First Draft with Jennifer Mills

When?

March 9th, 2022 7:00 PM — June 1st, 2022 8:00 PM

Where?

When?

March 9th, 2022 7:00 PM — June 1st, 2022 8:00 PM

Where?

*this program will now be held online* Are you looking for professional support and a strong peer network to help you finish your book or refine your first draft? If you're working on a first draft or a draft that just isn't working, Writers SA's First Draft program can help you shape your novel and stay on track.


**delayed until March 9th**

Fortnightly online group meetings, access to quarterly workshops, feedback and consultations, and group support will get you another step closer to completing your novel. Facilitator Jennifer Mills will also offer expert advice in the way of characterisation, plot, setting, dialogue and so much more!

This program is suitable for anyone working on a long-form writing project, including fiction and narrative nonfiction in any genre.

 

Meeting topics might include:

  • What’s stopping you or your story?
  • Characterisation
  • Goal, Motivation, Conflict
  • Settings and place
  • Dialogue
  • Publishing potential and options.

 

The 2022 program includes: 

  • 8 fortnightly group meetings (dates are below)
  • Access to a wide selection of workshops with 6 credits to use across our online and in person events. (T&Cs apply)
  • One in-depth consultation about your writing project with a Writers SA staff member
  • An expert critical reading of your first three chapters plus one page of feedback
  • One Work Space writing intensive day
  • Access to a private online space to share work and ideas with your peers

 

Meeting dates: 7pm to 8pm Mar 9, 23, Apr 6, 20, May 4, 18, Jun 1 & 15

This program will now be held online from 7pm to 8pm via Zoom.
 


 

About Jennifer Mills

Jennifer Mills is the author of the novels The Airways (Picador, 2021), Dyschronia (Picador, 2018), Gone (UQP, 2011) and The Diamond Anchor (UQP, 2009) and a collection of short stories, The Rest is Weight (UQP, 2012). In 2019 Dyschronia was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Australia’s most prestigious prize for literary fiction, the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature, and the Aurealis Awards for science fiction. The Rest is Weight was shortlisted for the 2013 Queensland Literary Awards Steele Rudd Award for an Australian Short Story Collection and longlisted for the 2013 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

In 2012 Mills was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist and in 2014 she received the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship from the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Previous awards include the 2008 Marian Eldridge Award for Young Emerging Women Writers, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, and the Northern Territory Literary Awards.

Mills’ fiction, essays and criticism have been widely published, including in Best Australian Stories, Best Australian Essays, Griffith Review, The Guardian, Heat, Island, the Lifted Brow, Lithub, Meanjin, New Australian Stories, Overland, Review of Australian Fiction, The Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Review of Books, and The Washington Post. Mills’ creative residencies include time at Varuna and Bundanon, an Asialink residency in Beijing in 2010, and a residency at Yaddo in NY in 2015.

She is a regular writer for Overland literary journal, where she was fiction editor from 2012-2018.

 

Members $890 / Non-members $1390

Venue: Zoom

 

—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!

 

*Program Terms and Conditions

- The six workshops refer to both digital and in-person sessions and include: 3 1.5-hour workshops, two 3-hour workshops and one 6-hour workshop. The workshops may be selected of your choice or by recommendation from Writers SA. You must use these credits in 2022. Outstanding credits will not be held over. These cannot be exchanged for any other service or refunded. There will be a maximum of two credit-holders at each event until a minimum number of paid participants is reached and will be on a first-come-first-served basis after emailing [email protected] to lodge your request. If the workshop is at capacity for credit-holders, you can opt to pay for the workshop or join a wait-list until the event reaches the minimum number of paid participants.

-Participation in this series does not guarantee publication.

-In depth consultations and First Feedback will be carried out by a relevant staff member of Writers SA

 

 

Registration Details

Registration for this event ended on March 9th, 2022 3:00 PM

Are you a member?

Not yet a Writers SA member? Join here for as little as $60!

Writers SA members receive

  • 30% discount on all workshops and services (excluding Teen Writers Club)
  • a free 20-minute consultation upon sign up
  • advice, information and support in your writing activities
  • career pathway support and opportunities
  • access to a community of writers
  • opportunities to meet industry professionals
  • opportunities for publication and promotion

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