Write Now: Putting on a writers' festival
For most of 2008 I was busy organising my own country writers' festival in Meredith for youth. I felt like there were no opportunities within my country town for young writers to participate in workshops, so I thought to myself, "Why not create the opportunity myself?"
Margaret Clark, an award winning author, was the very first person who I told my idea to. She thought it was a great idea, so I instantly got to work. I invited some other writers to attend the event, but trying to find suitable writers for the event was a real struggle.
I had a meeting with Aliesha Harling at the Golden Plains Shire. She started to apply for funding to support the event. I didn't have to worry about it anymore. I tried to accessing some funding for a few months on my own, so I was happy when Aliesha took that part over. Aleisha also helped me to find festival guests.
With Aliesha's help I was able to redevelop the program for the festival so it could be more youth-friendly. I had originally planned for a panel format, but Aliesha pointed out that the students might be bored by that. We decided to change it to a workshop format so it would be more enjoyable for the students, including having the Ballarat High School band perform over lunch time.
Write Now was held at the Meredith Memorial Hall on Friday 3rd April 2009 for National Youth Week 2009. There were six writers who came along on the day. They were: John Bowman, John Romeril, John Welford, Kate Fitt, Sarah Mainwaring and Margaret Clark.
Meet the festival guests
John Bowman wasn't a writer as such, but he had experience in working with young people at his chicken shop in Ocean Grove. He opened the festival with an inspirational speech.
John Romeril was a Victorian playwright from Castlemaine who had been writing for TV, film and theatre since 1968, with over 80 produced works to his name.
John Welford was a local ex-teacher who had an interest in writing, so it was great when he came on board with the project.
Kate Fitt was a Bendigo based writer who was studying professional writing at TAFE, so I invited her because she'd bring another aspect of writing to the project.
Sarah Mainwaring was another playwright from Melbourne who had performed many solo shows, working as a professional actor at Back to Back theatre in Geelong.
Margaret Clark was an author from Geelong who had an interest in writing from a very young age. She worked as a primary school teacher, preschool director, university lecturer, and a drug and alcohol educator, and has written over one hundred books about relationships, friendships and social issues.
Margaret brought examples of her work along to the festival, including some writing she did when she was in primary school. Some of her books include The Worst Nurse and the Mango Street series, as well as many others.
The day's activities
About 30 students came from various schools, including a couple of students from a Geelong high school. The high school students were really interested in writing, which was good to see.
After learning a few writing skills from the writers, the participants wrote some of their own short stories, which will be made into a publication that will be given to the students as a memory of their time at the festival.
The Ballarat High School band did an incredible live performance during lunch and at one stage, they asked the students to get up and dance. Having the band there was great because it kept the writers relaxed and the students interested.
When the Ballarat High School band finished their performance, the six writers were on a panel with one of the singers from the band, which gave students the opportunity to ask some more questions about writing.
Margaret Clark did most of the talking. When she was asked, "How much do you get paid?" everyone laughed. She told the student that she gets 10% of the profit for every book that is sold by the book shop, which is not a lot of money when you think about it.
Looking forward to next year
I was really happy with the way it all turned out because there were times when I doubted myself, but you can achieve anything if you believe and have faith in yourself.
The festival is over for 2009, but plans are already underway for a 2010 festival. I look forward in working with the staff at the Golden Plains Shire to ensure the event is more successful for the coming year.
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