Writing Workshops

THE ACE HOTEL | SAT 3 & SUN 4 February 2024

Following the hugely successful weekend of workshops I ran at Ace Hotel in July 2023, I’ve built a whole new two-day program, this time for writers of all stages and forms. You could be a student, a copywriter, a novelist, a historian, or simply a passionate reader—in February 2024 you’ll have fun learning about how to make your words work harder for you, and you’ll leave inspired to read and write more than ever before.

When you book in you’ll immediately receive an email with the book that I’ve allocated as required reading for each day, and a video explaining how to prepare for my super good crowd favourite ‘Peaks, Troughs, and Passages’ exercise.

The other four workshops split across the two days include: Making creativity a way of life and curating what you consume; sensorial detail for evocative sentences; editing your own work; and grammar and word choice for better voice.

There is no overlap between the two days, so you can definitely attend both and make a weekend of it. Ace Hotel have provided us with the discount code BRILEE for 15% off stays any time between 1 February and 7 February. Read on for more information about scholarships and everything included in the booking price.

Price

$990 (incl. GST) per day

Creative Tools
Workshop Schedule

SATURDAY 3 FEBRUARY 2024

10am — Arrive at Ace Hotel to your hot coffee, and get to know your classmates

10.30am — Workshop #1: Better Reading for Better Writing; ‘Peaks and Troughs’

11.30am — Quick morning tea

11:45am — Workshop #1 (continued): Better Reading for Better Writing; ‘Passages’

12.30pm — Lunch break

1:30pm — Workshop #2: Making creativity a way of life; curating what you consume

3pm — Afternoon tea with more coffee

3.30pm — Workshop #3: Sensorial detail for evocative sentences

5pm — Knock-off drinks and ‘ask me anything’ with special guest author Charlotte Wood

6pm — Optional continuation of drinks in the Ace Hotel lobby downstairs

Practical Approaches
Workshop Schedule

SUNDAY 4 FEBRUARY 2024

10am — Arrive at Ace Hotel to your hot coffee, and get to know your classmates

10.30am — Workshop #1: Better Reading for Better Writing; ‘Peaks and Troughs’

11.30am — Quick morning tea

11.45am — Workshop #1 (continued): Better Reading for Better Writing; ‘Passages’

12.30pm — Lunch break

1.30pm — Workshop #2: Editing your own work

3pm — Afternoon tea with more coffee

3.30pm — Workshop #3: Grammar and word choice for better voice

5pm — Knock-off drinks and ‘ask me anything’ with special guest author Bridie Jabour

6pm — Optional continuation of drinks in the Ace Hotel lobby downstairs

Creative Tools
Workshop Details

Better Reading for Better Writing

This is the workshop method I’ve developed over time that people love. It is conversational and interactive and often a lot of fun, but it always leads the group to some huge insights. You will be forced to articulate why and how you’ve come to certain judgments, and you will disagree with others in the room. We all learn a huge amount from this when the facilitator (me) maintains the direction of the workshops and keeps the group on-track with pre-planned prompts. If you’ve attended something of mine before you’ll know the ‘peaks, troughs, and passages’ approach. If you haven’t don’t worry—the video I send you explains it all. I’m constantly getting requests to do more of these, and it’s the perfect way to start the day.

Making creativity a way of life; curating what you consume

People sometimes ask me where I get my ideas, or how I keep track of them, how I decide what to work on, and generally speaking how my brain works. In this session I’ll be explaining one of my favourite life philosophies to you: eventually everything connects. We’ll go through the strategic choices that can ensure the media you deliberately and actively consume is helping your brain. We will go through the fresh weekend newspapers looking for stories and items that spark responses we can work with. We’ll discuss the tricky business of prioritising reading choices, identifying your ‘best hours’, and we’ll talk about how to get the most out of every art form you engage with. You can’t actually be writing every hour or day, but you can definitely be cultivating your writing mind every moment of your life.

