Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival: Day Two

On day two, I woke in the dark to the sound of a long hiss, followed by… beeping?

I lay there for a minute while the grogginess slowly faded. Then I remembered, despite my beautiful surroundings, there was a servo (gas station) next door, and someone was probably pumping up their tyres.

Oh well, you can’t have it all.

I enjoyed a lazy morning in my hotel room before my writing event for the day, a flash fiction masterclass run by Gillian O’Shaughnessy.

I arrived at the same venue we had attended the night before, which was within walking distance of my hotel.

I’d just walked up the street with a banana bread in one hand and coffee in the other, juggling my notebook while eating and drinking. On arrival, I realised I’d left my water bottle at home, and maybe I’d had one too many drinks the previous night.

The venue was also quite busy with a huge line going into the main auditorium. I knew I was in a different area this time, but couldn’t see any signage, so I asked one of the volunteers, who pointed to a door over in the corner of the room.

As I took a moment to catch my breath, I overheard some people who had just met making small talk. One of them said she wrote her first novel at the age of 12. I started to wonder if I might have been in a little over my head.

When it was time for the class to start, they opened the doors.

Circular tables were arranged around the room with notepads and pens on each one. I’d been so worried about what to bring, but in the end, I really hadn’t needed anything because it was all there. They even had a table off to the side where we could make tea, and coffee, and cold water for those who’d had too many wines the night before.

I grabbed a trusty glass of water and took a seat at an empty table in the middle, making sure to get a spot facing the screen.

When it was time to start, Gillian came out and introduced herself. Gillian is currently celebrating her book, Salt City Run Away, a collection of, you guessed it, flash fiction stories.

We were welcome to get up and move around or make tea and coffee if needed. She explained that we were there to have a fun morning. As she continued to talk, we had some latecomers, and each time a new person came in, Gillian greeted them with a friendly smile and explained where we were up to.

Gillian then asked about our writing experiences, and I quickly learnt that we had people with all different levels of writing experience, from those who wanted to learn how to start writing to published authors of multiple books.

At one point during the session, parenting author Maggie Dent popped her hand up to contribute to the discussion. I thought it was great to see someone of Maggie's calibre still attending workshops and learning from other writers.

Gillian started by explaining what exactly a flash fiction story is. I learnt that all flash fiction stories are short stories, but not all short stories are flash fiction.

Some of the elements of flash fiction are:

• They start right in the middle of the story.
• There’s no backstory or scene setting.
• The characters often don’t have names, because there’s no time to introduce them.

We then moved on to our first of many writing exercises, Word Cricket. She pulled out a list of words from her pocket, and we all started writing.

I’ll discuss the writing exercises in more detail in another piece.

At the end of the first exercise, we had essentially written a short story. Gillian then invited people to share their stories. I decided to be brave, put my hand up and share mine. Through shaking hands, I managed to hold the microphone and read my piece.

At one point, I stopped and said that I thought I might have cheated as the word was “Drift,” and I had altered it to “Drifted,” to suit my story.

After finishing, I received a round of applause. Gillian assured me I hadn't cheated at all; in her class, anything goes.

Once we'd heard a few more stories, Gillian made a joke that we'd all done our work, and we could go to the pub. We all had a laugh, but I’d enjoyed the first exercise so much, I couldn’t wait to try more.

The next exercise involved writing a list of observations we saw around the room. Gillian explained that this was an important exercise as the best thing we can do to bring our writing alive is to pay attention.

When we heard some of the results, it was interesting to see how everyone sees the room differently.

After that, we looked at a famous six-word micro-fiction story:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

The way this sentence becomes a story is by combining an event ("for sale"), another event ("baby shoes"), and a movement ("never worn"), creating a story and plot that suggests a much larger narrative.

Later in the class, we learnt that this could also be seen as a “hermit crab” short story, where the story is disguised in something such as a shopping list or a for-sale advert.

Gillian then went on to read one of her flash fiction stories, Little Drunks, which was about children stealing sips of alcohol from adults on Christmas Day.

At the end of the piece, she asked for our opinion on where we thought the story turned from a fun party to something that might be a little more sinister. It was interesting to see the different opinions from the class, and none of them were wrong.

We followed this up with a stream of consciousness exercise, which I found a little challenging as our instructions were not to stop or edit our work, and I often find myself stopping to read and edit what I’ve just written.

By the end of that exercise, I had a sore hand from handwriting so much throughout the session. What had originally started as a pain in my hand had moved up through my right arm and all the way to my shoulder. I’m so used to typing everything now, and haven’t written properly by hand in a long time.

I got a real sense for what a kind person Gillian was when, at one point during the class, someone shared a story about their family member, which was quite heartbreaking. Gillian had no issues in reaching over and hugging the complete stranger.

Before ending the session, Gillian gave us some closing questions to ask ourselves while writing flash fiction:

• Does the first line ring like a bell?
• Does your last line stick?
• Does it give too much away?

As with Day One, I’d never heard of Gillian O’Shaughnessy before, but I’m grateful to have had the pleasure of attending her masterclass, and I’m excited to read her book when I can purchase it next month.

Following Gillian’s advice, I then went to the pub. But as I sat there in the outdoor seating area, feeling the glow of my two glasses of wine, I listened to the rain pattering on the plastic screen with a small smile on my face.

I was feeling so inspired after the class that I really couldn’t wait to get back to my hotel and start writing.

This is a little reel I made of day two.