editing

SINGALONG IN SPRINGBROOK, Feedback Retreat 2025 Rundown.

/ Edwina Shaw / 6 Comments

Some lovely photos by Kylie Burton (Totally Lit Carer’s Fellowship winner)

Is it the magic of the mountains or of writing itself that makes these retreats so special? Another beautiful group of writing folk, at our special feedback and revision retreat, all deep into works in progress. 

The big trees and pademelons of TS Retreat Centre welcomed us as we formed small feedback groups to share work and provide helpful critiques. From old hands with published books under their belts to those attempting their first manuscripts, everyone had something unique to offer the group and the world through their stories.

The cold crept in as clouds blanketed the mountain, but luckily everyone had scarves in their party bags to keep them warm, and a roaring fire in the dining hall to sit beside as they wrote. I loved coming into the hall to find several writers all hard at it, working away on their stories, or sitting in cosy corner together sharing feedback or laughs.

The combination of yoga, writing workshops, healing bodywork treatments from our inhouse healer Monique, and delicious, warm, nurturing meals from our chief cookie Gay brought smiles to everyone’s faces. Epiphanies flew in from the heavens, story problems were solved, characters developed and plots revamped. All in the beauty of Springbrook.

On Saturday night, just as we sat down for our pranayama (yogic breathing) and deep relaxation session, the whole area lost power, plunging us into darkness. But this became one of my favourite moments on retreat – a group of us in the dark hall, breathing and softening, touching our creative hearts and the deep well of joy within. Then we strolled back in the moonlight to the dining room to find it lit by a hundred candles, flickering like fairyland.

Then, after the generator was started, came the real fun of readings nights with so many powerful stories shared, a play reading acted out and best of all a singalong, led by our youngest retreater, Eloise ,who’d brought along her guitar and cheeky grin. The fire and the songs kept us warm, and I was filled with happiness as I looked around at the group all singing and smiling. Ah. A very special retreat moment. Luckily the power was restored just in time for our electric blankets to make our beds cosy as we fell asleep in the silence of the forest.

On Sunday after a special movement session by Monique and our publishing pathways workshop, we finished with our traditional collages. Here’s our kindy photos holding up our finished pieces.

Here’s what some retreaters had to say about their retreat:

The relax and Write Retreat really got me back on track ready to complete my story. Making connections with other writers was terrific. So many laughs. Edwina is a great workshop host, with time for each participant.

Robyn Ede

Beginner or seasoned writer, there is something special about sharing time with like-minded people with a passion for writing. The location is amazing, the food superb and the take-away knowledge gained is unsurpassed.

Beverley Young

What a magical weekend – waking to the sound of whipbirds, doing yoga, eating delicious nutritious food, talking to other writers and above all having focused time on a creative project. Absolutely fantastic writing retreat.

Fiona Robertson

Edwina’s Relax and Write Retreat are an absolute gift. They provide space – [physical and mental – to explore our stories while teaching practical information on the structural demands of storytelling. The yoga sessions with Edwina and Monique were deeply restorative, restful and energising. The atmosphere was celebratory, welcoming, thoughtful, open and, a lot of the time, incredibly moving and inspirational. Highly recommend.

Carrolyn Stuart

This was such a wonderful supportive and safe environment for emerging writers to share their work and get honest ,constructive and extremely useful feedback. Thank you, Edwina and your beautiful helpers.

Jeanelle Sutton-Yeomans

If you’d like to come along and join the fun next time, bookings are now open for our Memoir/Life Writing Retreat April 10 – 12, 2026. BOOK HERE. 

We’ll be back for another feedback retreat in August 2026. If you’re keen on that, just drop me a line and I’ll book you in!

And if a weekend isn’t long enough, then join me and the wonderful and talented, Kerstin Pilz, in Byron Bay September 19 – 24, 2026 for a very special writing fretreat.

Thank you to my treasured retreataholics  – and a big warm welcome home to Jill our powerhouse helper, for making these local retreats feel like a happy family gathering, and my undying gratitude to chief cookie Gay Liddington whose compelling and powerful memoir is for sale here on my website  – check it out!

Most of all a huge thank you to the wonderful people who come along on these retreats. I am so very grateful for your loving kindness to me, and to each other. I’m astounded by the wealth of talent on show at every retreat and for the joy we find in community with each other.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; it’s the people who come to these retreats that make them so special. Love you guys!

Lots of love to you too,

Edwina xx

SUPERPOWER YOUR SECOND DRAFT WITH A SCENE LIST

/ Edwina Shaw / 1 Comment

A Scene List will reveal the treasure hidden within your big baggy draft.

Unless you’re a meticulous planner and stick to your plan as you write, you’re going to find the Scene List an invaluable tool when it comes to nailing your second draft.

When I first began writing I was firmly in the “Pantser – Writing by the seat of your pants” club. This resulted in a couple of super long, rambling and unfocused drafts of about 130 000 words each, necessitating a severe pruning, back to around 40 000 in both cases. ARGH! But where to start?! When you’re staring at a pile of words and pages that big, like an overgrown mock-orange bush in your garden, you need a powerful pruning tool. 

