Make 2024 your year – get the tools and support you need to complete the first draft of your novel, with Queensland Writers Centre's flagship program for emerging writers.

Attend five full-day online workshops from August to December, each detailing the steps you need to take when writing the first draft of your novel. Run by published fiction author, genre fiction tertiary teacher, and author coach, Dr Ruth McIver, this course will give you practical advice and inspiration so you can maintain your writing pace and finish the year writing 'the end'. Dr McIver will also provide written feedback on up to 10 pages of your work-in-progress.

Learning outcomes

You will hone your writing skillset and focus and work to draft a full-length novel through practical exercises, group discussions, critique sessions, and homework that covers the key areas listed below:

Develop your personal skills in the craft of narrative writing;
Learn techniques to generate and pre-draft ideas;
Structure your narrative on a macro and micro level;
Craft engaging characters with their own goals and flaws;
Build your novel's world and setting;
Find your voice and writing style;
Hone your focus and discipline; and
Develop an appreciation for the business of writing and publishing.

Course dates

10:30am - 4:30pm, Sunday 25 August
10:30am - 4:30pm, Sunday 22 September
10:30am - 4:30pm, Sunday 27 October
10:30am - 4:30pm, Sunday 24 November
10:30am - 4:30pm, Sunday 15 December

Each workshop will be in three sessions:

Session 1 - 10:30am – 12:00pm
Lunch - 12:00pm – 12:45pm
Session 2 - 12:45 – 2:45pm
Break - 2:45pm – 3:00pm
Session 3 - 3:00pm – 4:30pm

Format

This is an intensive and collaborative five-part online course with a focus on craft. It is a course for dedicated writers of all levels; beginner, intermediate and emerging. Each session will combine explicit teaching of skills and techniques with interactive discussion and writing exercises and roundtable workshopping of works in progress.

Flexible payment plans are available for this course. Please contact Queensland Writers Centre at admin@qldwriters.org.au or call (07) 3842 9922.

About Ruth

Dr Ruth McIver is an award-winning crime novelist and genre fiction teacher. Her debut novel, I Shot the Devil won the Richell Prize in 2018, and her unpublished manuscript, Nothing Gold, was shortlisted for the Banjo prize in the same year. Her Audible original, Blackout, was released in April 2023. I Shot the Devil and The Sound are being released by Blackstone in June 2024. She is represented by the Story Factory.

For more information about Queensland Writers Centre’s Program of Events and answers to FAQs, please visit: www.queenslandwriters.org.au/program-info