Who among you loves gift boxes? There’s something special about them, don’t you think? They come in all shapes and sizes; some decorated while others remain plain and rely on the beauty of a ribbon to showcase their charm.

Especially interesting are the nesting gift boxes; where the large box houses incrementally smaller boxes inside until the smallest box might hold something about the size of a ring.

Nesting boxes start larger than life and gradually get smaller. We can think of them in a metaphorical sense to remind us of how each year starts. The large gift box full of time and treasures lifts its lid and explodes with New Year resolutions, good intentions and renewed vigor due to the end of year holidays, with lashings of extra time spilling forth. Then as the year progresses, our boxes of time and treasures may gradually reduce to one of the smaller boxes for some of us due to the pressures of life and other commitments, such as work.

Some writers manage to make the most of their year and may feel they always have a big gift box of time and energy to get things accomplished. Whilst for others, they may be very grateful for even the tiniest box of time and treasure to accomplish a small part of a larger writing goal.
 
Last Saturday, 6 February at the QLD State Library, Write Links members were treated to a large gift box full of delightful goodies at their first meeting for 2016. The enthusiasm from the large gathering of participants was palpable and bubbled to overflowing until there was standing room only.
 
And, to lift the lid on another exciting year of perfecting the craft of writing and illustrating was guest author and presenter, Mr. Brian Falkner.

Write Like An Author

Condensed into one hour, Brian’s energetic presentation covered a vast array of information ranging from his early writing life and the road to publication, including some discussion of his many titles, The Flea Thing, being his first published book.
 
But this presentation had another layer that added an electric buzz among the participants, especially those who educate.

Brian has created a set of resources that can be used to inspire young writers in the middle years of schooling to ‘write like an author’ and during his talk, Brian shared his vision and what inspired him to team up with high performance coach and English teacher, Steve Gillis to create this exciting children’s writing workshop program.

The program consists of five workbook Brian has written and developed over the past eight-years, including titles such as: Basic Training which focuses on the basics of story structure; Heroes and Villains focusing on characters, Word Warriors, and Ticking Time Bomb to teach tension, climax and suspense, along with Special Ops complete with a Teachers’ Guide.
 
Brian continued his discussion on the writing camps and workshops he organises for students held in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, South Australia, New Zealand, and the US.
 
Brian’s presentation was rich with treasures and gems, a giant gift box of them. If you’d like to find out more information visit his website:

http://www.writelikeanauthor.com/

We wish Brian and Steve every success in their adventures.

Networking

The Networking session is always an exciting time when members are given an opportunity to share their success stories. Due to break over Christmas there were a number of members who had exciting news to share.
 
Critique Sessions

We had a record number of participants in the critique sessions and the room was alive with the buzz of ideas, the exchange of thoughts and massaging of words and sentences. In fact, it is probably one of the only places where you can go for a massage and not always feel relaxed and supple afterwards.

Critiques are the engine room of writing and they aren’t necessarily for the faint-hearted, but they are the soul food writers crave, for we know critique sessions are GOOD FOR US and help us grow.

Wow! What an amazing start to a cracker year of writing.
 
For the rest of 2016, let’s strive to open up as many of those large gift boxes full of writing treasures and opportunities as we can, and make this the year to really get our word count up.
 
We look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting.
Until then…
Happy writing!
 
Story by guest blogger: Debbie Smith
https://agardenofverseandstories.wordpress.com/