True to Quiet Writing’s focus, I have been writing quietly for the past few years. Following my partner’s sudden tragic death in late 2022, it was all I could do to keep moving ahead. Grief affects cognitive space immensely and creativity has often felt like a far off land. Writing behind the scenes has been an anchor and guide throughout this time. But as I wrote recently: ‘It’s the beginning of a new writing time‘. It’s time to reignite my writing in a more committed way and sharing it through re-engaging with craft and community. The Rose Scott Women Writers Festival in late June with its suite of introductory workshops was the perfect place to start this new journey.
As the Festival Event page highlights, this is ‘Australia’s only literary festival run, owned and operated by women for women writers.’ It was held at The Women’s Club in Sydney, which has a long history as a safe and nurturing place for woman and ideas. It opened in 1901 to ‘fill some of the needs of intellectual and academic women’. It was the perfect place to focus on women and hearing women’s voices as I made this step into reconnecting with my writing history and voice after a tender and difficult time.
Here are some personal reflections, learning and highlights from the Festival. This post covers the three workshops leading into the Festival and the following post (to come) focuses on the main Festival event.
Workshops and re-engaging with writing
The Festival began with three workshops in the days leading up the main event. I was determined to make the most of my festival attendance, so signed up for all of them. Plus, the topics were right in my zone of interest and craft needs. They drew a wide cross-section of women with some already engaged in writing projects and poetry. Others saw the workshops as a way of making a start or reconnecting with writing. The workshops provided the opportunity for an intimate encounter with the authors and their areas of expertise.
The writing workshops were:
- Writing Historical Fiction: Finding the Story, Finding Your Voice – Cindy Davies with Dr Judith Chapman
- From Archive to Memoir: Crafting Life Stories – Tess Scholfield-Peters with Michaela Kowalski
- Sounding Out Poetry – Paris Rosemont with Ally Burnham
Each workshop began with a conversation about the author and their work, followed by a practical writing workshop. Here’s an overview and what I experienced and gained from each workshop.
Writing Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction is a passion of mine as a reader and writer. I have a 36,009 word draft of a historical fiction novel. Writing those words in November, 2022, I reached that word count on 25 November, 2022. I was taking part in NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, aiming to write 50,000 words in a month as a way of finally starting the novel I longed desired to write. Happy with that progress, I wrote on 25 November 2025:
I’ve accepted that 36,000 words is a decent and strong effort for Nano this year and I don’t need to bust a gut to complete the 50K. As good as it would be, it’s been a long year and a challenging one in many years, so that is enough for now.
It felt good to reach this point and know I could pick it up whenever it felt right for me. And then my cherished partner, Keith, passed away suddenly three days later. The world turned completely upside down and sideways, sliding me into a new paradigm. With no cognitive space for writing like this, I could not engage with the draft again until two and a half years later, just before the workshop. Opening the file, I saw with surprise I was well organised and had created characters I couldn’t even remember. But there it was, ready for me to return. So, the Historical Fiction workshop was the perfect opportunity to connect with thinking about that story and my craft again.
Historical Fiction Writing Workshop with Cindy Davis
Cindy shared how she finds her story and researches her novels. Her fiction is based in Iran, Australia and Turkiye. We learnt about the world of harems in 1520s Turkiye which features in Cindy’s latest novel, The Favourite of the Harem. Throughout, Cindy shared about how she incorporates fascinating details she has discovered to include in her novel.
The writing workshop built on this to focus us on our storyline and finding our voice. We were asked key questions to guide us in on the story and central idea, voice (person), main character, setting, research and our pitch. It was useful to think about the key structural elements of our writing or planned project. After writing 36,000 words nearly three years ago, it was helpful to answer the question:
What is your central idea – the story you want to tell?
