Shaping Your Narrative with Roanna Gonsalves
Applications for this program have now closed.
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This craft-based class will focus on shaping your narrative by building tension in your fiction. Each week, the group will examine stories from Australia and around the world in order to understand how writers use point of view, characterisation, setting, language and the handling of time to create engaging fiction. Discussions will be guided by award-winning writer and teacher Roanna Gonsalves.
In addition, each writer will be encouraged to produce their own work to share with the class. Short writing exercises will be set weekly, inspired by the readings, and each writer will have several in-class opportunities for feedback from Roanna and the group.
In the final three weeks, each writer will be asked to produce a longer piece of fiction to share with the group. Constructive and thoughtful in-class feedback will be provided by the group and guided by Roanna.
There will be six participants in this class.
How to Apply
Entry to this course is by application. Writers will be selected based on the creative potential of their work, commitment to craft, openness to collaborating with your peers, and the balance in the group.
Course fees are $1395, with a 10% discount for Varuna alumni. Payment terms are negotiable if you cannot pay the whole fee upfront. Feel free to call 02 4782 5674 to discuss your application.
Applications now closed
Dates and Course Format
The Writer’s Process: Shaping your Narrative will commence in the week beginning 2021, and will be taught online over a ten-week period in two-hour blocks from 4-6pm on an agreed weekday. You will be using the writing platform WetInk to share your work and engage in extended discussion.
Week 1: Introduction to the course
Week 2: Point of view and desire
Week 3: Character and desire
Week 4: Place and tension
Week 5: Time and tension
Week 6: Language and tension
Week 7: Beginnings and endings. Q&A session.
Week 8: Guided workshops
Week 9: Guided workshops
Week 10: Guided workshops
Roanna Gonsalves
About Roanna
Roanna Gonsalves is the award-winning author of The Permanent Resident (UWAP) published in India and South Asia as Sunita De Souza Goes To Sydney (Speaking Tiger). Her writing has been compared to the work of Alice Munro and Jhumpa Lahiri. Her four-part radio series On the tip of a billion tongues, commissioned and broadcast by ABC RN’s Earshot program, is a portrayal of contemporary India through its multilingual writers. Roanna has been teaching and supervising creative writing students of all ages within communities as well as at schools and at New York University Sydney, UNSW, Western Sydney University and Macquarie University. Roanna was born and raised in Mumbai and now lives in Sydney. See more at roannagonsalves.com.au