Saturday 24th Nov, 1-6pm-ish, Gallery 2, North East Artisans, 122 Bridge St, Benalla 

Cost is free, donations appreciated (goes towards electricity usage at NEA and if there is some leftover, into the BRW kitty)

Join us for an afternoon of writing, possibly evening too, if people want, and can keep on writing into the night.

Bring whatever masterpiece/s you are working on. 

Bring any writing problems you're having and we'll have brainstorming sessions to help you solve them.
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Bring food to share.

Come prepared to write all afternoon! Make sure you have plenty of pens, notepads, coffee, sugary &/or salty snacks, laptop power cord..
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Carla

Carla from Broken River Writers and Michaela from Gallery Gigs have put together a festive creative program for the Benalla Festival featuring the Sugar Fed Leopards. 

On Friday 13th November local writers met at NEA for the second of the Broken River Writers Discovery Workshop series, this time with Jake and Sam Bowtell of Killer Pig Productions.  The focus in this workshop was to discover more about writing for film.   Having immersed themselves in film production since 2009, if not before, Jake and Sam proved to have much to share with the group.  

Jake and Sam introduced us to the story behind, then screened their film 'Slope'.  It proved to be a wonderful springboard for a rich and vibrant discussion during which we seemed to switch seamlessly between responding as viewers and responding as writers.  While the session included a rich 'film appreciation' element, the writers' process was regularly interspersed and explored by Jake and Sam.  

We left Jake and Sam's thought provoking discovery workshop with an understanding that writing for film includes writing for silence; that the excitement of film making relates to its many facets -  with considerations about the use of particular actors; sound; lighting and so much more involved in film production.

​Thank you Jake and Sam!

Watch out for Carla Gardner's writing about this event on the Broken River Writers' Facebook Page!  

An Occasional Blog' by

Bev Lee

Broken River Writers are a group of passionate story tellers from the Benalla region seeking to broaden and enrich our story telling horizons and make a difference in our community. To do this we are working under the umbrella of North East Artisans and with the Benalla Library. It doesn’t matter what your preferred genre is, all writers are welcome – among our number there are people who write poetry, science fiction, fantasy, memoirs, romance, horror so on and so forth.

We meet together on the last Wednesday of the month for Writers’ Corner at the Benalla Library, 5-6:30pm, where we chat about life and writing, share what we’re working on, ideas, ask questions, inspire each other, sometimes even learning something new.

Each month we set a theme or prompt of some kind and encourage people to have a go, which you can find on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BrokenRiverWrtiers/  This month we have three different prompts to choose from.  It is hoped that through this exercise we can each choose a piece we’ve written to include in our very own Broken River Writers book of short stories which we hope to publish some time in 2018.

Discovery Workshops are our new project.  These supplement Writers’ Corner meetings by bringing in a variety of Guest Speakers on the 2nd Friday of the month to share their expertise in the art of story-telling, and stretch writers of all levels through a variety of skill building exercises.  During a Discovery Workshop, Guest Speakers will share their journey, inspire and inform, share from their wealth of knowledge and help us improve our story telling skills.

A Discovery Workshop will run for 2-3 hours and look something like this:

• Short welcome by BRW introducing Guest Speaker & other information
• Guest Speaker talks about “story telling journey”
• Guest Speaker introduces first Writing Exercise topic
• 10-15 minutes of creative writing
• 10-15 minutes of reading pieces out to the group (if you want to)
• Supper break & chat
• Guest Speaker introduces second Writing Exercise topic
• 10-15 minutes of creative writing
• 10-15 minutes reading pieces out to the group (if you want to)
• BRW wrap up.
• NB: a 3 hour session means at least 3 Writing Exercises, maybe more or something special, like a one act play.

Genres covered in Discovery Workshops will be as diverse as story-telling itself, which takes on so many different forms – plays, film, oral tradition, poetry, song, illustration, music, memoirs, theatre, journalism, young adults, children's, horror, historical, healing... There will be a small cost of $5 to help us cover the cost of a scrummy supper, and sometimes authors bring their books and do an impromptu signing, so come prepared.

If you know of any story-tellers who might be interested (local or otherwise), or, if you have any particular story-tellers you’d like to hear from, let us know and we’ll add them to our list. Thanks to the Tomorrow Today Foundation we have some funding to pay a small fee and contribute towards travel costs.
 
Our first Discovery Workshop is on Friday 11th August, 6-9pm with playwright Gabriel Bergmoser at North East Artisans, 122 Bridge St, Benalla.
 
A Writers’ Corner for younger writers (under 15) and three Discovery Workshops catering specifically for Children, Teens and Young Adults are also under development.
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Discovery Workshops are sponsored by Broken River Writers, North East Artisans and the Tomorrow Today Foundation.

Please contact Carla Gardner, NE.A Secretary and Events Coordinator/Broken River Writers Coordinator on 57666453 or email northeastartisans@gmail.com subject heading ‘Broken River Writers Discovery Workshops’ if you would like to be involved and for additional information.  





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​An Occasional Blog by Carla Gardner,
August 2017 

Broken River Writers' first of five Discovery Workshops will be held on August 11th, 6-9pm at North East Artisans, featuring Gabriel Bergmoser, Bitten By Productions and the one act play, Heroes.   Discovery Workshops bring you Guest Speakers who have a passion for telling stories. They'll share their journey and skills throughout the night, so bring paper and pens and get ready to be inspired.  Brought to you by Broken River Writers, North East Artisans & the Tomorrow Today Foundation

Discovery Workshop is free, but bring $5 for a scrumptious supper.

Writer and NEA secretary Carla Gardner, an active member of Benalla Library's 'Writers' Corner', is currently spreading the news about October's Writing Workshops and November's National Novel Writing Month activities at the Library..

October: Writing Workshops

October 5th - 5.30 to 7 pm Join Elisabeth Holdsworth, novelist, essayist, poet, writer of short stories and inaugural winner of the Australian Book Review Calibre Prize and local author Brent Towns for a 'Planning and Plotting' workshop - Bookings Benalla Library phone 5762 2069

October 19th - Join Gabe Bergmoser, playwright and author of the recently published Boone Shepard for a 'Creating Characters and your World' workshop.  Bookings - Benalla Library phone 5762 2069

November: National Novel Writing Month  (NaNoWriMo'

"Sign up and set yourself a writing challenge for November'
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''Come write In!' at the Sir Edward 'Weary' Learning Centre, Saturday 12 November 1 - 5 pm.

Bookings are essential for many of these events.  For more information or to make a booking, contact Benalla Library on 035762 2069.