Last week, I spent the week at writing residency awarded through New Pacific Studios and The Wellington Children’s book Association.

New Pacific Studios is a beautiful and inspiring place. This was a fabulous experience, and I got lots of work done on my next book. The cottage I was staying in had a bunk bed in a cupboard, so keeping Harry Potter in mind it seemed the perfect place to work!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While I was away, class continued with Mary and guest tutor William Dewey.

William Dewey is the author of two books for adults, Without a Soul to Move and My Tender Jaw. Originally from the US, Will has run creative writing workshops with eighth grade students from St Joseph’s School in Montana, and with young people at Evolve Youth Service here in Wellington.

The class was loads of fun for the kids as well as the tutors on Tuesday. Will led an exercise focussing on dialogue in which the kids wrote scenes featuring two pieces of unrelated dialogue they had never seen before. This resulted in some very creative and definitely entertaining writing! For the next exercise the kids got to practise their acting skills. We played a theatre sports game which again gave the kids an opportunity to flex their dialogue muscles. It became apparent that we not only have some very talented writers amongst our group, but some pretty good comedians as well!

Will’s third book for adults The Homeland of Pure Joy will be launched at Unity Books Wellington at 6pm on 15th November. For more details please see the Unity Books Facebook Page here or join the event here.  Mary and I will be attending, and we’d love to see you there!

Happy Writing!
Helen and Mary