Caroline Reid Writes

a page from my scrapbook I woke feeling emotional after many dramatic dreams with crowds of people in them, heads on wrong bodies, travel, bus, movement, black and white movie kind of feel followed by bursts of vivid colour. It had rained heavily during the night. The morning was warm and steamy. I’d written b4 bed the night before and was happy with it but was still feeling nervous about not knowing where the story was going. The workshop started at 10am and focussed on descriptive detail. We talked about using scrapbooks to explore the worlds of story. MargoLanagan was a participant in the workshop and she showed us some of the scrapbooks she created during the writing of Sea Hearts – she used 5 all up and said she used them when she was still feeling her way through a story. They were all images, no writing - images of groups of girls with spooky overtones, dark imagery, watery pics, groups of boys and a fantastic leather glove like a snake on the front comer....

The gorgeous writing room at Daku Thanks to Arts SA , I’ve just returned from Fiji. Not just a holiday (though the snorkelling was excellent), but as a participant in Jan Cornall’s draftbusting workshop , a week of writing, reading, sharing, getting feedback and being inspired. I’ll post a six part series here summarising what we writers did each day as well as some of the writing that came out of the meditations and writing exercises. We stayed at Daku Resort , host to a number of ParadiseCourses (not just writing – there’s yoga, singing, painting, quilting – yes, quilting). Daku is about a mile from Savu Savu on Vanua Levu, Fiji’s second largest island. Beautiful location and we were welcomed on the first night by Kenni and his family via a traditional Kava ceremony. We were then referred to as ‘family’ and every meal was eaten at a communal table. This was a powerful symbol. It helped to bring the group together. Writing is such a lonely business but this retre...

Spineless Wonders Presents ... on Feb 12th 2013 There are some things I don't look forward to - visits to the dentist; late night phone calls; walking blindfolded, backwards on a rickety bridge which is suspended over a deep canyon where one wrong step means I plummet into the chasm, my body turning up bloody and smashed and dead on the rocks below; being in a room with more than six people ... except when those people are either reading or listening to stories.  There is something happening in Adelaide, and it happens every 3 months, and it involves reading and listening and I look forward to it very much.  Contemporary Australian stories are read by a team of professional actors to a listening audience. It's an event that has quietly gathered a following since it first began in 2011 and has been described by Overland's fiction editor, Jen Mills , as 'reliably enchanting ... closer to New York's Selected Shorts than anything else in Australia'. It...

Don Barthelme So it's 2013. Resolutions? Yup. Some. There's the health (more exercise, less booze), family (talk to them), environment (spend some time in it) and the writing (finish the damn collection). Then there's all the in-between stuff, the nit and grit, breaking things down into itty bitty bits so I get things done. It's the only way I know. And then there's the not knowing ... Heading out of 2012 and into 2013 I've been obsessed with the writing of Donald Barthelme. Currently reading his 60 stories and Not Knowing - the Essays and Interviews . He has this to say, and I've copied it out and stuck it on my door: 'The not-knowing is crucial to art, is what permits art to be made.'  and this:  'Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.'  and then:  'The anxiety attached  to this situation is not inconsiderable.' Barthelme makes me laugh, and humour can be a rare thing in the serious ...

Independent Performer and Theatre maker Emma Beech is creating a new show on a shoestring budget. You can help. Donate a few dollars this Christmas and you'll be:  Contributing to Australia's cultural life and   Helping to keep independent art alive in Adelaide and Making a fine actor very very very very happy. And for that you deserve a kiss. Mwah!! Good on you. Caroline x