on-one mentoring. As you analyse and discuss both your own and everyone else’s writing it will give you a dynamic new understanding of how you can shape your work.

Rosie Scott’s course will be limited to 8 people, and she will ask everyone to have at least the beginnings of a manuscript or an idea for one – a couple of chapters of a novel, or two short stories you have written or are working on.

Testimonials from writers who have been mentored by Rosie:

Anne Deveson, writer and broadcaster: I was already a successful author of non-fiction books and articles when – with much trepidation – I decided to venture into fiction. My time with Rosie is still memorable. She helped me breathe life into characters, create tension and stillness, write about the
unsaid as well as the said. She is a beautifully intelligent writer who gives generously to those lucky enough to gain her help. Rosie weaves spells with words.

Georgia Blain, writer: Rosie Scott is a rare teacher and mentor. She knows how to listen, ask the right questions and advise – all without imposing her own ideas on your work. For me, this was the perfect way to learn, find my own solutions and become a better writer.

Roslyn Arnold. Honorary Professor of Education, Universities of Sydney and Tasmania: Rosie Scott is a brilliant mentor. She is wise, empathic and gently constructive. She can read your silences and help you to make them audible. Once she has responded to your work, her voice lives in your head as you spin out your words. It is as if she hovers at your shoulder- a bit like a guardian angel really.

Lynne Talmont: I have recently been awarded a Varuna fellowship, one of three writers selected by Pan MacMillan. Without Rosie’s advice and support I’m not sure I could have achieved this milestone. I owe her a great debt of thanks and would encourage other writers to take on board what she has to say. It will pay off!

Before the course you can send her a hard copy of the writing you want to work on – the earlier the better. If it is an entire novel she will need it a month or so before the course starts. Shorter extracts of your writing can also be emailed around the class beforehand (with your permission) to make the most of the workshopping process. If you have nothing in writing but lots of ideas in your head this workshop will help you to get the confidence and the inspiration to start getting your ideas down on paper.

Rosie is aiming at those people who want to write and have started the process, but need the confidence to get their work into shape. Her approach is inclusive and individually focussed. She eschews any hard and fast rules about writing fiction, and concentrates on inspiring and liberating people to find their own voice, and to discover what works specifically for them. She focuses on affirmation and truthful feedback: What works? Why? What doesn’t work? Why not? And how can it be fixed so that it does?

The programme follows a schedule of morning workshops. They will start with writing exercises and general discussion, and then go on to an intensive workshopping of your writing – and before the course, she’ll ask you to send her the writing you want to have workshopped. This will be a very freeing process: some students initially find it a bit difficult, but always come to value it for the connection it gives to their audience, and the acceleration of learning across all aspects of the craft.

In the afternoons she will give every student a one-on-one mentoring session when she will get to grips with the structure and pace of your work and help guide you onto the next step.

The afternoons will otherwise be free for more writing, activities – or just relaxing and enjoying the resort facilities: have a spa massage, go snorkelling, or lie by the pool and read.

Teacher Rosie Scott is an internationally published, award-winning novelist, playwright, short story writer, teacher, script editor and poet. Her latest book Faith Singer was included in an international list of 50 Greatest reads by Living Writers set up by The UK Guardian, Orange Prize Committee and Hay Festival. She is an experienced and highly successful mentor: Georgia Blain said she couldn’t have written her best selling novel Closed for Winter without her (Closed for Winter was also recently made into a feature film starring Natalie Imbruglia). She teaches creative writing at UTS.

Born in Wellington, New Zealand, her degrees include BA, M.A. Honours in English, a graduate Diploma of Drama, a Graduate Diploma of Counselling (with outstanding student citation) and a Doctorate of Creative Arts.

Rosie’s novels have been shortlisted for most Australian and New Zealand national awards. Her award winning play was the basis for a feature film which won awards in Japan and France, and her short stories have been anthologised widely nationally and internationally.

She has mentored numerous young writers for the Australian Society of Authors and many books both professionally and for writer friends and family including Bella Vendramini’s best-selling Biting the Big Apple, Anne’s Deveson’s Lines in the Sand and Resilience. She has also taught writing to high-security violent inmates at Long Bay gaol for several years and written for the Sydney Morning Herald as a critic.

Travel Writing : Bill Goodwin : September 2010

jo — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:17:13 +0000

12 – 19 September, 2010

There is no better way to learn travel writing than on a trip. After learning what makes a good travel writer and good travel writing during morning workshops, you will be free each afternoon to explore Savusavu in search of ideas and stories about the geography, culture, sociology, anthropology, religion, cuisine, language, history, and all other aspects of this fascinating area.