Sensorial detail for evocative sentences

In Mary Karr’s classic craft book, The Art of Memoir, she talks about ‘sensorial detail’. It brings a work to life. It zips a reader up into the skin of the person on the page. It makes words feel real. Identifying and enhancing sensorial detail in writing is a useful approach for both fiction and non-fiction; for long and short works, too. We’ll go through examples from all the senses, then we’ll do some activities together that show you step-by-step how to make any text immediately more evocative. Once you learn how to identify sensorial detail you’ll never be able to un-see it, and once you know how to deploy it you’ll never write a flat sentence again!

Practical Approaches
Workshop Details

Better Reading for Better Writing

EDITING YOUR OWN WORK

You’ve done the hard yards and got some kind of draft on the page—now what? In this session I’m going to give you the tools to sharpen your own writing so that the work you put out into the world is the best possible version of itself. There are ‘structural edits’ for big-picture improvements, then we move to ‘line edits’ to make every sentence sing. Your writing should be as long as it needs to be, but as tight as it can be. I’ll share examples from my own experience being edited by professionals for books and shorter pieces, and then we’ll go through an exercise together where I edit a piece of writing out loud with you, explaining my choices and why I made them.

Grammar and word choice for better voice

Everything we write requires choice about voice: Tweets and captions; emails to colleagues; revolutionary manifestos; opinion pieces; and of course books of all kinds. But what is voice and how do we deploy it deliberately? We’ll go into: 1st person versus 3rd person; tense; sentence length; word choice; and other building blocks of great writing. Special guest Annabelle Lukin (Associate Professor of Linguistics at Macquarie University) will be delivering a one-hour session within this workshop specifically about how grammar can help us with this. ‘People think grammar is about rules, but actually it’s about choices and meaning.’

Testimonials

“I would highly recommend Bri's workshops to other people. I was very hesitant to book the workshop because I wasn't sure how much I would get out of it as someone who hasn't started working on a specific project, but the sessions helped to break down a lot of fears that have been holding me back from taking my writing seriously and have left me feeling more confident in my abilities.”

Brianna

“I felt a surge of creativity upon my return to Melbourne and learnt a lot from the workshop. I am not going to be able to read without annotating my peaks, troughs and passages now!! I feel it has completely transformed the way I read.”

Edith

“The peaks, troughs, passages is such a simple approach to reading but one that delivers in so many ways - I haven't engaged with a fiction book critically in a long time, and the process allowed me to think critically about the work without being too laborious — it’s definitely something I’ll continue to do from now on.”

Ellie

“As someone really new to writing, I felt like I left with really clear tools to start my own writing and what to do when I got stuck. Bri's teaching was so honest, real and supportive and I never felt out of place.”

Brooke

“Bri's method of reading critically blew my freaking mind and resulted in an in-depth, honest and stimulating conversation that would have continued for hours if we didn't have a schedule of things to do. There are so many books I want to re-read using her method!”

Riva

Inclusions

What’s included?

Your order of a barista coffee on arrival, morning tea, our lunch together, and afternoon tea with another proper coffee. You will not be hungry. (If you have any dietary requirements, please communicate this at the time of booking, or email our Workshop Manager, Alice as soon as possible.)
One knock-off cocktail or mocktail at 5pm to sip as we chat with our guest author. Very nice!
On the day you will receive copies of any reference materials I refer to in the workshops.
Each individual’s attendance fee includes a $50 donation to the Indigenous Literacy Foundation made on your behalf.
The fee from paying attendees will subsidise one ‘scholarship’ position on each day for a person with great enthusiasm who cannot afford a place.

What’s not included?

The book you need to read to take part in Workshop #1.
Getting yourself there and back.
Accommodation if you want to stay at Ace Hotel (Remember, use the code BRILEE to get 15% off).
Please bring your own laptop or note-taking materials.

