On Thursday 24th November 2016 MMCC Readers Club attended the Sydney Writers Festival at the Whitlam Centre in Cabramatta. Mrs Thomson, Mrs Andrews and Mrs Wylie accompanied us on this insightful excursion. As we arrived at the library we were greeted by the organisers of the Festival and then seated with Patrician Brothers Catholic College, Fairfield.

We had talks and workshops from four different authors. The first author we were introduced to was Helen Chebatte. In her workshop we all had to create a character based on what we thought defined us as Australians. As Helen is an actress, she had different people act out their characters and improvise a storyline using their ideas and some key vocabulary that we brainstormed together.

The second author was Michael Adams who talked about his career as a professional writer working for magazines such as Empire, newspapers, interviewing celebrities, scriptwriting for reality shows and writing about movies. He also told us all that being an author is hard work and that it is important to have a day job to have a balance and receive a regular income! The third author we met was Sarah Ayoub who grew up in Western Sydney and comes from a non-English speaking background. She faced various challenges growing up and eventually became a journalist. Sarah based some of her stories on either real experiences or people she met in her work as a reporter. In Sarah’s workshop she began with a media story and then asked us ‘what if’, asking us to hypothesise about how the story could change direction. She showed us how to create a story based on a media item and our own stories.

Finally, we met Kate Forsyth who started her career writing for magazines such as Marie-Claire and being a journalist for newspapers such as The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. In her workshop she told us that we shouldn’t fear the blank page. She explained that we need to make our readers ‘feel’ and you can plan a story just by answering the 5Ws -who, what, where, when and why. We also learnt how to plan out a story and, as a group, came up with an idea using the narrative structure to create a group story.

Overall, the excursion was a real eye opener into the world of writing and what it takes to become an author. These accomplished authors shared the joy of writing and how the power of reading develops your imagination, knowledge and allow each of us to grow.

Emily Quinlan and Amy Cousins, Year 10