Enter the wonderful writer and writing educator, Kim Wilkins, who introduced me to the scene list which has been a much-loved tool for over a decade now.

Once I started screenwriting, writing from the premise down to the scene list and filling in the gaps from there, I could see the benefit of doing some planning first, but I still love the freedom and pure creative joy of writing just to see where the story takes me. So these days I do a little vague planning at the start of a project but allow myself some leeway and fun tangents as well. I guess you’d call me a “Planster” now – half planner, half pantster.

Here’s what you need to know to get a SCENE LIST working for you, whether you’re writing a memoir, novel or screenplay.

It’s not rocket science so don’t get scared – if I can do it, you certainly can too.

You can do this with software like Scrivener or Final Draft but I’m a hard copy girl, my brain works better when I have something I can hold in my hand and shuffle around. I love my cut and paste both ways— with scissors and glue, and the ease of computer deletions and insertions. So find the way that works best for you and:

SCENE LIST BASICS

  1. WRITE A LONG LIST OF EVERY SCENE IN YOUR PROJECT – don’t scream. Yes it’s long and a little tedious, but the benefits will be obvious. I do mine on index cards – one scene per card, but you can do it as a straight list, hard copy or on screen. Do it in columns if doing a straight list. 
  2. NAME EACH SCENE
  3. WHAT IS THE MAIN ACTION? 
  4. WHAT CHARACTERS?
  5. WHOSE POV? If only one POV that’s easy J
  6. DOES THIS SCENE MOVE US TOWARDS HOPE OR FEAR? See Suspense = Hope + Fear if you don’t know what this means.
  7. WHAT KIND OF SCENE/SECTION IS IT? – Reflective sections in memoir? Character reflections/ action/comedy/sad etc
  8. WHERE IS IT SET?

So you’d have seven columns for this version

SCENE NAME. ACTION.  CHARACTERS. POV. H/F. TYPE. SETTING 

Add whatever other details feel relevant to you and your story. EG if you’re interweaving POV characters you could colour code their POV sections to make sure you have an even balance. Or length of the scene as well – number of pages etc.

This process may take a while. You may end up with hundreds of scenes. GOOD! If you’re struggling to figure out what would be a scene, then that’s a sure sign you’re telling more than showing, and a signal to actually WRITE IN SCENES. See How to Write a Scene if you’re having trouble.

That’s us waving good bye to scenes that no longer serve the story 🙂

Once you’re done look for these key things

  1. REPETITION – of scenes, settings, ideas, plot points (eg I’ve already realised that in my latest Work In Progress I’ve done a couple of scenes with my protagonist finding her son asleep drunk in the lounge – one has to go!) Like me, you’ll have to pick the best of the repeated scenes, or echoes, to keep, and either change or delete the other/s. Make sure you haven’t shown us a scene and then done another scene with characters just rehashing the action without adding anything new or moving the plot forward.
  2. NOT ENOUGH ACTION – have you got a whole lot of scenes with people thinking? Is there any forward movement in your story? THIS COULD BE A GAP YOU NEED TO FILL, or you need to think more about what is at stake in your story.
  3. TOO MUCH FEAR/ TOO MUCH HOPE – have you got as much movement as possible between hope and fear? If you’ve got a long patch of only fear fear fear, consider moving scenes around to bring balance or creating a scene of hope between all the hard stuff. Or the other way around.
  4. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO ADD? Are there gaps in the story? Is someone’s POV missing from most of it? Does a character of importance suddenly appear halfway through the second act? Have you forgotten to add any reflection?
  5. WHAT CAN GO? This is when you call back in that inner critic and make them work for you. What scenes are there just because you really liked the feel of it, or the memory attached? 

These are the cut rules. First make a separate file called “Good bits for later” where you can put your offcuts. Then,

CUT if your scene:

  1. Repeats without adding anything.
  2. Is off track and confusing (no matter how pretty)
  3. Is too much backstory – slowing everything down – keep snippets to thread through
  4. Shows a character doing something that doesn’t fit with who they are – unless it’s a potent moment of change, of course.
  5. Is rambling, feels like padding. LESS LESS LESS IS MORE.
  6. Is a subplot you forgot about halfway through after you realised it wasn’t necessary.
  7. Doesn’t move the plot forward or show us something new about the character.
  8. Doesn’t feel right anymore – trust your gut.

No more clambering through pages and pages – now you can just refer to your list!

The scene list identifies plot holes and needed character development by showing us a template of our whole book in a more manageable form. I like to lay my cards out on a big table (or the floor) to get a good overview, then I can shuffle my physical cards around, remove them, add in new scene ideas where they fit, and “see” my story laid out in full, identify any patterns and fill any holes as I go. 

You can do all sorts of colour coding and add special ratings, EG: for Thrill Seekers I had a “Bleakness scale”. Yep, I needed to add a lot of light to balance things out.

Any questions, just ask in the comments or drop me a line.

I’m offering a free online writing workshop in December for subscribers to my newsletter so remember to sign up by the end of November to get the link! SUBSCRIBE HERE.

I hope you’ll find the scene list as useful as I have. It takes work, but once you see how powerfully it reveals the strengths and flaws of your MS, you’ll know it was worth it!

Lots of love

Edwina xx