Six Week Writers' Gym - Advanced Writing Techniques - Online & Optional LIVE Class with Roland Fishman

"The Writer’s Gym is exactly that. A way to flex your cerebral muscles, engage parts of your body that have not been used for a while (if at all) and exercise your imagination. Like a gym, it is hard work but the rewards come with time as you see your writing take shape.

On the micro level I have learnt the importance of structure to a piece and the delicate balance or dance with imagination and creative flair. It is easy to get that balance askew. Even in the narrow confines of our word limits it is possible to create scenes with bricks of detail, inner and outer dialogue and sensory perceptions that leave you wanting to read on.

In short, the course has opened up a new vista for me and for that I am truly grateful."
Dr Russell King. His short story, "The Road to Nowhere" was published in The Best Australian Short Stories 2011( edited by Cate Kennedy and published by Black Inc.) Russell wrote, "thank you to eveyone at the The Writers Studio, for their guidance and support. I could not possibly have had this success without you."

"I am so glad I did this second course. I am amazed at how much more confident I feel about approaching writing since the end of the Unlocking course and this one’s end - about the process, about putting ideas and words down on paper and not censoring them, and even about my ability to do so. This is probably the single most useful aspect of it for me – in the past I have never been able to write more than a few paragraphs because I would just go back and re-edit, judge it and finally abandon it. Having a structure to the work (the ABC approach, and the notions of a flawed character, ghosts, desire opposition and conflict) also really helped me to find the stories... something that doesn’t come easily to me, and to work through from the ‘beginning’ to ‘end’ of the exercises given.

There was a lot of wisdom in the advice given about needing to write to improve your skills. Its obvious if you think about it, but somehow I always thought one either had talent or not – I never thought about successful writers having to hone their craft, though again it seems obvious."
Alice Bhasale

 
"This is the third Writers' Studio course I have done and I have loved them all. What really works for me is having deadlines and exercises to work with. It is so easy to priortise everything else other than writing so it is great to put writing at the top of the To Do list for a change. The course has re-energised a stalled novel which I am now very much in the flow of – a great feeling. It was a pleasure to read so many wonderful stories and give and receive feedback."
Sharon Kernot

"The Writer’s Gym was the perfect follow-up to Unlocking Creativity for me. I had a lot of fun writing the exercises, and I learned a hell of a lot. I thought everyone else’s stories were wonderful. Seeing our writing transformed from the beginning to the end of the course showed me how powerful basic techniques are in communicating to a reader.

I have been reading ‘The White Tiger’ while doing this course, and was struck by how the author had mastered the techniques we were being introduced to. At times I was overwhelmed by how well he did it. This was a wonderful complement to the Writer’s Gym – my appreciation for that book was vastly enhanced."
Fiona Howland-Rose

"I have just finished the second WS course and in many ways it is like finishing one of the exercises: I immediately feel like I would like to start it all over again from scratch. It was great to see how some of the other students developed and I was really impressed with much of the work. What is amazing in these courses is to notice how different we all are."
Emily Seresin