Edwina Shaw writing workshops

WRITING YOUR WAY INTO A STORY WORKSHOP AT AVID READER

SEPTEMBER 20 2020 10 am – 1 pm

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I’m thrilled to announce my first Avid Reader workshop. Avid Reader is my fabulous local bookstore that is the beating heart of West End where I live. The wonderful Fiona Stager and her team of writer-booksellers have created a lively writing community and a bookstore full of the very best of Australian and International writing.

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Not only that, they do a great job supporting local writers as well, with a number of us launching our books in store. Or through them virtually now Covid has made things tricky.

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Launching Raymond Evan’s poetry collection last year.

Join me at this Zoom workshop where we will use yoga techniques to free our imaginations and write our way into and through a story!

Get into the heart and body of your characters and learn how to shape plot from character goals, traits and failings. Filled with all my best hints and tips, this is a workshop you’ll leave inspired with the beginnings of a story, if not a full first draft.

I’d love to see you! Let me help you get rid of that critical voice. Get all your writing questions together and ask away.

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Let’s get writing!

These children were starving and abused, told they were rubbish

I’ve been working with Forgotten Australians – those who suffered institutional and/or out of home care as children – for several years here in Brisbane. But earlier this year, before COVID kept us all inside, I toured around my home state of QLD with program manager, Katie McGuire, facilitating workshops in regional centres.

As with all of my work with these extraordinary survivors, I was blown away by their stories and their resilience and willingness to try everything I threw at them.

We called our workshops The Healing Power of Story and part way through our travels were interviewed by local ABC media.

Here is the article they wrote if you’d like to learn more about Forgotten Australians and the work I’ve been doing with them.

It is a great privilege to be able to contribute even a little towards helping these incredible people heal the pain of their traumatic pasts. As I say in the interview, once I met them, there was no way I could ever leave them.

They were trained to be domestic servants or labourers and given very little formal education

People like the Forgotten Australians exist in every community. Here in Australia they have been recognised and services like Lotus Place are now available to them, but in many countries this is not yet the case.

Being with them has taught me to never, ever, walk past a homeless person without a smile and a hello. To never judge a book by its cover and to always listen and wait for a story to unfold. You never know what hell a person has been through.

And yet they’ve managed to come through with wide open hearts and great kindness of spirit.

READ THE ARTICLE HERE

Lotus Place and other similar organisations are always looking for volunteers to help out with programs like these, so do get in touch if you’d like to contribute.

Lots of love

Edwina xx