Scholarships

Are you someone (or do you know someone) with high enthusiasm but low funds? The fees from paying attendees subsidise one scholarship position on each day. The application is very simple. Applications are open now and close on Wednesday 15 November and you can enter here. The identity of the scholarship recipient will not be made public on the workshop day. They will receive everything listed as ‘included’, but they will need to organise their own transport to and from Ace Hotel. If you have any questions about how this works, or whether you’re ‘eligible’, just email Alice. Successful scholarship recipients will be notified on or before 1 December.

ACCESSIBILITY

I believe that everyone, regardless of their abilities, should have equal access to educational opportunities and a positive learning experience, and invite you to reach out if you have accessibility needs we can cater for.

Hosting these workshops at Ace Hotel allows us to provide inclusive and accessible workshops that accommodate the needs of all participants. This includes wheelchair accessibility and accessible restrooms. We work closely with the team at Ace to ensure guests are aware in advance of what to expect with accessibility features such as ramps, elevators, and accessible seating.

A guest who joined us in July said: “In the room I was very comfortable because Alice asked good questions and listened to me as we worked out the best position for me at the table. I was able to explain I cannot rotate my neck to the right so sitting right instead of left made a huge difference to me. I am grateful and congratulate you and Alice for having a 'make it happen' approach to accessibility at the workshop. It removed stress and encouraged me to attend.”

LOCATION

The overwhelming feedback from July 2023 was that ‘everything’ about Ace Hotel was wonderful. The food is delicious, the accessibility is properly done, the rooms are beautiful, and the vibe is great. If you’ve been to one of my trips or workshops before you’ll know that people make lifelong friends and connections because they’re full of lovely legends who like learning! Ace Hotel have provided us with the discount code BRILEE for anyone looking to travel interstate or make their weekend a staycation. The code will get you 15% off and is valid for stays any time between 1 February and 7 February. If you’ve got questions about the accommodation side of things please be in touch with Ace Hotel directly.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

I understand that some organisations and businesses provide their employees with professional development allowances as part of continued learning efforts.

Both workshops are a great way to improve your general writing—whether it be emails on the day-to-day or ensuing your writing is clear and articulate for conveying ideas, instructions, and information accurately and persuasively. Many roles can additionally benefit from engaging with the world creatively and considering this mindset is another way you are able to bring value to your workplace by contextualising how your work fits within wider discourse.

FAQs

What stage of my writing should I be at?

You definitely don’t need to be a ‘full-time’ writer, or a ‘real’ writer, or any of the other useless categories we create in our minds to feed the imposter syndrome. Whereas the July 2023 workshops were for people with a whole book in mind, these workshops are for all writers who want to improve their reading, thinking, drafting, and editing skills.

What preparation do I need to do?

There will be one mandatory, assigned book to read. A specific chapter from this book will be set as the text we discuss together for Workshop #1. I will be send out a short video on how to do my ‘peaks, troughs, and passages’ approach to better reading as soon as you book in. You will need to read the specific chapter to discuss ‘peaks and troughs’ and have read the whole book to discuss ‘passages’. Come ready to share and discuss in Workshop #1.

How many people are coming?

I’m capping attendance at 20 people (plus the scholarship recipient). This will allow discretion and honesty in discussions, and guarantee a higher quality of conversation and engagement. If you’ve been to one of my workshops before, you’ll know how critical small group size is to the quality of the experience.

Will it be recorded?

No! See above! It’s special!

Cancellation and payment policies?

All workshop registrations paid in full at the time of booking are strictly non-refundable. This means that once you have paid for a workshop, you will not be eligible for any refunds, regardless of the reason for cancellation.

If you are unable to attend a workshop you have booked for any reason, please notify us as soon as possible by sending an email to info@bri-lee.com. If the workshop you have booked has a waiting list and your place can be taken be someone on this list a refund can made, minus administration costs.

Workshop registrations are also transferable to another name if someone else you may know can attend in your place.

Workshop registrations are not transferable to a different workshop date.

By registering for the workshops and making full payment, you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to this Cancellation Policy.