Teen Writing Week: Day Two
Today was all about character and dialogue as participants explored what makes a character rounded ('secrets in their history' was a popular idea), and sympathetic to the reader. Many thought that a villain was much more interesting than a hero, even if the hero had the odds loaded in his or her favour through the use of magic.
Then a short detour down to the Love and Devotion exhibition in the Keith Murdoch Gallery to get some inspiration from the colourful images in the manuscripts there. Scenes between age-old characters were reborn, often with a twist.
Day two’s special guest Michael Webster (Programs Director RMIT School of Communications) spoke to our budding author’s today about the hows of getting into the publishing industry:
Volunteer/ Internships – volunteering is a great way to get your ‘foot in the door’. If you need a place to start the library offers a great work experience. You get to spend half a day in every department. Click here for details.
Use your connections – unfortunately publishing is a very small industry, sometimes it’s about who you know. Having a part time/ casual job as a bookseller is any would-be-publisher first port of call. You’re local bookshop is exposed to all areas of a publishing house: from warehouse to sales, marketing and publicity.
Michael also spoke of the breadth and divergence of publishing.
A doctor is a doctor and that's great. But he can only be a doctor in Australia. To be a doctor elsewhere he has to go back to school in that country and start all over again.
A publisher is a publisher anywhere. You can work in New York, London or Frankfurt in the blink of an eye.
Sounds exciting!
Morning tea's off record gossip turned to vampires - Rosalie (Twilight) a winner with teen writer 'because she hates Bella', which seemed to be reason enough for the others.
Tomorrow, it's time for a shared reading and feedback session - wait for some insightful comments.
