Creative Writing Workshops

Hunter Valley author Dr Karen Hughes takes kids on an amazing adventure in her popular Talented Kids creative writing program. During Karen’s action-packed 3-hour workshops, kids will learn all about the writing process, developing the skills and confidence to write their own exciting stories.



If you're looking for creative writing workshops for kids in our Maitland studio, you're on the right page. If you're interested in our self-paced Young Authors Club Online Course, click here. Or you can click here for School Holiday Workshops. If you're a teacher or librarian and you'd like to find out about school visits, click here.

Creative Writing Workshops

Hunter Valley author Dr Karen Hughes takes kids on an amazing adventure in her Talented Kids creative writing program.

During Karen’s action-packed workshops, kids will learn all about the writing process, developing the skills and confidence to write their own exciting stories, plays and poems.


Highlights

  • Fun and dynamic writing workshops
  • Emphasis on character development, setting and plot structure
  • Every child becomes a published author!



Kids will imagine and create unique characters, build magical settings, and map the perfect plot. By the end of the program, every child will have the opportunity to be a published author and take home their story in a real book!

If you're looking for creative writing workshops for kids 9-12 in our Maitland studio, you're on the right page. If you're interested in our self-paced Young Authors Club Online Course, click here. Or you can click here for School Holiday Workshops. If you're a teacher or librarian and you'd like to find out about school visits, click here.
If you're looking for our regular weekly after-school workshops, you're on the right page. If you're interested in our Zoom Online Workshops, click here. Or click here for School Holiday Workshops. If you're a teacher or librarian and you'd like to find out about school visits, click here.

Creative Writing Workshops

Hunter Valley author, Karen Hughes, takes kids on an amazing adventure in her new creative writing program.

During Karen’s action-packed weekly workshops, kids will learn all about the writing process, developing the skills and confidence to write their own exciting stories.



Give your child the gift of creativity

After-school

Zoom with Us

Create something great. Claim your $100 Creative Kids voucher today.

As a registered provider for the Creative Kids program, you can redeem your voucher with us and let your child develop new skills. Enrol them in a new activity so they can create something great. For more information regarding the Creative Kids program, or to learn more about the more than 40 government savings and rebates to help with your cost of living, visit service.nsw.gov.au.


Join our Creative Writing Workshops

Every term we run three 3-hour Sunday workshops from 10am-1pm covering character building, plotting and planning, world building, language skills, voice, and lots of other writerly things. Topics are: Short Story Blitz, Write and Perform a Play, and Poetry in the Garden. Theme and genre will change from term to term.
2024 - Enrolments Closed
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11 February: Short Story Blitz

Magical Creatures

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25 February: Write and Perform a Play

Lights, Camera, Action!

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10 March: Poetry in the Secret Garden

The Man from Snowy River

2023 - Enrolments closed
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15 October: Short Story Blitz

Ready Player One!

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05 November: Write and Perform a Play

Ahoy me Hearties!

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26 November: Poetry in the Secret Garden

Animal Dreaming

First steps

During our workshops, we'll be writing all kinds of things to develop and sharpen our writing skills. Adventure stories, epic fantasy, science fiction, murder mysteries, heroic animal tales ... you name it, we'll try it! We'll experiment with voice, setting, atmosphere and style, and we'll have lots of time to develop our characters. Through funny plays to practise our dialogue, clever poems to tighten our language skills, and lots of imagination, we'll discover just how much fun writing can be!


Creating Crazy Characters

Everyone thinks and acts differently, and a good writer uses these differences to drive the story. We’ll brainstorm new characters, thinking about appearance, distinguishing features, favourite foods, favourite things to do, family background, etc. Is your character a feisty redhead with a cannibal king father? Is she a clever spider who can write, with a best friend called Wilbur? How did she feel when she met Mr Tumnus under the lamp post?

Building Magical Worlds

Every workshop is a journey of wonder and surprise, where anything is possible. We’ll look at magical places like Narnia, Hogwarts and the 78-Story Treehouse, discussing what makes these places special, and then we’ll take our characters to a desert island or a hidden jungle, using our five senses to explore our surroundings and finding much more than we expected.


A Map for the Journey

Stories have an outline – a beginning, a middle and an end. We’ll talk about how to start a story with a bang and hook the reader from the very first sentence. We’ll think about the complication and how it propels the character into the action, getting the story rolling. And we’ll discuss what our main character wants, what might stop him getting it, and how this will drive the story.

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Time to Write!

Sharpen your pencils, it’s time to put it all together. First drafts are wild and crazy, and often make no sense at all. Punctuation doesn’t matter. Spelling doesn’t matter. We’ll worry about that later. In our workshops, we write and write and write!


The Second Draft

This is the easy part. We’ve written the story – now we have to knock it into shape. Does it make sense? Does it need anything else? Are the commas in the right place? Would it be better with a new paragraph here or another sentence there? Time to get out our red pencils and scribble.


Polishing your Masterpiece

How do you get a story published? What does an editor do? We'll put the final touches on our stories and hand them over to Karen for a professional edit, and then we’ll talk about the practical process of publishing a book.


Celebrate!

Book launches are so much fun! We'll invite our families to celebrate with us and we'll have certificates, lollies and a great big cake. In past years, we've launched books at Maitland Writers Festival and at literary events organised by the Children's Book Council (Newcastle Branch) and Maitland Libraries. 


School Holidays

Learn More
Young Authors Club Online Workshops

Join the Club
Teacher or librarian interested in school visits?

Learn More

Enrolment Information

Visit our Talented Kids enrolment page for full details about class times, age groups, cost, online enrolment form, terms and conditions, and payment options.

Enrolments Closed

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