by Sourced

Young writer workshops his skills

Budding creative writer and year 12 student Gustav Jooste attended a Michael King writing workshop in an effort to grow his skills and learn from experts in the field. Gustav writes about his experience here:

On 14 June, I attended the Michael King Young Writers' Workshop. It was an extremely valuable experience, for which two published authors were present — Grace Taylor and Catherine Chidgey. The day consisted of two main sessions, one with each author, in which our creative skills were put to use in a variety of different writing and thinking exercises. 

With Grace Taylor, who specializes in poetry, the main focuses were effective combinations of seemingly random words in order to create a specific effect or atmosphere. Catherine’s workshop was focused on narrative storytelling and setting, where our use of the senses was developed and our understanding of the importance setting was refined.

Throughout the day, there were various opportunities to share our writing and hear from others, which gave a very interesting insight into different perspectives of the writing styles used. Creativity was ripe and plentiful, and as the day progressed, everyone became more and more comfortable to engage and to share their own work.

Altogether, the workshop was an extremely invaluable experience and has provided great insight into the possibilities of creative writing such as poetry, prose, or narrative storytelling, that I will surely not forget.