JUST WRITE! – Take me to the April Retreat in Springbrook! FULLY BOOKED

/ Edwina Shaw / 2 Comments

Due to popular demand, we are now offering a FOUR NIGHT, FIVE DAY retreat high in the Gold Coast Hinterland at the beautiful and quite magical Theosophical Society Education and Retreat Centre in Springbrook from Thursday 4th April until Monday 8th April 2024. 

For days now the old Dragon song (vale Marc Hunter) “Take me to the April Sun in Cuba” has been playing non-stop in my head, with a few words changed to take us all to the April Retreat in Springbrook! Who wants to come?! Me! (Dragon will not be joining us!)

Are you desperate for some time out from real life to focus on your writing? Whether you’re just getting started or working on book ten, this retreat is all about YOU and YOUR WRITING PROJECT. Time for you to write. Time for you to relax and just think. Time to daydream, lie on a blanket in the sun and gaze up into the tall trees imagining the next steps of your book, or your life. 

Sound like just what the doctor ordered? I know I’m really looking forward to some time out from all the madness and frantic busyness, to focus solely on my new book (just finished the first draft :)). Even better, doing so in a group of women writers all doing the same thing! 

I left the Retreat with inspiration for my writing, as well as goals with a clear and achievable action plan. And the best part is I now have the support of 16 new writing buddies!

COURTNEY MASTERS – retreat participant 

This retreat is all about WRITING TIME.

We have an initial workshop to help clarify goals for the retreat, making realistic plans about what we’d like to achieve, connecting with others and figuring out which method works best for you. During the days we’ll run a supervised writing room with timed “Pomodoro” style sessions, writing in twenty-minute bursts, followed by five minutes to rest, chat and grab a cup of tea or coffee and some of Gay’s delicious home-baked treats (GF options always available). Or, if you’re a solo writer like me, then every room has its own desk, or you can find a spot in the beautiful gardens and rest your back against one of the giant gums or wander off to the waterfall and write in blissful solitude in nature. 

Edwina Shaw’s Writers Retreat at Springbrook was sensational. Working with other experienced writers and learning new ways of doing things as well as new ways to think, is always mind expanding. Then there were the deep dive conversations with other writers and the sacred walk to the waterfall. It was an extraordinary way to learn and grow.

VICKI BENNETT – repeat retreater

We’ll have Q & A sessions after lunch every day where you can ask as many craft-related questions as you like, and every evening we’ll have guided deep breathing and relaxation to help our busy writers’ minds to slow down and relax. After a delicious dinner you’ll have the chance to share your writing with the group. We’ll finish off the retreat with a final workshop, checking on progress and plotting our way forward, setting goals and making plans for our projects, and ourselves, moving forward.

To be held in a space of such love and respect, through both solitude and interacting with other amazing women, was a real blessing. I found Edwina to be enlightening, welcoming and an amazing source of inspiration and knowledge regarding all aspects of writing, including publishing. I came away knowing that I truly have potential and feeling very excited about my writing journey. I want to share my gift with the world, and now I feel like I can. Wow.

KYLIE DEAN – retreat participant

These retreats do more than just get you writing, they provide much needed time out from the world to reassess what you want from your life and nurture your creative self, so that by the time you return to the big smoke, you’ll be feeling refreshed, renewed and ready to shine!

Come along and you will be treated to a memorable, supportive and nurturing space with laughter and creativity aplenty. These retreats offer the perfect balance of relaxing and writing. From the collective energies of the group as a whole to the care-filled little touches that Ed brings, your inner-goddess and writing muse will thank you! A warning though… once you’ve gone on one, you’ll want to come back again and again! Spoken by a true repeat retreater! 

BIANCA MILLROY – repeat retreater

PRICE INCLUDES:

4 nights comfortable single accommodation with bathrooms shared between two.

ALL MEALS – healthy homemade organic vegetarian meals, breakfasts, lunches and dinners, plus morning and afternoon teas. (All sensitivities catered for on request)

2 Writing workshops

3 Guided breathing and deep relaxation sessions

4 Q & A sessions

A supervised Pomodoro room to keep you on track, 

OR

As much solitary writing time as you like!

Plus: a chance to share your stories on readings nights.

Transport not included.

I have been inspired to work on my writing but also to work on my health. Not only am I motivated but I made so many new friends. 

PEG MACLEOD – retreat participant

COST for this special ALL INCLUSIVE 4 NIGHT RETREAT of writing, fun and feasting? 

Pay your deposit by February 15 for EARLY BIRD PRICES

UNWAGED/ CONCESSION:

EARLY BIRD $750, Normal $790

WAGED: EARLY BIRD $850, Normal $900

All inclusive! 

PAY YOUR DEPOSIT HERE

OR by Direct Deposit PREFERED:  CONTACT EDWINA FOR AVAILABILITY AND BANK DETAILS.

If you have more dash than cash but would still LOVE to come, just email Edwina and we’ll work it out.

ALTERNATIVE EXTRAS ALSO AVAILABLE AT EXTRA COST:

One on one sessions with Edwina to give direction or advice on your project.

Body work treatments with the deeply knowledgeable and gifted healer, Monique DeGoey of Reconnect BodyWork.

If you’ve been promising yourself some time out for your writing and would love to connect with like-minded writing women in a stunningly beautiful location, far from the madding crowds, then this is the retreat for you!

Come along and be nurtured and supported by a kind and gentle group of women and leave all your worries behind as you immerse yourself in the beautiful natural environment, lovingly cared for by the Yugambeh people for millennia.

