Live & Local Workshop: How to Plot Your Novel

Name: Live & Local Workshop: How to Plot Your Novel
Start: 2026-05-22T09:30:00+1000
End: 2026-05-22T14:00:00+1000
Location: Coledale Community Hall, Meeting Room

Fri, 22 May, 9:30am - 2pm AEST

Coledale Community Hall, Meeting Room

Coledale NSW, Australia

South Coast Writers Centre

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Description

Join Alyssa J. Montgomery in a workshop on how to plot your novel, as part of Sydney Writers' Festival Live & Local,

Friday 22 May
9:30am – 2pm
Coledale Community Hall

Thinking of writing a novel and don’t know where to start?
Started a novel but find it’s running out of steam?

How to Plot Your Novel is the course for you!

Award winning and USA Today Best-selling author, Alyssa J. Montgomery is presenting her popular workshop “Plotting Your Novel”. The course is suitable for beginner and intermediate writers and will cover:

Characterisation and how it can drive your story
Understanding the importance of Goal, Motivation and Conflict
How to avoid the ‘saggy middle syndrome’
Pacing

No matter which genre you write, the visual plotting system outlined will help you keep track of all the threads of your novel and you’ll have a chance to start a plotting chart of your novel in the workshop.

LIVE & LOCAL 2026: TICKETS NOW ON SALE

You don't have to travel to Sydney to attend Sydney Writers Festival!

The SCWC is hosting SWF Live & Local sessions over two days, Friday 22 and Saturday 23 May in Coledale Community Hall. Enjoy sessions livestreamed direct from Sydney Writers Festival with some of the biggest names in literature right now: Trent Dalton, Roddy Doyle, Florence Knapp, Mick Herron, Suzie Miller and R.F. Kuang. Plus hear local authors Gwen Wilson, Lauren Keegan and Starre Vartan discuss books and writing live on stage.

Meet the Presenter

Alyssa J. Montgomery

Alyssa J. Montgomery is a local award winning and USA TODAY Bestselling author of twenty books —primarily romance/romantic suspense for Escape Publishing (Harlequin Enterprises Australia) but who is now writing crime. As well as writing, she has been a professional pianist, an international flight attendant with Qantas Airways, a speech pathologist and has obtained a Masters degree in Science. She has presented numerous workshops for SCWC including courses on Plotting, How to Write a Series, Writing Romance and was co-presenter of First time fiction for its initial two years.