{"id":4674,"date":"2015-05-25T13:35:27","date_gmt":"2015-05-25T03:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/?p=4674"},"modified":"2020-08-17T11:03:55","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T01:03:55","slug":"the-week-that-was-sydney-writers-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allisontait.com\/2015\/05\/the-week-that-was-sydney-writers-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"The week that was: Sydney Writers’ Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A.L.<\/a>What a week it’s been! I spent three days at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, immersed in the world of words, and what a wonderful world it is.<\/p>\n

My workshop ‘Writing With Children: How to have a novel and a family’ on Wednesday went extremely well, despite a few technical issues (aren’t there always technical issues???).<\/p>\n

Main three takeaways from that one:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 You must give yourself permission to write and make it a priority (because no-one else will)<\/p>\n

\u2022 We’re all busy, all the time, but we can decide what we want to be busy about<\/p>\n

\u2022 Getting a novel written is all about deeply unsexy things such as routine and discipline. If you wait for the Muse, you’ll never get it done.<\/p>\n

I had a wonderful group of writers and the feedback has been fantastic, so I’m thrilled. Relieved and thrilled.<\/p>\n

On Thursday I headed off to the State Library for a panel on Social Media for Writers, along with Jan Cornall, Kylie Scott and the effervescent\u00a0Walter Mason moderating.<\/p>\n

Main three takeaways:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 Don’t try to do everything all at once – choose what’s easy for you, and start with that.<\/p>\n

\u2022 No matter which platform you choose, engage with people, don’t simply blast messages and links at them.<\/p>\n

\u2022 It’s never too soon to begin. Social media is about time in the game, as much as time spent on the platform.<\/p>\n

It was a really fun, lively panel, and I will never forget Walter’s tips for smooth elbows (wear avocado skins on them for a while) – something he learnt via Twitter!<\/p>\n

Sunday was Family Day and it was HUGE. I took the boys with me and they were beyond excited to see Andy Griffiths speak (almost as excited as I was to meet him), and loved every minute of the Illustrator Battle Rounds. We visited Belinda Murrell in her Magic Garden, and I had a chance to read my book (as well as a Famous Five adventure) in the Enid Blyton StoryTime Clubhouse (that’s me reading in the photo, supplied by the lovely Emma Noble). Seriously, it was like being part of the Secret Seven.<\/p>\n

I have no takeaways from Sunday, beyond the fact that kids are the best fans and being at Sydney Writers’ Festival wearing a participant’s lanyard was one of the most exciting experiences of my writing life to date.<\/p>\n

And now, back to the computer…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a week it’s been! I spent three days at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, immersed in the world of words, and what a wonderful world it is. My workshop ‘Writing With Children: How to have a novel and a family’ on Wednesday went extremely well, despite a few technical issues (aren’t there always technical issues???). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,706,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice-for-writers","category-news","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nThe week that was: Sydney Writers' Festival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A.L. Tait at Sydney Writers' Festival: A look back at A. L. 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