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Suite Scarlett
Martin family birthday breakfasts followed a strict tradition. First, there were Belgian waffles, made by Belinda, the beloved Hopewell Hotel cook. These were served up with an array of toppings: chocolate syrup, fresh lemon whipped cream, stewed strawberries, and powdered vanilla sugar. The air should have been thick with wafflely perfume. Instead, there was an acrid, confusing smell, undercut by a light touch of smoke.
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Writer in Residence
get writing
So, I have a couple of workshops coming up and I thought maybe I’d make this a bit of an online workshop forum, bounce some of the ideas and tasks I bring to my writing workshops off you folk way all the way over in Australia. I’ve got two workshops coming up: the first one is on VOICE and writing IN VOICE, the other is about comics and comic book writing.
One of the first things I do whenever I go into a workshop is to ask students to write down three things about themselves. I like this better than just having people talk about themselves on the fly. Whenever students talk about themselves on the fly they only ever tell me two things:
name
age
Sometimes this gets peppered in with some talk of what their favourite colour is or whether or not they have any pets. All of this is fine but not really interesting. What I want to hear is something WEIRD, you know? Something DISTINCT and bizarre.
Something YOU.
Sometimes I’ll tell students to write down the strangest thing about themselves. Sometimes I make them write down their greatest wish or what they dream about. If they can’t think of anything I tell them to lie.
This one boy (13) told me he was in the middle of a steamy love triangle. It amazes me to know when the knowledge of “love triangles” comes about. 13 seems a little young to me but still….
Another girl told me that she falls asleep every night looking at Johnny Depp’s face (amazing).
My favourite story came from this girl who told me that the one thing she knew about her adult life was that she planned to outlive her husband. What a plan! What a great start for a murder mystery!
The best part of this exercise is it forces people (especially when they hear other students stories) to start thinking about their own fascinating personal factoids.
Three things about me?
1. When I have my headphones on, I am always in the act of starring in my own personal music video.
2. All my animals (except one) have human names: Stanley (cat), Charlie (cat), Karl (fish), and Henry (fish). The exception is my other fish Barracuda whom I did not name.
3. I’d almost always rather eat frozen sweet things than non-frozen sweet things.
You?
6 Responses to “get writing”
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Oh, I love this game!
Three things about me:
1. When I’m married, I’m going to have children named: Aidan, Hayden, Jayden, Richard and James.
2. I have a fear of basically everything. Sharks, blood, dogs with big teeth and drooling like the ones in movies, heights, etc.
3. Me and Dale Thomas are going to be Private Investigators. We shall be like Mulder and Scully except we’ll be like “Laura and Daisy” or something. idk.
:D.
ALSO: Mariko, you have a cat named Charlie?
Charlie is, like, the best name EVERRRRR.
1. Still kiss a poster of Hermione Granger i got in grade 6.
2.Im obsessed with trying to make a new lolly, well at least i was, i melted jely babies and a gredo frog but when i tried to eat it, it stuck to my hand.
And 3. When im asleep i almost always dream of me winning a award for some kind of Art piece,
G’day Mariko - I really enjoyed Skim. Did you write for graphic novel format straight up or do a detailed text outline first?
Bizarre facts?
1. I wrote off 2.5 cars in my first year of driving.
2. I’m left-handed for some things, right-handed for others and ambidextrous at very little.
3. I suspect my brother and I, and at least one family pet, got our names from A.A. Milne poems.
Have fun in the dog, T.
Three things that are weird about me:
1. I think I was born in the wrong era.
2. I draw on my hand every single day. Something different each day, though.
3. I’m pretty darn sure I was an otter in a past life.
1. I live in the middle of nowhere - about 30 km from the nearest town, which only has a population of around 2000, and about four-and-a-half hours drive from Sydney. This means lengthy schoolbus trips, which I loathe.
2. My favourite song was released as a single, exclusively in Australia, in the same year and month I was born in.
3. I have an addiction to hot chocolate. It’s almost Summer and I still drink it.
1. Every time I try to say “Saturday Night Live” I sound like a drunk person.
2. I can’t stand the sound of styrofoam rubbing against styrofoam.
3. Mariko Tamaki is my friend…in real life!
3.