Writers Victoria is proud to present these workshops in patnership with Connected Libraries.
Each workshop is free and bookable via the Connected Libraries website.
Writing Migration Stories
When: Sunday 11 October from 10.30am – 1pm
Where: Bunjil Place Library (2 Patrick Northeast Drive, Narre Warren)
Tutor: Moreno Giovannoni
A practical, reflective workshop that will help participants shape migration experiences into vivid, ethical and compelling stories. The session explores migration as a universal narrative of loss, hope, rupture and reinvention, while building strategies for writing characters with depth and specificity rather than relying on cultural shorthand or sentimental tropes.
Through writing exercises and discussion, participants will learn how to draw on memory, family history and personal observation with craft, restraint and care.
You will learn:
– How to avoid stereotypes, inherited clichés and sentimental shortcuts when writing across culture and experience
– How to use lived experience, family history and observation with honesty, craft and restraint
– How to gather story material through interviewing, listening, recording and archival research
Moreno Giovannoni is a Melbourne-based writer and translator whose work explores migration, memory and stories carried across generations. Born to Italian parents from the Tuscan village of San Ginese, he draws on family history and oral tradition to blend folklore, lived experience and historical insight.
Book here via the Connected Libraries website.
How to Turn an Idea into a Story
When: Sunday 8 November from 10.30am – 12.30pm
Where: Bunjil Place Library (2 Patrick Northeast Drive, Narre Warren)
Tutor: Kylie Orr
In this practical workshop, participants will learn how to turn everyday inspiration into a strong story premise with clear characters, stakes and narrative momentum.
Whether you are facing a blank page or working with a notebook full of half-formed ideas, the session will show you how to ask sharper questions, test an idea’s potential and uncover the story beneath an ordinary moment.
You will learn:
– How to find story ideas in news articles, conversations, memories, photographs and everyday life
– How to distinguish between an interesting idea and a story with genuine narrative potential
– How to develop believable characters with clear motivations, stakes and conflicts
– How to uncover the hidden story beneath the ordinary moment
Kylie Orr writes dark, twisty contemporary fiction that uncovers the hidden lives of everyday people. Her debut novel, Someone Else’s Child, was longlisted for the Richell Prize and published by HarperCollins in 2022, while her second, The Eleventh Floor, was an Apple Books “Must Read” and The Age Book of the Week.
Book here via the Connected Libraries website.