What I did today

Sometimes, work is plain fun.

Exhausting, demanding … but you get a blast. That’s what happened to me today. I was facilitator at a workshop organized by the KSP Foundation at their Writers’ Centre in the hills, at the edge of the Perth metropolitan area. Because this blog is read by an international audience, it’s necessary to describe some stuff in more detail than I otherwise would. So let me describe how the Perth foothills – visible for quite a few miles away, and which surround the coastal plain where the city stands – rise from the plateau, and seem green-grey and hazy from a distance.

Houses there are a mixture of old and heritage, new and contemporary, and everything in between. Change and development is happening everywhere, and one drives through road works quite a bit during the hour’s drive that leads there. It’s a pleasant drive, and when your ears pop from the ascent, you’re there. Katharine’s Place, as the centre is called, has been improved tremendously since I worked there, way back in the mid-90s. The addition of a cosy library, and the conversion of the washroom shed into an office, not to mention a set of cottages that accommodate visiting writers, are fantastic.

The house was once home to famous Perth author Katharine Susannah Prichard, who wrote Coonardoo and other works. There is a whole lot more about her and the centre here.

My workshop today, for which I prepared a Powerpoint presentation, was attended by 17 eager participants, and we enjoyed talking about the synopsis, the pitch, how they are related, and what their uses might be in this changing world we call ‘publishing’. It was a silent room sometimes, during the scribbling exercises I set. But there were animated moments too, when the discussion involved everyone present. It was quite a buzz to sit back and observe the different reactions to my statements on the screen, as they popped up.

I hope I gave them enough to take home and digest in the peace of their own individual writing rooms. Each in their own way, all participants had something to contribute, and from the note taking I watched, they all found stuff worthy of writing down.

It was an intense, busy three hours, and when we emerged again into the eucalyptic air, which bristled with the warmth of a sunny Autumn afternoon, it was delightful to hear birdcalls and the hum of traffic from the highway. Earlier, I wandered down to the cottages and saw the old prickly pear bush is still there – about three times the size I remember – and an encounter with a bobtail lizard, well over a foot long, was a charming addition to my enjoyment of the place.

‘Hello, Bobby,’ I said. How could I ignore him? He ignored me, keeping shock still. Something to write about, I thought: and this blog is the perfect instance for it.

Altogether a perfect afternoon: hard work, because one must prepare well for something like this, of course. But it was infinitely rewarding, and nothing beats meeting a group of writers to get back some of the fading enthusiasm and inspiration.

So I just thought I’d share this with you today.

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Rosanne Dingli occasionally teaches writing and delivers workshops, which reflect the changes taking place in publishing today. Read more about this author and her publications on her website.

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