Story by Harry Benscher
Photo by Ryan Low
Professional writer Kirsty Eager has given her five key steps to becoming a writer.
Eager has won the NSW Premiers Literary Award for her book, Raw Blue
During her presentation Kirsty explained what she believed were the most important elements of writing. These include ideas, pen and paper brainstorm, define basic storyline, write in scenes and the next draft.
She said that you should keep repeating this until a scene or the book is completed.
The purpose of using a pen and paper was that it encourages deeper levels of thinking in your writing according to Kirsty.
Kirsty said if you don’t enjoy what you’re writing you will be unable to relate to a story.
Other key tips she provided to story writing included who is it, where is it, what is going on and emotion.
She went on to brainstorm with the student to explore a story which would be interesting to them. She made three components for writing these sections which were – the subject matter, where they are and what they are feeling.
The students had two minutes to write a short story about these words. Eager said that the first draft is good if you get everything down.
Her other books include Saltwater vampires and Summer Skin.