31 January, 6:30PM

5-week Travel Memoir Course

When: Monday evening classes (once a week for five weeks, from Tues 31 January to Tues 27 February 2012)

Time: 6.30pm – 8.30pm

At: Sydney Writers Centre

Ground Floor

55 Lavender Street

Milsons Point NSW 2061

(street level, enter by terrace overlooking Lavender Bay)

Cost: $395 (includes GST)

**Details: www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/travelmemoir.htm

Course Description

Are you planning a fabulous trip overseas and think there’s a book in it? Do you travel regularly for work and believe you have a story to share with the world? Are you dreaming of moving to Bali and reinventing your life?

Google Maps may mean the world is shrinking, but the genre of travel writing just keeps getting bigger. Go into any bookstore and you’ll find a wide range of titles from literary to humorous, from a sea change in Tuscany to travelling the Andes on a donkey. Travel memoir in particular has a strong foothold in the publishing market. Take for example Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love – it’s sold over 7 million copies!

Publishers and the reading public love this genre. It appeals to our own sense of adventure. From the comfort of our armchair we are given a glimpse into another world.

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, whether you’re a writing traveller, or a travelling w riter — what’s most important is learning to be a good storyteller. Unlike travel journalism, literary travel writing uses many of the narrative techniques common in fiction.

It isn’t enough to string together disparate trips and hope it will become the next runaway bestseller: you need to craft a compelling story with credible characters, dialogue, atmosphere and revelation. This course will teach you how.

Packed with plenty of exercises, this intensive course will cover:

  • how to structure your travel memoir and make your journey unique from the first page
  • ways to transform dog-eared travel journals into a must-read manuscript
  • writing about place with new eyes and describing characters without clichés
  • popular genres of travel writing
  • how to write a compelling book proposal to get your work published
  • what to do before you leave and how to write on the road

Suited to first-time or seasoned writers, this Travel Memoir course invites you to get out of the armchair and write your own travel narrative. And by the way, your journey doesn’t have to be exotic. Local to you, is exotic to somebody else.

25 February, 10:00AM

Weekend Intensive Travel Memoir Workshop

When: Saturday 25 February & Sunday 26 February 2012 (two-day workshop)

Time: 10.00am – 4.00pm

At: Sydney Writers Centre

Ground Floor

55 Lavender Street

Milsons Point NSW 2061

(street level, enter by terrace overlooking Lavender Bay)

Details: www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/travelmemoir.htm

Cost: $395 (includes GST)

Course Description

Are you planning a fabulous trip overseas and think there’s a book in it? Do you travel regularly for work and believe you have a story to share with the world? Are you dreaming of moving to Bali and reinventing your life?

Google Maps may mean the world is shrinking, but the genre of travel writing just keeps getting bigger. Go into any bookstore and you’ll find a wide range of titles from literary to humorous, from a sea change in Tuscany to travelling the Andes on a donkey. Travel memoir in particular has a strong foothold in the publishing market. Take for example Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love – it’s sold over 7 million copies!

Publishers and the reading public love this genre. It appeals to our own sense of adventure. From the comfort of our armchair we are given a glimpse into another world.

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, whether you’re a writing traveller, or a travelling w riter — what’s most important is learning to be a good storyteller. Unlike travel journalism, literary travel writing uses many of the narrative techniques common in fiction.

It isn’t enough to string together disparate trips and hope it will become the next runaway bestseller: you need to craft a compelling story with credible characters, dialogue, atmosphere and revelation. This course will teach you how.

Packed with plenty of exercises, this intensive course will cover:

  • how to structure your travel memoir and make your journey unique from the first page
  • ways to transform dog-eared travel journals into a must-read manuscript
  • writing about place with new eyes and describing characters without clichés
  • popular genres of travel writing
  • how to write a compelling book proposal to get your work published
  • what to do before you leave and how to write on the road

Suited to first-time or seasoned writers, this Travel Memoir course invites you to get out of the armchair and write your own travel narrative. And by the way, your journey doesn’t have to be exotic. Local to you, is exotic to somebody else.

