Setting: More Than Just The Scenery with Edwina Shaw

Super power your writing and create memorable story worlds through setting!

Setting is so much more than the scenery. Objects, household items, clothing and the weather can be used in multiple ways to bring your story to life. Ground the reader in your story world and use the secret power of setting details to develop character, push your plot and reveal underlying emotional undercurrents and themes. This workshop helps you understand and practice the multiple ways using setting details can enhance your stories.

Explore TS Eliot's objective correlative - using objects and other setting details to illustrate emotion and the key to writing setting well - unexpected specific sensory details.

Learning outcomes

As part of this workshop, you will learn to:

• Show the reader where your story takes place so they can visualise it and experience the story as it unfolds.
• Illustrate unspoken undercurrents through the use of setting details.
• Demonstrate and develop character through their surroundings, their clothing and the objects they carry.
• Understand and utilise TS Eliot's objective correlative - using objects and other setting details to illustrate emotion.
• Establish the ground rules of your story world - spec fiction and historical fiction writers need to pay close attention to the details of their story worlds.
• Get lots of practice using the key to good setting - unexpected specific sensory details.

Format

This is an in-person workshop with a focus on writing craft; it will be held at the State Library of Queensland. This workshop is suitable for writers of all levels and backgrounds.

About Edwina

Edwina Shaw is a QLD writer and editor of fiction, memoir and screenplays. She is the author of A Guide Through Grief, Thrill Seekers, In the Dark of Night and over 40 short pieces that have appeared in literary journals and anthologies including Best Australian Stories. She is the contributing editor of Bjelke Blues, co-editor of Our Inside Voices, and ghostwriter/editor of Hard As. She teaches creative writing at UQ and also runs Relax and Write Retreats and is co-director of Transformational Writing Retreats.
      

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