Fiction Writing Masterclass

Course Summary

In this course, new and emerging writers will discover how to harness a range of micro-skills to enrich their fiction. In each class we will focus on a particular skill or aspect of writing and analyse extracts from published writing which employs it. The course will cover: description, characterisation, building conflict through dialogue, humour, generating ideas and manuscript submission.

Published writers whose work we will explore include Elizabeth Strout, Vivian Gornick, Jessie Cole, Myfanwy Jones, Peggy Frew, Colm Toibin and David Sedaris.

Each class will also include practical and captivating writing exercises in which students can explore and delight with their new skills.

• Description
• Developing characters
• Dialogue
• Generating ideas
• Humour
• Manuscript submission

Kate Ryan is a widely published and commended writer of adult fiction and non-fiction and children’s picture books. Her work has appeared in publications including New Australian Writing, The Sleepers Almanac, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, the Griffith Review and Best Australian Stories. Her children’s picture books have been published by Penguin and Lothian. She won the Writers Prize in the 2015 Melbourne Prize for Literature and the novella category in the 2017 Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Awards. Kate’s debut novel, The Golden Book, was published by Scribe in 2021, and is part of the CAE Book Groups catalogue. She is an Adjunct Research Fellow at La Trobe University where she completed her PhD in 2013. Her second novel House is currently under consideration.