I spent the most time on this question. Writing Wholehearted:Self-leadership for women in transition and the accompanying Workbook,taught me that having a clear focus on the what and why of our longer projects is a powerful touchstone. I spent time on this a few years ago, but it’s something I need to keep working through to get clarity. The workshop was an opportunity to hear what others wrote about this and the other questions. We learnt about each other’s projects and began some powerful conversations, which continued into the days of the festival.
From Archive to Memoir Workshop with Tess Scholfield-Peters
Of the three, this was my favourite workshop as it led to striking insights on writing archive-based narrative. Tess Scholfield-Peters is a writer and academic at the University of Technology, Sydney. In conversation with Michaela Kolawski, Tess shared about researching and writing her book Dear Mutzi, drawn from her PhD research. Dear Mutzi centres on Tess’s grandfather’s story of coming to Australia from Nazi Germany. It is told primarily through her great-grandparents’ letters to their son.
Harry Peters – formerly Hermann Pollnow, known to his family as Mutzi, fled Germany and never saw his parents again. They died in concentration camps. The story of love and circumstance is told through the letters woven as archival material along with imagined narrative.
I learnt in this session about ‘documentary fiction’, weaving archives in as part of narrative. That was a lightbulb moment for me. ‘Can you do that?’ I said to myself as I listened. In drafting my historical fiction novel, a sense of place is so important that it feels like a character. This approach to integrating archival material into the story offers me new ways of thinking about how that sense of place is conveyed.
We learnt about the Speculative Method, a specialisation of historian and biographer, Kiera Lindsay, and the right to imagine into the gaps of fact and story. With practical exercises to support our exploration, we looked at the ‘literary possibilities of archival work’ including hybrid approaches, narrative nonfiction, documentary fiction and informed imagination.
This was music to my ears as I returned to my historical fiction draft with new perspectives and confidence. I look forward to reading Tess’s book and exploring more of the writing and books featuring the hybrid approaches highlighted.
Sounding Out Poetry Workshop with Paris Rosemont
The third workshop featured poetry and developing our craft, reading our work out. As a published poet not writing poetry consistently for many years (a lapsed poet!), I hesitated joining this workshop. But attending this Festival was about reigniting my writing spirit. I acknowledged to myself, I would love a return to writing poetry and signed up for it.
An intimate group at all stages of development in poetry, Paris welcomed and encouraged us in expressing our poetic voice. She was ably supported by Ally Burnham, writer and creative producer at WestWords – Western Sydney’s centre for writing.
We introduced ourselves through a simple poetic structure, which broke down barriers about writing poetry straight away. Exploring themes of legacy, the role of women in society and the haiku structure, we listened to and wrote poems. Paris chose excellent women poets (Magdalena Bell, Kim Addonizio and others) and work related to these themes, including her own poems. This engaged us with poetic voice and in experiencing the power of spoken poetry. Emboldened, we all seemed to slip easily into expressing our own particular take on these themes in our style.
Personally, writing three poems and reading them out in a small group was a revelation and a self-honouring way to reconnect with my poetic voice. I loved playing with words again, dusting off the cobwebs and making them spark and shine, as I used to. I’m grateful to Paris and Ally for creating a safe and encouraging space for this to happen.
Connecting with kindred writing souls
The three workshops were all inspiring, providing much to reflect on and follow up. I connected with kindred women writers in a continuing spirit over the days of the Festival. These connections continue beyond this time.
We were also encouraged, particularly by Cindy, and throughout the Festival to connect with kindred writing souls through organisations. Here are a few key ones, and I was thrilled to join the Society of Women Writers NSW Inc for ongoing connection.
- Australian Society of Authors (ASA)
- Writing NSW
- The Historical Novel Society of Australasia
- The Emerging Writers’ Festival
I’m grateful to the presenters, organisers and sponsors, and The Women’s Club, Sydney, for such an excellent festival celebrating and encouraging women’s writing and supporting our voices to be heard. Next posts will cover the main program of the Rose Scott Women Writers Festival and the South Coast Readers and Writers Festival the following weekend. So stay tuned. Welcome any thoughts or questions.