09 May, 6:30PM

5-week Travel Memoir Course

When: Wednesay evening classes (once a week for five weeks, from Wed 9 May to Wed 6 June 2012)

Time: 6.30pm – 8.30pm

At: Sydney Writers Centre

Ground Floor

55 Lavender Street

Milsons Point NSW 2061

(street level, enter by terrace overlooking Lavender Bay)

Cost: $395 (includes GST)

**Details: www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/travelmemoir.htm

Course Description

Are you planning a fabulous trip overseas and think there’s a book in it? Do you travel regularly for work and believe you have a story to share with the world? Are you dreaming of moving to Bali and reinventing your life?

Google Maps may mean the world is shrinking, but the genre of travel writing just keeps getting bigger. Go into any bookstore and you’ll find a wide range of titles from literary to humorous, from a sea change in Tuscany to travelling the Andes on a donkey. Travel memoir in particular has a strong foothold in the publishing market. Take for example Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love – it’s sold over 7 million copies!

Publishers and the reading public love this genre. It appeals to our own sense of adventure. From the comfort of our armchair we are given a glimpse into another world.

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, whether you’re a writing traveller, or a travelling w riter — what’s most important is learning to be a good storyteller. Unlike travel journalism, literary travel writing uses many of the narrative techniques common in fiction.

It isn’t enough to string together disparate trips and hope it will become the next runaway bestseller: you need to craft a compelling story with credible characters, dialogue, atmosphere and revelation. This course will teach you how.

Packed with plenty of exercises, this intensive course will cover:

  • how to structure your travel memoir and make your journey unique from the first page
  • ways to transform dog-eared travel journals into a must-read manuscript
  • writing about place with new eyes and describing characters without clichés
  • popular genres of travel writing
  • how to write a compelling book proposal to get your work published
  • what to do before you leave and how to write on the road

Suited to first-time or seasoned writers, this Travel Memoir course invites you to get out of the armchair and write your own travel narrative. And by the way, your journey doesn’t have to be exotic. Local to you, is exotic to somebody else.

15 May, 10:00AM

Travel Narratives: Taking the Next Step

At this year’s Sydney Writers' Festival Claire is running a one-day Travel Narratives workshop.

On: Tues May 15, 2011

From: 10am – 4pm

At: State Library of NSW, Level 1, Mitchell Wing, Macquarie Street, Sydney

Cost: $150/$140

Places strictly limited. Register at sydneytheatre.org.au or call 02 9250 1988

Description of Workshop

Whether you travel for business or pleasure, whether you’re a writing traveller – or a travelling writer – what’s important in literary travel memoir is learning how to craft a good story with credible characters, dialogue, atmosphere and revelation.

Filled with plenty of exercises this one-day course, taught by award-winning author Claire Scobie, teaches you how.

Topics covered include: how to structure your travel memoir, how to find the central idea of a place, ways to transform dog-eared travel journals into a must-read manuscript, popular genres of travel writing and tips on how to get published.

17 May, 10:00AM

Travel Writing in the 21st Century

At this year’s Sydney Writers' Festival Claire is running a Travel Writing in the 21st Century workshop.

On: Thurs May 17, 2011

From: 10am – 4pm

At: State Library of NSW, Level 1, Mitchell Wing, Macquarie Street, Sydney

Cost: $150/$140

Places strictly limited. Register at sydneytheatre.org.au or call 02 9250 1988

Description of Workshop

With the rapid evolution in online communication, travel writing is changing – and changing fast. Today, travel writers are thinking about their brand, their image, their next blog post.

Claire shows you how to navigate through this new world while crafting compelling stories, giving participants a broad understanding of travel writing in magazines, newspapers, blogs and online.

The workshop covers how to develop an idea and turn it into a polished piece of work, how to craft a story and evoke a sense of place, the use of photographs, revising, structuring and editing.