The morning sessions also will focus on the practicalities of travel writing, such as how to get started, how to research a destination before going, what to look or while you are there, how to develop “slants” for your articles, and how to pitch your ideas to editors, both in print and on the Worldwide Web.

During the morning sessions and at the end of each day you can read your writings and get feedback both from Bill and from your fellow classmates over drinks. You can present your major article on the final day for review and critique.

Bill Goodwin has been a traveler and a writer all his adult life. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he won three American national collegiate news writing awards and was inducted into Kappa Tau Alpha journalism honorary society.

After graduation he traveled widely in the Far East as an officer in the U.S. navy. He later received awards for his news reporting for the Atlanta (Georgia) Journal, which dispatched him to Washington, D.C., as a political correspondent covering the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court. While there he earned a law degree at The George Washington University and served as a writer and attorney on the staffs of two United States Senators.

In mid-life Bill and a friend sailed a yacht from the east coast of the U.S. to Tahiti, where he disembarked and proceeded to travel for 18 months in the South Pacific islands, New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asia. His newspaper and magazine articles about those travels led to a contract to write the first edition of Frommer’s South Pacific, which he wrote in 1986 and has updated every two years since. Frommer’s Fiji and Frommer’s Tahiti & French Polynesia sprang from that book.

In addition he is the author of Frommer’s Virginia and for several years was co-author of Frommer’s Florida. He has edited several other Frommer’s guidebooks, and he compiled the first edition of Frommer’s USA.

His articles have appeared in Australian Seacraft, Pacific Islands Monthly, Sail, Motor Boating & Sailing, Sailor’s Gazette, Islands, International Living, The Miami Hearld, the Baltimore Sun, The Washington Post, and Destination Discovery (the programming magazine of The Discovery Channel).

He is a member of the Authors Guild (the leading association of published authors in the United States), American Independent Writers, and the Freelancers Union.
(www.billgoodwin.com )

Itinerary at a Glance
The course runs for 6 days, and includes both workshops and visits to local places of interest. We may alter the programme during the week depending on weather / local opportunities / group interests.

Sunday 12 September
Fly to Nadi and on to Savusavu. Drinks and welcome.

Monday 13 September
9:30am -11:30am: Introduction to the realities and myths of the travel writing life. What makes good travel writing. How to get started. Resources available. Finding your niche.
Afternoon: Free time.
4pm: Tapa demonstration
6pm – 7pm: Drinks, reading and feedback
7pm: Dinner

Tuesday 14 September
9:30am -11:30am: Care and feeding of editors: Finding out who they are, what they want, and how to give it to them. Understanding the markets. Developing article ideas and a fresh point of view. Story ideas in Savusavu.
Afternoon: Visit to Savusavu town and J. Hunter Pearls
6pm – 7pm: Drinks, reading and feedback
7pm: Dinner

Wednesday 15 September
9:30am -11:30am: Writing the article: This is not a diary of your trip!
Afternoon: Beach trip or alternative activity such as waterfall hike.
6pm – 7pm: Drinks, reading and feedback
7pm: Dinner

Thursday 16 September
9:30am -11:30am: The business side of the business. Do they really pay you to travel? How to survive when they do not.
Afternoon: Visit school for disabled children in Yaroi village.
4pm Visit to Fijian village for meke (traditional dance)
6pm – 7pm: Reading and feedback
7pm: Diner

Friday 17 September
9:30am -11:30am: The “long form” of travel writing: Breaking into guidebooks and travelogues. Self-publishing if necessary.
Afternoon: Beach outing
6pm: Drinks at Savusavu Yacht Club and dinner
7pm: Dinner

Saturday 18 September
9:30am -11:30am: Reviewing, critiquing and rewriting: A chance to review and refine your article.
Afternoon at leisure.
7pm: Final dinner and farewell ceremony.

Sunday 19 September
Depart Savusavu and Fiji

A Dream With a Pen in its Hand : Mark Tredinnick : July 2011

jo — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 01:44:30 +0000

A Creative Writing Retreat
11 – 18 July 2011

Come to Fiji to kickstart your writing to a new level with with poet, memoirist and writing teacher Mark Tredinnick.

This inspiring and practical masterclass will show you ways, and give you time, to start (and keep) writing the stories or poems that only you can write. “Creative writing,” said E B White, “is the Self escaping onto the paper.” Let your Self escape here in paradise, and let Mark help you get it down, memorably, on paper.

The retreat is open to writers of all levels. It looks at creative writing of all kinds, short and long fiction, poetry, memoir and narrative nonfiction. The program includes five half-day sessions and plenty of time for writing, reading, reflection and consultation with Mark. The workshop is based on Mark’s acclaimed and bestselling guide The Little Red Writing Book, and each session explores ideas and practices that help writers with creativity, composition, style, plotting, planning, editing and publishing their work. Each day, you’ll also have a chance to share pieces of writing you’ve composed overnight, thoughts about your writing progress and your responses to the daily readings.

