28 July – 4 August, 2012

Margo Lanagan writes strange and intriguing tales of worlds that are not quite ours. Her characters could be people we know, but they speak differently from usual, and behave in unexpected ways. What drives them, she asks, what horrors and hopes, what wounds and anxieties? A writer who has clearly found her own voice, she writes finely crafted short stories and novels straddling the young-adult/adult demographics, and keeps a foot in both the literary and speculative genre camps.

During this course she’ll be encouraging you to write truly, madly and deeply.

Truth: getting authenticity and authority into your fictional settings and characters; finding ‘the telling detail’ in a scene or character; writing convincing dialogue; making action feel real.

Margo specialises in suggesting whole worlds and histories obliquely, from the middle of a story’s action. Some of her stories happen in undefinable lands, in unidentifiable cultures, but still feel firmly rooted in reality. In the first two days’ workshops, you’ll find out what sort of decisions you need to make about setting and character, and you’ll learn how, once decided on a point of view and a locale, you can let a few items around them do all the work of fleshing out the story world’s past and present. These two days are all about choosing tools that work for you, in a world that smothers writers with authoritative-sounding rules and advice.

Madness: freeing yourself to take leaps in the dark; getting out of your own way; refreshing your writing; disciplining your inner editor; filling the well; experimenting with strangeness.

Well acquainted with frustration, writerly self-delusion and the sheer overwhelming size of the novel form, Margo knows how easy it is to get bogged down in a story, to turn your writing into a chore, to become dutiful and joyless as you sit to the task every day. She will share with you some of the exercises and techniques she uses to clamber out of writing ruts, to stay sane through the solitude and to re-re-reacquaint yourself with the rewards that drew you to writing in the first place.

Depth: writing the story that only you can write; confronting your fears; writing from your depths—but keeping yourself safe/sane.

If you do not listen to your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself. Also, you will have betrayed your community in failing to make your contribution to the whole. —Rollo May

Is your writing trapped in niceness? Do you find yourself reaching for clichés? Does your writing feel tired, or trivial, or bore you sometimes? Maybe you’re swimming on the surface, snorkelling when you could be free-diving, admiring the pretties when you could be bringing up sunken treasure. The final two workshops will be about writing stories that matter—to you, and therefore to the world; how to make your readers laugh, cry, worry—and carry your stories around as talismans.

 
This will be an intense retreat—but in a good way. Come along and refresh your writing, try new techniques and reconnect with your own personal sources of story.

 
Teacher Margo Lanagan was born in 1960 and spent her childhood in the Hunter Valley (NSW), her teens in Melbourne, her twenties travelling, and then settled in Sydney. She has a history degree from the universities of Western Australia and Sydney. Once she’d tried kitchen, sales and office work, she decided there had to be more to life, and she has been working towards full-time writing, (and sometimes succeeding!), for 20 years or so now. When the money runs low she does contract technical writing.

 
Her books include four short story collections (Yellowcake, Red Spikes, Black Juice and White Time) and two novels (Sea Hearts and Tender Morsels).

 
Margo maintains a blog at www.amongamidwhile.blogspot.com
She can be found on Twitter as @margolanagan

Programme

The programme is structured around morning workshops, with afternoons for activities and free time to enjoy a spa massage, snorkelling on the reef, relaxing by the pool or carrying on writing.

Costs
AUD $2,980.00 twin share including flights ex-Sydney / Brisbane
Single supplement: $350
Non-writing partners: $1050 (international flight not included)

Program Includes

• Return international flights from Sydney / Brisbane
• Return domestic flight from Nadi to Savusavu.
• Return airport transfers from Savusavu to Daku Resort.
• 7 nights accommodation at Daku Resort in traditional bures with private facilities.
• Breakfasts, lunches and dinners are provided.
• Course fees.
• Lectures, excursions as indicated.

Program Excludes

• Comprehensive Travel Insurance.
• Optional activities not listed on the program
• Costs of a personal nature eg laundry, massages, private trips
• Meals taken in transit at the airport

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