INSPIRING WRITERS WORKSHOP ✨

WARNING: Contains a bit of foul language (sorry).

On Thursday, myself and a lot of my classmates were granted the opportunity to visit the University of Canterbury to participate in the Inspiring Writers Workshop presented by WORD Christchurch as part of their writing festival 2018. We all had a great time and I certainly came home inspired to write not only my usual narrative and poetry, but make an attempt at some science writing and rap. 

At the workshop, our first lecture was from a lovely woman named Laurie Winkless, who is a science writer originally from Ireland but now resides in Wellington, New Zealand. What is a science writer you may ask? A science writer is a writer whose job is to explain scientific theories, experiments, general information and translate this information into simpler words for the... less-scientifically-wise public. A way I could explain it to kids is, science writers are the authors behind Sci Pads and other science textbooks - through the use of basic words and definitions, they can teach otherwise complex scientific information to the general public and younger pupils. 
Laurie talked about how she became a science writer. Growing up, she was always a lover of science, but she never planned to become a science writer. After internships at the Kennedy Space Centre and a lot of studying about astrophysics etc, she started a secret blog dedicated to her science work. Through the use of Twitter, Laurie was able to grow more confident with her writing until she was approached by a publisher. After a long 2 year period of writing, planning, and more writing, this publisher (who she said was a lovely man named Mark) ended up publishing her very first book, Science in The City. 
Science in The City is a book about the science... behind cities. For example, all the tunnels underneath the ground, the importance of trees in large cities, etc. One piece of information that really interested me was what she explained to be fatbergs. Fatbergs are basically a congealed mass made up of non-biodegradable things that really shouldn't be put down sewer drains - I'm talking diapers, wet wipes, grease, etc. Fatbergs block sewer drains, and it often takes a long time to get them out. They're found in drains all over the word, including in four of New Zealand's cities, Laurie told us. She talks about the science behind fatbergs and the importance of not putting non-biodegradable items down drains in Science in The City. 
One tip Laurie gave us writers was to practise, practise, and practise. She explained that it was how she got to where she is today and talked about how it really does honestly help improve your writing. This was a really fun, interesting lecture for me personally and I can now say I'm a pretty big fan of Laurie Winkless.

After a short tour of the university, and Chloe being told to shut up in the library, we returned to the lecture hall to attend talks from Juno Dawson, Hollie McNish, and Omar Musa. 

Juno Dawson is a thriller author who read the first chapter or so of her book, Clean. To be very honest, it sounds like an amazing book so far. Clean tells the story of Lexi, a drug addict, and her journey to a rehab centre. I've read countless books about going to rehab before and they've all been pretty similar (but still amazing) but to my surprise, the first part of Clean that we read was much different to them all. Juno explained that Lexi was a really interesting and fun character to create and write about, so much in fact that it took her an astounding two years to ever start writing again. 
Next, Juno read us the very first part of her very-own episode of the BBC's Doctor Who, which she very impressively wrote all by herself. As Juno is someone who grew up writing imaginary episodes of the show, it is so awesome to see her success as a young author. Doctor Who is a very good TV show in my opinion, so despite the fact it will probably be months before it finally airs in New Zealand, I'm excited to watch Juno's episode!

"My shoulders are fucking delicious,"
- the wise words of Hollie McNish, a British poet who was our second guest speaker. She is, obviously, a poet, and loves doing it. She read a few of her poems - one about growing up as a teenager without technology and how free it felt without the risk of photos getting leaked online, and some about her experience as a young mother. My favourite of her poems was about her daughter, who, as she explained, sat in front of a full-length mirror one day, clapping and laughing at her own baby body. This inspired Hollie to write a poem at that moment about body positivity, "My body is amazing," is just one of the few quotes from that poem. Her last poem, which was quite amusing for pretty much everyone in the lecture theatre, was written about her shoulders, which Hollie describes as "fucking delicious". Her shoulders are her personal favourite body part of hers; adorned with freckles, she says. I enjoyed Hollie's talk because I love writing poetry myself, not that I'd ever share it with the world, and she definitely inspired me to write - despite my long lasting writer's block I've had for the past month.



Our last talk was from a Malaysian-Australian rapper and slam poet, Omar Musa. He entertained and inspired us with a few of his own extremely-powerful raps/poetry, including one about his favourite Malaysian curry ("this stuff is hot, woo" is a prominent line in that certain rap). He also moved us with a rap/song about his own experience with depression and emotions and how he learned to 'keep playing'. Despite my less-extensive knowledge of the rap world, or slam poetry for that matter, I thoroughly enjoyed Omar's speech, and it moved me to know that someone else who suffered from depression could help others through it at the same time. 

That brings us to the end of the writing workshop blogspot. I think everyone of us could say that we came out of that ready to write some more. I really, really admired all of the guest speakers that flew over to New Zealand to talk to all these secondary schools, and the stories that came with them. 

Were you at the writer's workshop? Did you enjoy it, and who was your favourite speaker? Let me know in the comments. 
:)) 

sneaky mid yawn shot