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• friday writing exercise

Friday Writing Exercise

10 comments

Madeleine Crofts

Apr 30, 2010

Each Friday we will endeavor to post a short creative writing exercise on the blog. The purpose of which is so you, dearest reader, can take the exercise, work on it over the weekend and then let us know how you went! These exercises are meant to challenge your writerly talents, provide you with space to write new and different stuff but most of all they are meant to be fun. Words are there to be played with! And play is such an important thing in life. So. Your job? Take the exercise that is posted and try hard at it. See where it takes you. Then if you are brave enough, comment here with what you've created, or a short excerpt of it. We want to see what is possible and how different exercises take people in different places! Today's exercise is one that I use in pretty much every workshop I do, because it's a great easy one to start off with. Take the following sentence and make it into a paragraph. Do this by using each word as the beginning word of a sentence. 'Two days ago, Melbourne gangland figure Carl Williams was beaten to death.' So your paragraph should start with a sentence beginning with the word 'Two' and the second sentence should begin with the word 'days' and so on.  You should end up with a paragraph that is 12 sentences long. There are no rules about what the paragraph should be about, it could be about Carl Williams or about jellyfish or about your neighbour's dead dog. BUT you can't change the words or the order. The paragraph could be a coherent (or semi-coherent) narrative or it might not be. It's up to you. Go on. I dare you.

• celebrities
• literary characters

Famous Literary Characters: Possible Papparazzi Fodder?

3 comments

Sam Cooney

Apr 30, 2010

Bailey Kennedy over at FlavorWire has asked the question: how would some of the most famous literary characters fare if they had to exist in today's real-time pressurised fame container world? As they say: "What if your favorite literary characters were subjected to the same level of scrutiny? We have compiled a list of fictional characters that in today’s day and age would be tabloid sensations for their turbulent romances and dramatic downward spirals."

• megan burke
• Missionary
• thuy linh nguyen
• voiceworks

Missionary accomplished

0 comment

Sam Cooney

Apr 27, 2010

Not only is the good old missionary position generally the most fancied (at least amongst those less adventurous), but so too is our latest issue (#80 MISSIONARY) proving to be popular with the punters as well as with the pundits.

• Australian Book Review
• competition
• fiction

Competition Opportunity

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Liam Wood

Apr 27, 2010

The good folks over at Australian Book Review are currently accepting submissions for the ABR Short Story Prize. There's $2000 up for grabs for the best short story submissions from 1000 - 3000 words, multiple submissions are accepted and the deadline is May 20.  So get your writing pants on and enter. Hit the link above for more details or to download the entry form.

• louise swinn
• sleepers publishing
• Writing

Q&A Monday: Louise Swinn

1 comment

Sam Cooney

Apr 26, 2010

Louise Swinn. Female. Lives in Melbourne, Australia. Co-founder and Editorial Director of Sleepers Publishing. Writer of fiction and nonfiction. Book reviewer. Sits on a bunch of boards and committees. Dedicated, passionate and paid up.

• videogames
• violence
• voiceworks

Video games: a world away from frogger, that's for sure

2 comments

Sam Cooney

Apr 24, 2010

Video games are taking over. Believe it. According to some, they will transform you into a leery-eyed serial killer, while others advocate that they actually reduce 'real world' violence and depravity. They can turn you into a drug addict, but they are also considered art. The most extreme games are illegal, yet easy to download. Whatever you think about video games, someone else thinks the opposite.

• event
• EWF
• Melbourne
• writers' festival

EWF Program

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Johannes Jakob

Apr 23, 2010

The Emerging Writers' Festival program is now available online, or you can email by April 30 with your name and address to get a totally unique, hand screen-printed copy sent to you. Gosh. Lots of neat stuff scheduled, including a day of skill share workshops run in partnership with Express Media. Get your bookings on.

• david lynch
• haruki murakami
• interview project
• movies
• twin peaks

D. Lynch

0 comment

Johannes Jakob

Apr 22, 2010

• event
• huzzah
• live reading

'Voiceworks Live' roundup

4 comments

Sam Cooney

Apr 22, 2010

So on Saturday we staged our ready-set-go 'Voiceworks Live' event (we invited y'all last week) and it went off like a volcano in Iceland. We had a whole range of people reading, from editorial committee members to recent Voiceworks contributors to stranger danger types reading from just-bought secondhand copies of Of Mice and Men. There was some interpretive painting, and some strange looks. In the end the cash prize for best reading was split, with Chris Chinchilla winning, Susie Anderson first runner-up, and Megan Burke third.

• alot
• apostrophes
• grammar

Please consider the one-fingered typists out there

3 comments

Johannes Jakob

Apr 21, 2010

As a follow up to the Temporary Tatoo's post, here are some psychologically foolproof coping mechanisms for everyone who is hot for prescriptivist grammar. These include reasons for people writing 'u' instead of 'you,' and an equally entertaining self-deception technique to use when people write 'alot' instead of 'a lot,' which frankly I have never seen anywhere, but facts should never stand in the way of good comedy. I have been told that Voiceworks' Raf has argued for the abolishment of the apostrophe altogether, because dumbos out there just can't get it right. Where are the politicians capturing his vote? Why won't anyone face the big issues?