I’ve been busy finalising the content, format and handouts of two workshops I’m facilitating at next week’s Byron Bay Writers Festival. Hopefully the weather will continue sunny and dry, as Byron’s not nearly as much fun when it’s grey and wet.
The first workshop is about Structural Editing – what goes where, figuring out the best way to tell a story, adding and subtracting material, and so on – and I believe some places are still available. That’s on Wednesday 23rd July 1.30-4.30pm. This should be particularly useful to people who have a manuscript they feel is stuck, or needs work but they’re not sure of what kind.
The second workshop, Thursday 24th July 1.30-4.30pm, has the fancy title “The Alchemy of Memoir”, because alchemy refers literally to transforming “base materials” into “gold”, and more figuratively to a magical process of extraction or transmutation (thank you OED). From experience I know that you cannot reach anything approaching gold without digging out all those base materials to begin with.
There seems to be an unquenched thirst for advice and practical information about editing your own work, the role of an editor, and the path to publication. I have a lot to say on these subjects, so I will endeavour to write more regularly on these topics in future posts.
