Modern magical realism is not only about creating magic in your stories, but also about transforming the ordinary, giving it a sense of wonder and emotional punch. In this workshop author Tabitha Bird will walk participants through a series of exercises designed to take your own experience, truth, or life lessons and weave them into a carefully-balanced novel of light and dark, reframing our world through the use of magical realism.

Explore creative and non-traditional avenues to find the seed of emotional truth in your own lived experiences and then build on this to create truly magical stories. We’ll use the power of our own stories to create deeply meaningful fiction that inspires others to use their imagination and heal what hurts us.

We’ll experiment with how the use of magic in fiction creates a safe space to explore important and emotionally-charged topics. We will also examine the lightness, courage and ultimately uplifting ways that magic balances the darkness with the light in such stories. This workshop explores the tools of magical realism in writing as a way to capture the human condition and reframe our world and important social issues through the use of magical elements in fiction. 

Participants will:

• Explore creative and non-traditional ways to find the seed of your own emotional truth from your lived experiences
• Add practical tools to your writer’s tool box to help generate your own magical realism writing through these out-of-the-box writing exercises that will incorporate your own sense of heritage, diversity and lived stories
• Explore the specific elements needed in a 3 Act Story structure when writing magical realism and how that differs to other fictional writing
• What are the rules of magical writing and how do you make them your own?
• Learn how to use magic in story telling to create ultimately hopeful literature that will inspire your readers

Appropriate for writers of magical realism, fantasy, or any fiction writers wanting to use elements of magic in their writing, however please note that this workshop will not cover basic story structure or characterisation.

About Tabitha Bird

Tabitha Bird is an award-winning magical realism writer and artist who lives and works in the rural township of Boonah, Queensland. By day Tabitha may be found painting, working on her next book or with her husband, three beautiful boys and Chihuahua. Tabitha’s debut novel, A Lifetime of Impossible Days, won the 2020 Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award. The Emporium of Imagination is her second novel. In 2021, Tabitha was awarded the QLD Literary Awards- Writer’s Fellowship to sponsor the creation of her third manuscript.

This event has a strict cap on numbers due to Covid-19 venue regulations. You must purchase an individual ticket for every person intending to come to the workshop. Unfortunately no exceptions can be made.

*Writers SA will continue to adhere to all government advice related to the pandemic. This means our physical workshop locations could change or move online, if necessary. If health advice changes and alters the delivery of this session, ticket holders will be notified immediately.

—Writers SA members must be logged in to receive the member discount. If you would like to use a workshop credit to book in, please contact [email protected] at least five working days before the workshop commencement date. Our staff don’t work full time and we don’t want you to miss out!

—Registrations will close 4pm on the Friday prior to a weekend event and 5pm the day of for an evening event to ensure all participants have the relevant links and information during Writers SA business hours.

—Members of other writing centres in the National Writers Centre Network can access our member discount. Contact [email protected] with your membership number to make your booking.

Price: Writers SA Member $77/Non-member $115

Venue: City Library, Tech Hub, Rundle Mall, Adelaide, SA

Please note that this is an interstate author and if travel is restricted, this even will be held online.