Course Structure

Day one: All Good Things Come by Grace, and Grace Comes by Art, and Art Does Not Come Easy—on what writing really is, on cliché-busting, originality, and the creative disciplines

Day two: Write What You Don’t Know (about what you do know)—on what to write about and how

Day three: Shortcuts to Your Writing Self—on tricks and tools and techniques for writing memorably

Day four: Wild Mind: Tidy Mind—on planning, cohesion, structure and form

Day five: The Art of Silence—on letting the writing come, on editing, unwriting, finishing

Good writing is talk tidied. Writing is talking heightened by art and set down on paper. Literature is divine chatter—the god in you talking with the god in me.

Mark Tredinnick is an acclaimed poet and essayist, and a much-loved writing teacher. His books include Fire Diary (2010), The Blue Plateau: A Landscape Memoir (2009), The Land’s Wild Music (2005), and the bestselling writing guides, The Little Red Writing Book (2006) and The Little Green Grammar Book (2008).

The Blue Plateau was shortlisted in 2010 for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Mark’s other honours include the Calibre Essay Prize, the Blake Poetry Prize, and the Newcastle Poetry Prize, and his work has been published in The Best Australian Poems and The Best Australian Essays.

For ten years Mark was a book publisher and, before that, a lawyer. He lives and writes in the Southern Highlands, southwest of Sydney, where he runs the Cowshed Classes. Check him out atwww.marktredinnick.com.au

Programme

The course dates are Saturday 11 to Saturday 18, with both Saturdays as travel days. The workshop runs over six days. We’ll run workshops on five mornings with one free day. You get the afternoons off to wander and read and write and talk with Mark about your writing.

Saturday 11 July
Leave Sydney, arrive Nadi. Local flight to Savusavu.
6.00pm: Drinks and welcome.

Sunday 12 July
9.00am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 2.30pm: Mentoring
Afternoon free
7:00pm: Dinner

Monday 13 July
9.00am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 2.30pm: Mentoring (1 session)
Afternoon visit to Savusavu

Tuesday 14 July
9.00am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 2.30pm: Mentoring (1 session)
Afternoon: Beach outing

Wednesday 15 July
9.00am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 3.00pm: Mentoring (2 sessions)
Afternoon free

Thursday 16 July
9.00am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 3.00pm: Mentoring (2 sessions)
Afternoon free
6.00pm: Drinks and dinner at Savusavu Yacht Club

Friday 17 July
9.00am – 12.30pm: Workshop
1.00pm: Lunch
2.00pm – 3.00pm: Mentoring (2 sessions)
3.30pm – 5.30pm: Village visit and meke (traditional dance)

Saturday 18 July
Return to Nadi and on home

Mark describes what he sets out to achieve:

Good writing sounds like someone speaking in a voice truer than the voice they use for gossip and scolding—it sounds like someone in particular, talking to someone they love about something they know well.

Writing well asks you to master the divine dichotomy—the meridian you hold between fierce attentiveness and reckless abandon. Learn more about that in the safety of the workshop, within the heavenly calm of Fiji.

In creative writing, what you write about matters much less than how you do the telling. Voice, in other words, is just about everything in a novel or a short, a poem or a memoir or an essay; the narrative is just the task that gets the writer to the table; it’s the vessel that floats the voice. Though of course the tale (the plot, the topic, the setting) counts, it’s the telling the reader really reads, and it’s the telling that lasts. To tell you what a good book is about is to tell you next to nothing about the book. What lasts is everything not reducible to the narrative.

David Malouf has said that we keep reading books we love not so much to find out what happens next, but because we can’t bear to break the spell of the writer’s voice. And I have a feeling he knows what he’s talking about.

So, to write well is to talk like someone in particular (you way down deep); it is to tell a story the way that only you can tell it. But, curiously, one’s own voice doesn’t come easy; naturalness is hard work. How you get your authentic voice down on paper—this is where technique comes in. Sentence craft, rhythm, and the other disciplines of grace: this is what, like all Mark’s teaching, this masterclass focuses on.

“Writing,” said John Updike, “is only reading turned inside out.” You learn most of what you need to know about how to write like no one but yourself by reading well. So we’ll be reading, as well as writing, in this masterclass.

And we’ll be dreaming. “Writing”, Mark wrote in his poem “Things I’m Trying to Believe”, “is dreaming with a pen in its hand”. So bring your pen, and let this magical place take you back to your own dreaming place, your self way down deep—the place where the writing rises—and let Mark help you get your dreaming down on paper.