Writers at Play is a monthly creative gathering for writers at every stage.

No laptops. No formulas. No polishing.

Just pens moving, people on their feet, stories appearing in the room.

Each session centres on a theme and a series of playful exercises designed to generate ideas fast. You will write things you did not know you had in you. You will meet people who get you.

You do not need to be published. You need curiosity.

What happens on the night

Doors open with movement and creative prompts to get the room alive. The session theme is introduced and the evening begins. Expect playful exercises generating characters, dialogue, scenes, and ideas. Small group conversations build on what emerged. There is an optional lightning share where you can read work created during the night. You leave with Story Seeds, something to keep developing.

Sometimes a guest writer or storyteller drops in unannounced. Sometimes the room is everything you need. Everything handwritten. Everything experimental. Everything beginning with play.

The eight sessions

Monday 20 April: Get Into Character Character is physical before it is psychological. Movement games and embodiment exercises unlock characters that planning never could.

Monday 18 May: Say Everything Except That. The gap between what a character says and what they mean is where drama lives. Constraint games force subtext. Subtext creates tension. Tension creates story.

Monday 22 June: Wrong Answer Comedy is structure, not personality. From the most inappropriate, absurd response, something true always appears.

Monday 20 July: Bottom Up Worlds are built in specific detail, not general description. One true detail does more than a page of world-building notes.

Monday 17 August: Steal From Your Own Life. Real experience is the most powerful material a writer has and the hardest to use. Distance creates permission. Permission creates truth.

Monday 21 September: Nobody Leaves. Two characters. Incompatible needs. Neither allowed to leave or back down. Conflict is not argument. It is two legitimate needs that cannot both be satisfied.

Monday 19 October: One True Moment. Big ideas live inside small specific moments. The universal is only accessible through the particular.

Monday 16 November: One Page.The year closes with a witness session. Each writer brings one page, the best thing they made across the sessions. It gets read aloud. The room responds not with critique but with what landed.

Bring: A notebook. A pen. An open mind.

Where: WonderPlay Studio, Level 2, 101-111 William St, Darlinghurst 2010

WonderPlay Studio is an accessible and neuroinclusive environment.

When: 6:30pm to 8:30pm

Cost: $22 per session or $150 for all eight sessions

Contact the host of Writers At Play - Nobody Leaves | 21 Sept