GET ALL THE INFO HERE

If you’re looking for more workshops to guide your writing and to get your head around aspects of teh writing craft, then check out all the other retreats available in 2024! Really looking to escape? Join me and my dear friend, the wise and witty Kerstin Pilz author of Loving my Lying Dying Cheating Husband, in Bali for our Relax and Write Your Journey BLISSFUL BALI RETREAT July 11 – 17 2024.

But first, sing along with me, Take me to the April Retreat in Springbrook, oh ho ho!

Feel free to drop me a line with any questions or to check availability.

Lots of love 

Edwina xx

WHAT MAKES A WINNING STORY? – Thoughts after judging the Marj Wilkie Short Story Award 

/ Edwina Shaw / Leave a comment

I recently judged the Marj Wilkie Short Story Award for the Society of Women Writers Queensland. Being invited to do so was a great honour as empowering women is a huge motivator in all I do. Women’s stories are important and need to be told. Our truths. Our fictions. Our lives now at last have a chance of being seen, as never before. 

As a writer also submitting to competitions, twenty-plus years after entering my first, with my own beginner’s luck well and truly expired, I took the job very seriously.

I’d previously judged the Gympie Writing Prizes and, every year as part of my work in the Creative Writing department at the University of QLD, I read and mark hundreds of stories, so I’m no stranger to the form, or to judging the quality of stories. My Masters thesis was on the short story and my first critically acclaimed novel, Thrill Seekers, started life as a collection of shorts. I’ve published over forty stories over the past twenty years, so I know how important every entry was to the writer who submitted it and was determined to do each one justice.

Photo by Min An on Pexels.com

I was impressed by the quality of the 101 stories submitted. The writers made my job tough. I know the courage it takes to submit, the courage it takes to write at all. Committing our ideas to paper is an act of bravery. I wished I’d been able to give everyone a prize just for getting that far. As with marking students’ stories, I wished I’d been able just to give feedback without having to make judgements. But I was the judge! No getting out of it!

Photo by EKATERINA BOLOVTSOVA on Pexels.com

I was moved by many pieces, laughed and cried. I read every story all the way to the end and had to really steel myself to let some go. I thought the initial cull would be easier, I’d be able to narrow it down to thirty or so just by rejecting the stories that weren’t any good. Pity was, they were all good! I was really impressed with the quality. Only a very few were dropping out. On my first read through, I started just doing a Yes or No system, but then I hit the story that became the runner up and wrote a big YES in capital letters beside it. 

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

What was it that made it a big YES instead of a little one? Really it boils down to VOICE. This writer had a unique, strong and confident voice as a writer, so even though it wasn’t a genre I usually chose to read, this story SHONE. So, I started using the big YES culling method which got me to an initial long list of 30, then to a short list of 18. Some stories I read over and over before making a decision. 

Many stories caught my attention and were beautifully written, some needed a little finessing, (formatting is something many entries needed to work on), others were too light or didn’t resonate with me fully. As objective as I tried to be, all reading is subjective, and my own tastes and leaning towards social justice and women’s issues came into play. Mostly by the third read through, I was looking for the stories that shone – and showed themselves to me, bright and shining. But I was still searching for my number one when I read story 100 – and before I’d even finished the first page, I knew I’d found her. 

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Many stories made me laugh, congratulations to the comedy writers – we all need a laugh right now. Others were deep and moving, exposing the multiple challenges faced by women now and in the past. But the stories that made it to the winning categories and indeed the shortlist had one thing in common – a strong and confident VOICE. For some this voice comes easily, though my guess is they’re journal writers, for others it takes a lot of practice and time writing, to find that confidence and trust in your own right to express yourself in your way. I found too that stories that were slightly more experimental or those with some unique twist, like the runner-up’s hazy dream of a haunted shopping mall and the winner’s interweaving of a writer’s fictional narrative with her own lived experience, were standing out. 

Because of the way these experimental stories stood out from more traditional narratives, I’m adopting this as my strategy for story submissions – at least for the next few months (I try to have at least a few stories submitted at any time. See THE TEN POINT PLAN FOR PUBLISHING SUCCESS) – I’ll let myself play, experiment, try writing in different genres, letting in more magic, playing with the form. 

So that’s my main tip, for those out there submitting to competitions, be brave, play with the words, the form, the story. Create something that grabs the reader’s attention and won’t let go! Above all, PLAY!

I know, I know. Easier said than done, but I’ve really been enjoying allowing myself more room to play with my writing. To really let go and just see what happens. I love a good traditional narrative that drives us forward, but with short stories we can toy with that blurred line between experimental prose and poetry, or throw a couple of stories together and see how they resonate, or chop the story up and change the order. Be brave!

I hope that tip will help us ALL get luckier in our story competition entries. Also see my THING ONE AND THING TWO story method for more short story tips.

Fingers crossed. But first you need to be brave enough to write, then put on your big girl pants and SUBMIT! Shine bright writers. Keep writing and expressing your truth. Your stories heal the world. 

Have a go at writing something more experimental – you’ll have fun and, who knows, it may end up a winner!

All the gang at the Women Writer’s Awards ceremony! Lots of fun!

Thank you to Indrani, Jan, Bernadette and Trudy and all the wonderful members of Women Writers QLD.

My congratulations to the brilliant winners! Results HERE

Lots of love

Edwina xx

PS. If you’re looking for a supportive writing group with meetings, workshop and even a retreat – then do get a long to a WWQ meeting!