Facts More Compelling Than Fiction: Writing Narrative Journalism - NSW Writers' Centre

Who: Benjamin Law
When: Sunday 10 June, 10am-4pm
Full Price $150; Member $105; Conc Member $90
Location: NSW Writers’ Centre, Rozelle, Sydney

This workshop is suitable for fiction writers wanting to apply their writing skills to a new field, or journalists looking for a new way to present a good story.

It will lead you through every step of the process from harvesting story ideas, pitching them to editors, right through to the nitty gritty of research, sourcing and conducting interviews and how to turn raw research material into a riveting story, ready for publication in a magazine or book.

If you’ve read Truman Capote’s brutal In Cold Blood, Hunter S. Thompson’s mind-bending Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Susan Orlean’s slow seduction by the natural world in The Orchid Thief or Chloe Hooper’s tangled navigation through Aboriginal deaths in custody in The Tall Man, you’ll already know real stories are often more compelling when they’re told properly: like actual stories. But narrative journalism doesn’t just stop at books. It is also the writing you’ll find in most magazines, from broadsheet newspaper supplements to travel journals and women’s glossies.

Fresh from his own 18-month journey through seven countries, Benjamin Law—freelance writer and author of The Family Law and the forthcoming Gaysia—will lead you through every step of the process from harvesting story ideas, pitching them to editors, right through to the nitty gritty of research, sourcing and conducting interviews and how to turn raw research material into a riveting story, ready for publication in a magazine or book. This workshop is suitable for fiction writers wanting to apply their writing skills to a new field, or journalists looking for a new way to present a good story.

Students will come away from the workshop with a suite of story ideas to work on, with newfound skills to turn those ideas into stories. All students will also be given some of the best examples of the genre to read at home.